Poetry & Style

Why we love 19th-century writing

And why we don’t write like that anymore

Jun 17 • Colin Gorrie

Leave the em-dash alone

This writing panic has a 500-year precedent

Mar 4 • Colin Gorrie

What if Beowulf had been written by Shakespeare?

The Tragedie of Beowulf, Prince of Wethermark

Jan 31 • Colin Gorrie

How the letter E almost ruined English poetry

Time erodes all things, even Chaucer

Nov 8, 2025 • Colin Gorrie

How to end a sentence with style

Cadence in English prose from Gibbon to Orwell

Oct 25, 2025 • Colin Gorrie

How iambic pentameter really works

And why it works so well in English

Oct 11, 2025 • Colin Gorrie

How rhyme works (and why)

A lesson in the anatomy of the syllable

Oct 8, 2025 • Colin Gorrie

The ancient poetic law that explains basically everything

From Sanskrit grammar to nursery rhymes

Aug 16, 2025 • Colin Gorrie

How to write poetry like Tolkien

A guide to composing alliterative verse

Jul 19, 2025 • Colin Gorrie

Why ChatGPT writes like that

A rhetorical analysis of AI “slop”

Jul 9, 2025 • Colin Gorrie

How to get started with Old English poetry

Five poems to read that aren’t Beowulf

Jul 2, 2025 • Colin Gorrie

Don’t read Heaney’s Beowulf

The cost of a beautiful translation

May 28, 2025 • Colin Gorrie

#nojs-banner { position: fixed; bottom: 0; left: 0; padding: 16px 16px 16px 32px; width: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; background: red; color: white; font-family: -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol"; font-size: 13px; line-height: 13px; } #nojs-banner a { color: inherit; text-decoration: underline; } This site requires JavaScript to run correctly. Please turn on JavaScript or unblock scripts