Alighting stars
I like this hint of stars being both lit up and alighting in their permanent positions in the firmament, after...
Technique as dousing
In discussing the technique of writing, Seamus Heaney conjures a water diviner as a metaphor. At first glance far-fetched, as...
A bulwark against brain-washing
Listening time: under 9 minutes.  Sadly, some things in the state of the world are driving me to spend more...
Thick-witted world
Here's an example of the commentary being arguably more poetic than the poem.  Seamus Heaney's essay on Edwin Muir sums...
As homely as
What comes to mind? Apple pie? Cup of tea? Kitchen table? I found Durrell's homely simile as charming as surprising. ...
Poetry as gleaning
A telling comment by Christopher Isherwood on W.H. Auden's approach to revising his poems. It makes one wonder how many...
Whatever is splendid in humanity
This lovely phrase about sums up what motivated me to create this and other websites, to celebrate...
How to hide a poem (II)
Listening time: under 5 minutes.  This disturbing quotation is striking on several levels.  By the Hungarian poet György Faludy concerning...
Scum-skinned tide
Something alarmingly contemporary about this polluted surface in Dante's Inferno, especially when he discerns, through the miasma, dead souls fleeing.
...
Gun-blue swingle
This quite literally striking triologism is from a poem by Robert Lowell (1917-77), which I discovered in a commentary by...
Acorn-bearing boughs
This is the season of acorn crunching paths, after the boughs have released them. A couple of times on my...
Thoughts on modern life
I found this passage striking and moving, perhaps putting its finger on the pulse of much contemporary malaise. It feels...
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