Harold Bloom - The Anxiety Of Influence. A — Theo...

Bloom outlines six specific ways (or "ratios") that a new poet twists the work of a predecessor to make it their own:

Wordsworth "swerved" from Milton’s epic style to focus on the individual's internal nature. Harold Bloom - The Anxiety of Influence. A Theo...

Bloom argues that "great" writing is born from a writer's fear that they have nothing original to say. This creates a "Freudian" struggle between the (the established master) and the Ephebe (the new poet). Bloom outlines six specific ways (or "ratios") that