SOURCE: Berland, Alwyn. “Violence in the Poetry of Allen Tate.” Accent 2, no. 3 (summer 1951): 161-71.

In the following essay, Berland explores the role of violence in Tate's poetry and finds parallels between his verse and that of John Webster.

Duchess: I could curse the stars— Bosola: O, fearful. Duchess: And those three smiling seasons of the year                                         Into a Russian winter; nay, the world                                         To its first chaos. Bosola: Look you, the stars shine still. Duchess: O, but you must                                         Remember, my curse hath a great way to go. 

—The Duchess of Malfi

It is no accident that Allen Tate has written on John Webster (“Horatian Epode to The Duchess of Malfi”); the wonder is that he has done so only once. For the resemblances between these two are impressive, and illuminating. Both are artists who demonstrate their great consciousness of classical forms and conventions, and both manipulate these...