Category Archives: Poetry
A. E. Housman’s Minimalist Poetry
A.E. Housman was a minimalist poet, whose spartan lines are matched by only the best Haiku writers. He bitterly and wryly welcomed death, romanticizing its inevitability. He was extremely popular during the First World War and his poems reflected the … Continue reading
Posted in Poetry, Thoughts on writing, Uncategorized, Writing by others
Tagged A.E. Housman, Housman, Poetry, World War I
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Eliot Never Too Common to Quote
Now that I live in the desert, The Hollow Men resonates with me more and more. Eliot was of course writing about a dryness of spirit. Still, connections hold. This vital poem by Thomas Stearns Eliot is widely quoted and analyzed. … Continue reading
Posted in art, Poetry, Thoughts on writing, Uncategorized, Writing by others
Tagged Conrad, dryness, Heart of Darkness, Poetry, T.S. Eliot, the desert, The Hollow Men
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Oh! I Have Slipped the Surly Bonds of Earth
This film and poem was often used by television stations in the 1960s before signing off for the evening. It was written in 1941 by 19-year-old Pilot Officer John Gillespie Magee Jr, three months before he was killed in World … Continue reading
Posted in Poetry, Thoughts on writing, Uncategorized, Writing by others
Tagged High flight, John Gillespie Magee, Jr, television sign offs
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And No Birds Sing
Does some writing remind you of others? To me, these three seem linked. La Belle Dame sans Merci: A Ballad by John Keats O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms, Alone and palely loitering? The sedge has withered from the lake, And … Continue reading
Some Shape of Beauty Moves Away The Pall
A poorly worded ad caught my attention. See below. It meant to capture Keats but he is not easily seized. Yesterday’s post by Shelley was from 1820. This excerpt is from 1818. I understand they were not friends. “A thing … Continue reading
Posted in art, Poetry, Thoughts on writing, Uncategorized
Tagged art, Endymion, Keats, Poetry, Shelley
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The Cloud By Percy Bysshe Shelley
Unnoticed, my last post was my 500th. I meant to celebrate that event with poetry. Better late than never. A cenotaph, by the way, is a tomb honoring a person or persons whose remains lie elsewhere. There is a wonderful … Continue reading
What Will God Do When You Die?
Ranier Maria Rilke (internal link) was not the first to suggest that perhaps God depends on us as much as we on him, but Rilke was certainly the most gifted when it came to conveying that thought. What will you … Continue reading
