The last of your life…
Hart Crane died very young, making this comment all the more poignant. And if we ‘wrote each poem’ or letter,...
Poems for my family 006 – Cavafy
This poem has been in my mental saddlebags for about a quarter of a century. I can't remember how I...
A poet’s prayer
In fact, a prayer for any writer. Having just read John Drury's marvelous appreciation of George Herbert's life and his...
The modesty of genius
Humility comes through Keats' letters, though he was also quietly conscious of having something the future would acclaim, even when...
Let the colour dry
An insight into technique by a superb poet, using a wonderful metaphor. Time fixes colours, in words as in paints,...
All-encompassing flow
The cadence of this metaphor has the abundance and freshness of clear, flowing water. It likens Virgil, whom Dante views...
The first golden age
Continuing his retelling of the myth of Creation, Ted Hughes reminds us of a first golden age...
Lapping the summits
What an image! The original deluge raising water levels so high that they lap over the summits...
Shorter but longer
This pithy summary of the difference between prose and poetry is as much as Orlando gleans from the convoluted accounts...
Ill guidance, bad leadership
A strikingly modern sounding comment by Dante, resonating painfully when the evening news seems to be forever picking apart the...
The original fake news
'Fake news' is nothing but a new term for the age old curses of rumour or propaganda, so it's good...
Poetry as a boat
Another maritime metaphor in Heaney's introduction to a poem set in a sea-world. The ‘big quay’ of language and literature can...
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