Humans express love in countless ways—through physical actions, emotional reactions, or heartfelt words. Capturing the perfect words to show a person’s love can be challenging, yet poets have done it for hundreds of years. What is love to a poet? Author Paula Johanson discusses eight poems and poets, with chapters on William Shakespeare, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Emily Dickinson, and five others. Accompanied by biographical information on the poet and end-of-chapter questions for further study, Johanson closely examines each poem, including detailed analysis of form, content, poetic technique, and theme, encouraging readers to develop the tools to understand and appreciate poetry.
