Bosie's unpleasantness didn't end upon the death of his unfortunate lover Oscar Wilde... Born on 22 October 1870 was that singularly nasty piece of work, Lord Alfred Douglas, Oscar Wilde's 'Bosie'. His appalling treatment of Wilde, both during and after their relationship, is notorious, and Wilde's tolerance of it must be put ... Read More...
Poetry
Continuing his mind-boggling tour of Phantom Libraries, Jonathan Law discovers that the books that Samuel Taylor Coleridge didn't write have a more powerful presence than the ones he did... Among the most tantalizing treasures of oblivion are the numerous phantom works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge – works promised to friends, family, ... Read More...
Gulls are getting a bad press lately, with even the Prime Minister expressing his disapproval of the seaside menaces. Here's a poem about them, and Welsh homesickness... I think we can all agree that gulls are unsettling. But I don’t think it’s just about the ‘cold, black eyes’ and their tendency ... Read More...
Nige brings us this week's poetry feature: the 'thin uncomprehended song' of a swarming insect... A few years ago I heard a report on the radio about the spectacular mass hatching of Periodical Cicadas in the eastern seaboard states of the US. It put me in mind of Richard Wilbur's poem, Cicadas: You ... Read More...
Where are we all headed?, asks Stephen (rhetorically)... We are often advised to take heed of the old saw "life is a journey, not a destination." I can see that this homily perhaps has some merit. Still, when I hear it repeated, I think: "Well, yes, but a destination does in ... Read More...
Nige visits one of the most touching monuments in the country... Ashbourne in Derbyshire is a fine and flourishing town, full of handsome buildings, including the house of John Taylor, Dr Johnson's old schoolfriend, whom he often visited. A most unclerical cleric, Taylor's chief interest lay in his herd of milch-cows - ... Read More...
Originally published on The Dabbler in April 2012 - centenary month of the sinking of the Titanic - this long read analysis by literary professor and blogger Mark Richardson on a poem that dips into deep and strange waters to quite astonishing effect, is worth a repeat... Thomas Hardy first published The Convergence of the ... Read More...
Meaning in life can be found in the small details that we too often miss... I would not describe William Wordsworth as a succinct poet. He usually needs space to make his point. However, there are exceptions. For instance, there are the eight beautiful lines of "A slumber did my spirit ... Read More...
Stephen Pentz on a poem that shows how revolutionary Wordsworth's poetry was in its day, even though it seems very traditional to us now... In August and September of 1803, Wordsworth, his sister Dorothy, and Samuel Taylor Coleridge went on a tour of Scotland. Dorothy Wordsworth's journal of the tour contains this ... Read More...
Luxuriating in his suburban idyll, Nige considers the blackbird, and an effusive Victorian poet... There are sometimes nights when the sun is out, the air is warm, and one is able to enjoy that supreme expression of the suburban idyll - sitting out in the garden in the cool of the evening as ... Read More...