It can be very easy to stay in your own corner of the world, especially…
poetry
On going about your own life when a loved one is suffering: W. H. Auden’s “Musée des Beaux Arts”
After I spent some time memorising Tennyson’s “Ulysses”, I decided to move on to learning…
Homer as a “surprisingly accurate observer of anatomy”: The Iliad, injury, and mortality rates
No one can hurry me down to Hades before my time, but if a man’s…
Nick Cave’s chosen “sad poem of loss”: “The Widower in the Country” by Les Murray
Ubud Writers & Readers Festival 2012. Image credit Sally May Mills. I was very saddened…
Allen Ginsberg on never working again (and living a “literary and quiet city-hermit existence” instead)
Carl Solomon, Patti Smith, Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs at the Gotham Book Mart…
‘Feast on your life’: Tom Hiddleston on Derek Walcott’s “Love After Love” for accepting ourselves
I read it to my dearest friends after dinner once, and to my family…
Navigating a Confusing World with Whitman’s “Of the Terrible Doubt of Appearances”
Walt Whitman photographed at his home in Camden, New Jersey. Samuel Murray, 1891. “Of the…
Reading W.B. Yeats’s “An Irish Airman Foresees His Death” as a Meditation on Life
Today I’m sharing with you something that’s a little different. I’ve just started a university…
Poetry for Letting Go: In Blackwater Woods by Mary Oliver
Lately I’ve been reflecting on good poems to learn by heart, and “In Blackwater Woods”…
On Visiting Dove Cottage, William Wordsworth’s Home, to Better Enjoy His Poetry
I recently spent three days in the English Lake District, which could only mean one…
8 Books for Every Bookworm to Have in Their (Miniature) Library
My book collection has invaded every room of my house and continues to grow at…
“Let My Country Awake” by Rabindranath Tagore to Inspire Individual and Social Change
Rabindranath Tagore was a Bengali polymath who reshaped Bengali literature and music in the late…
Keeping Poets Alive: Why You Should Know About Jack Clemo
Clemo’s Selected Poems, publishedby Bloodaxe Books (out of print butavailable second hand) How do we…
Robert Frost: A Homesick Poet Stuck Mid-Atlantic?
On the point of returning to the United States from England, where he had lived…
Facing Death With Poetry: How Chidiock Tichborne Wrote His Own Elegy
Chidiock Tichborne, writer of his own Elegy andconspirator of the Babington Plot. Chidiock Tichborne’s Elegy, the…
Poems That Make Grown Men Cry by Anthony and Ben Holden (and My Own Choice)
Stephen Fry is just one public figure to contribute in Poems That Make Grown Men…
Regeneration by Pat Barker: Shell Shock, War Poets, and Great Friendships
Postcards of Siegfried Sassoon. Image fromPinterest. I always enjoy reading about novelists, poets and characters…
Edward Thomas: A Poet Who Spoke of England, Depression and Not Belonging
The solemn expression of Edward ThomasPhotograph: Hulton Archive/Getty Born in 1878, Edward Thomas, the Anglo-Welsh…
Bibliotherapy and TV’s Mad Men: Frank O’Hara’s ‘Mayakovsky’ and Meditations in an Emergency
Mad Men has quickly become a favourite television show of mine, and I loved the…
Bibliotherapy & Shakespeare’s Sonnet 55: Keep Calm and Memorise Poetry
Michael Schoenfeldt’s Companion to the Sonnets, Don Paterson’s “New Commentary” and my lovely White’s Books Ltd edition of the…
Obama’s Inauguration Poem : ‘One Today’ by Richard Blanco
Obama’s inauguration, featuring Richard Blanco’s poetry. Image from guardian.co.uk I’m sure that a lot of…
The End of the World, Again, and John Donne
Image for the 2012 Mayan apocalypse fear from the BBC. Humans are obsessed with the…
The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng: Finding Strength in Poetry
The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng, a novel set in Malaya. Image source.…
BBC Sports Personality 2012 – An Edgar Guest Poem, Virgil & Courage
2012 has been such a year for sport. There’s been the Tour de France, Wimbledon,…
“Two Spains”: León Felipe and Antonio Machado
Francisco de Goya’s Fight with Cudgels (c.1820-23) can be seen as a premonition of the civil wars…
Walking Home by Simon Armitage: Wordsworth; Gawain; Above Ickornshaw, Black Huts
I’ve been really interested in the relationship between poets and walking lately. I’m writing a…
Life as a Journey – Ithaca by Constantine P. Cavafy
Some time ago, a reader of my blog called Rafael recommended me the poem “Ithaca”…
Shakespeare’s Sonnets, Music, Books, and Favourites
This week, as part of my Renaissance literature module, I’m studying Shakespeare’s sonnets. After facing…
Remembrance Sunday: Red and White Poppies and Peace
From manvirsingh.blogspot.com I’ve seen poppy pins everywhere this week – when I went into town yesterday…
A Trip to Cornwall: The Eden Project and Poetry
I got back last night from a few days resting and recuperating in St. Ives…