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:

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). Harold Bloom - The Anxiety of Influence. A Theo...

Milton struggled to find a voice that wasn't overshadowed by Shakespeare’s massive legacy. Bloom outlines six specific ways (or "ratios") that

Wordsworth "swerved" from Milton’s epic style to focus on the individual's internal nature. bypassing them entirely.

Accessing a power or "daimon" that supposedly predates the precursor, bypassing them entirely.