Poem of the week: The Concert by Edna St Vincent Millay
When a woman insists she must go to hear the music on her own, a telling argument ensuesThe ConcertNo, I will go alone.I will come back when it’s over.Yes, of course I love you.No, it will not be...
View ArticlePoem of the week: The Wife of Usher’s Well
This ancient ballad, shaped over centuries, explores ghosts, love – and the power of time itselfThe Wife of Usher’s WellThere lived a wife at Usher’s Well,And a wealthy wife was she;She had three stout...
View ArticlePoem of the week: Love and Death by Lord Byron
Both Romantic and realist, what is thought to be the poet’s final work is a passionate declaration of unrequited loveLove and Death1.Continue reading...
View ArticlePoem of the week: Sudden Light by Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Centred on the realisation that time may not be linear, the poet explores what we now call deja vuSudden Light by Dante Gabriel RossettiI have been here before,But when or how I cannot tell:I know the...
View ArticlePoem of the week: Atavism by Elinor Wylie
A picturesque scene in New England discloses unsettled and unsettling spiritsAtavismI always was afraid of Somes’s Pond:Not the little pond, by which the willow stands,Where laughing boys catch...
View ArticlePoem of the week: Before the Map by Carola Luther
An uneasy kind of pastoral looks back to the discovery and rediscovery of languageBefore the MapAt night, I feel at homewith these hills. They lie down beside me like cattlein the dirt they are...
View ArticlePoem of the week: Musings by William Barnes
Regret over the passage of time is delivered with reticence but powerful emotional authenticityMusingsBefore the falling summer sunThe boughs are shining all as gold,And down below them waters run,As...
View ArticlePoem of the week: Montale’s Lemons by Ishion Hutchinson
An intense encounter with the light-filled verse of Eugenio Montale is complicated by more wintry feelingMontale’s LemonsMy first snow, I open the pagesof Montale, the scent of ironand light coming out...
View ArticlePoem of the week: Rest by Christina Rossetti
This serene vision of death reads rather like the dream of a good night’s sleepRestO Earth, lie heavily upon her eyes;Seal her sweet eyes weary of watching, Earth;Lie close around her; leave no room...
View ArticlePoem of the week: Homesick by Hugo Williams
As a patient in a British hospital, the poet observes nursing staff from overseas who may be longing for home as much as he isHomesickThe little scars on their facesare the names of their villages,put...
View ArticlePoem of the week: Wherever I Go … by Jennifer Rahim
The Trinidadian poet reflects on leaving the island – and always carrying it with herWherever I Go …there will be an island,and an ocean will bewhat rings me.Continue reading...
View ArticlePoem of the week: Pool by Rowan Williams
Tadpoles growing to reach the terrors of land suggest the universal journey of life towards mortalityPoolA twig breaks. Promptly, obliginglystaging the haiku, one or two new frogsplop in the water,...
View ArticlePoem of the week: The Jailbird by Maurice Riordan
A sparky, theologically free-range consideration of the soulI’ve this gut feeling that inside somewhere,perched, so to speak, in the innermost woodof my body or brain, on mute since childhooda...
View ArticlePoem of the week: The Age of Cardboard and String by Charles Boyle
A machine for eating oranges, humming new tunes and flying to the moon may be a bit less innocent than children’s playThe Age of Cardboard and StringIt is a machine for eating oranges.It is a machine...
View ArticlePoem of the week: The Mower’s Song by Andrew Marvell
Far from any rustic idyll, this mower is racked by the fallen human worldThe Mower’s SongMy mind was once the true surveyOf all these meadows fresh and gay,And in the greenness of the grassDid see its...
View ArticlePoem of the week: A Little Catechism from the Demon by Edwin Morgan
A mysterious supernatural spirit – who might be a wonky robot – sets out to teach the reader a lessonA Little Catechism from the DemonWhat is a demon? Study my life.What is a mountain? Set out now.What...
View ArticlePoem of the week: The Garden by Nicholas Grimald
A gentle sermon from a ‘blissful plot’ on the therapeutic joys to be found among its plants and flowers The GardenThe issue of great Jove, draw near, you Muses nine!Help us to praise the blissful plot...
View ArticlePoem of the week: Please Do Not Touch the Walrus … by Caleb Parkin
A museum’s warning notice provides a gleeful invitation to transgressHorniman Museum, Summer 2019Continue reading...
View ArticlePoem of the week: #family by Romalyn Ante
Using the medical shorthand for fracture, the poet considers other, less tangible breaks in her life#familyThis whole time I’d been reading it wrong,seeing only broken things.In Orthopaedics, # is read...
View ArticlePoem of the week: An Ode to Himself by Ben Jonson
Jonson’s poetic response to bad reviews of his plays by ‘wolf’ and ‘ass’ praises poetry and urges a return to deeper sources of inspirationAn Ode to HimselfWhere dost thou careless lie,Buried in ease...
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