Marlena Figge
Author
Marlena Figge received her M.A. in Italian Literature from Middlebury College in 2021 and graduated from the University of Dallas in 2020 with a B.A. in Italian and English. She currently has a teaching fellowship and teaches English at a high school in Italy.
LATEST
Jane Austen’s ‘Mansfield Park’: A Quiet Heroism
The protagonist of Austen’s novel presents the steadfastness and strength of character that make a real heroine.
Thomas Hardy’s ‘The Darkling Thrush’: Braving the Dark
Hardy’s poem marks the beginning of a new century while reflecting on a poem from the previous one.
Autumn Poetry: Reflections on the Passage of Time
Famous poets ponder the fall season with their beautiful verse.
Walter Savage Landor: Reanimating the Past
A friend and influencer of the great writers of his age, this poet is largely forgotten today.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’
The grace of penance is not easy to accept but necessary to love everyone and everything in the world.
‘A Severe Mercy’: Love After Loss
Sheldon Vanauken remembers his wife in this moving memoir.
Dylan Thomas’s Valedictory Villanelle
This well-loved poem, of sad insights and good nights, has no title except its famous first line.
Pascoli’s ‘August 10th’: The Heavens’ Share of Earthly Grief
Noting an annual meteor shower, a poet grieves over the death of a father and a martyred saint.
‘Sympathy’ by Emma Lazarus
The poet expresses how one can comfort another with the shared experience of suffering.
The Poetry of John of the Cross: Love in the Language of Paradox
The Carmelite mystic and reformer of his order gives poetic expression to his experience with God.
