The poor poet sat
At his desk, repeating
Words of untold sorrow
The sound of his wife's coughing
Bleeds through the door
White death scared him
Ah, Nevermore!
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A/N: Edgar Allan Poe wrote his most famous poem "The Raven" when his wife, Virginia, was dying from tuberculosis AKA consumption or white death. It made him famous overnight but he hardly earned any money from it. In 1846, a friend wrote about their pitiful circumstances: "[Virginia] lay on the straw bed, wrapped in her husband's grey-coat, with a large tortoise-shell cat on her bosom. ...The coat and the cat were the sufferer's only means of warmth."
La Miseria by Cristóbal Rojas (1886). He was suffering from tuberculosis when he painted it. Here, he depicts the social aspect of the disease, and its relation with living conditions at the close of the 19th century.
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Brevity ✓
PoetryBrevity is one of the most compelling and beautiful aspects of poetry. I am always fascinated by the ability of a poet to distill thoughts, ideas and emotions into words through concrete imagery and word-play. In this collection, you will find short...
