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Monthly Archives: April 2011
A WAY OF SAYING IT: WHAT POETRY IS AND IS NOT
We reach and strain with our thoughts, trying to grasp what poetry is, trying to somehow distinguish it from all that is not poetry, but without success. Then we come across something as simple as this statement by A. E. … Continue reading
HOUSMAN’S EASTER HYMN
In the previous posting I discussed the profound sense of insecurity and alienation expressed in Dover Beach by Matthew Arnold. Now I would like to look at another poem by Alfred Edward Housman, his Easter Hymn. In it the poet addresses Jesus directly: … Continue reading
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Tagged Agnosticism, agnostics, Alfred Edward Housman, atheism, Easter, Easter Hymn
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THE RECEDING TIDE: ARNOLD’S DOVER BEACH
Michael Schmidt calls Matthew Arnold’s poem Dover Beach “the greatest single poem of the Victorian period.” Greatness in poetry is a matter of personal taste, but one can say that probably no single poem so eloquently expresses the growing spiritual … Continue reading
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Tagged analysis, Dover Beach, Dover Beach analysis, evolution, faith, Matthew Arnold, poetry, religion, writing
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POETRY, VERSE, PLASTIC FLOWERS AND INTELLECTUALISM
When it comes to the evaluation and criticism of poetry, all is opinion and personal taste. Taste, it is true, can be developed, but who can say that a man’s liking for a painting of waterlilies by Monet is any … Continue reading
TO SEE THE CHERRY HUNG WITH SNOW
I have always been very fond of the poetry of Alfred Edward Housman. He is not a verbal fireworks poet like Dylan Thomas or Gerard Manley Hopkins. He is more straightforward, with a sense of transience remarkably like that of … Continue reading
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Tagged A. E. Housman, analysis, beauty, cherry blossoms, poetry, transience, writing, youth
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RUST, PAIN, BEAUTY AND TIME
I like to respond, when it is practical and possible, to what I notice people are coming here to find. Some of them, no doubt, are literature students in high school or college; others are perhaps just curious. So when … Continue reading
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