At the time of its publication, Nima Yushij’s “Qoqnus” (The Phoenix) emerged as a radical departure from the norms and conventions of classical Persian poetry. Nima employed phoenix symbolism in this poem to present his zeal for a literary renaissance. Likewise, George Darley (1795-1846), the Irish Romantic poet who found himself lonely and isolated at the mitigating time borders of Romanticism...

Next began the muskegs, which almost entirely stood under water; these we had to cross for miles; think with what misery, every step up to our knees. . . . The whole of this land of the Lapps was mostly muskeg, here called stygx. A priest could never so describe hell, because it is no more horrible. Never have poets been able to picture the Styx so foul, since that is no fouler.—CAROLUS LINNAEU...