3. When Pain Becomes Poetry. Unrequited love has a unique power: it transforms pain into poetry, suffering into art. The anguish it causes is raw, unfiltered, and achingly honest.

Kevin Higgins My favourite love poem is Mayakovsky's Past one o'clock. It was written to his on-off lover Lily Brik. The lines "Love's boat has smashed against the daily grind.

“Romantic Poet,” by Diane Seuss, is one of the best things that our critic A.O. Scott read (and reread) this year. Isabella Cotier By A.O. Scott Let’s talk about love. That’s what the ...

There's no shortage of romantic verse for people who have just fallen in love. But no one waxes poetic about the soft glow of a smartphone screen, or the sweet caress of sweatpants. So John Kenney ...