The podcast episode was great listening. Though I loved Eliot in high school and enjoyed a good chunk of Pound in college, I don't think I ever gave poetry the time it deserves. I now have an Oxford Book of English Verse that I'm going to carry around until I know a bit more.
I appreciate any recommendations you might have. I read the introductory essay by Ricks, and then Matthew Arnold's essay about touchstones, and have just picked up Sidney's "Defence". I didn't agree with everything in Arnold and I already suspect I won't agree with all in Sidney, but they are very enjoyable!
I saw your article on "The paradise of fools" in the Times recently. One thing I would add the idea that people would rebel against even the stability and safety of the modern world is an idea that was there even before Francis Fukuyama in Dostoyevski. It forms the speech in the climatic moment of Notes From The Underground that is a sort of précis of his grim and dark vision of human nature.
Pope was undoubtedly brilliant but the issue I have always had with him is that HE JUST WON'T LET YOU FORGET IT.
Exhausting.
That faint sound you might have been hearing over the last few days is AE Housman tapping his pipe gently against the mantelpiece, politely attempting to gain your attention.
Very enjoyable read, thank you! On good essays, both of these may be too obvious, but the basic writings of Bertrand Russell has some real gems of essays, and Keynes's essays in biography has some real nice writing.
Yet another rich newsletter - something to savour and digest over the weekend rather than try and scoff it all in one go.
thanks for reading!
I fear we may now be entering a period where Sassoon and Owen are the poets we have to turn to…
Lamia is really underrated in my opinion. It has the rainbow unweaving imagery here. And to me, it explores the idea of multiple truths.
Me too. I love it. Was reading it last week. Thought these lines were so atmospheric:
As men talk in a dream, so Corinth all,
Throughout her palaces imperial,
And all her populous streets and temples lewd,
Mutter'd, like tempest in the distance brew'd,
To the wide-spreaded night above her towers.
Men, women, rich and poor, in the cool hours,
Shuffled their sandals o'er the pavement white,
Companion'd or alone; while many a light
Flared, here and there, from wealthy festivals,
And threw their moving shadows on the walls,
Or found them cluster'd in the corniced shade
Of some arch'd temple door, or dusky colonnade.
Good essays: another of Tony Judt's books, 'The Memory Chalet', is superb. Very moving, 'written' in the most desperate of situations as he was dying.
Yes I must read that - thank you for the recommendation!
Another Judt, 'Reappraisals', also v good.
The podcast episode was great listening. Though I loved Eliot in high school and enjoyed a good chunk of Pound in college, I don't think I ever gave poetry the time it deserves. I now have an Oxford Book of English Verse that I'm going to carry around until I know a bit more.
I appreciate any recommendations you might have. I read the introductory essay by Ricks, and then Matthew Arnold's essay about touchstones, and have just picked up Sidney's "Defence". I didn't agree with everything in Arnold and I already suspect I won't agree with all in Sidney, but they are very enjoyable!
I saw your article on "The paradise of fools" in the Times recently. One thing I would add the idea that people would rebel against even the stability and safety of the modern world is an idea that was there even before Francis Fukuyama in Dostoyevski. It forms the speech in the climatic moment of Notes From The Underground that is a sort of précis of his grim and dark vision of human nature.
Pope was undoubtedly brilliant but the issue I have always had with him is that HE JUST WON'T LET YOU FORGET IT.
Exhausting.
That faint sound you might have been hearing over the last few days is AE Housman tapping his pipe gently against the mantelpiece, politely attempting to gain your attention.
Very enjoyable read, thank you! On good essays, both of these may be too obvious, but the basic writings of Bertrand Russell has some real gems of essays, and Keynes's essays in biography has some real nice writing.
Hi, don't know if that's relevant, but wondering now would you judge the quality of the prose here
https://open.substack.com/pub/letterspurloined/p/a-second-stack-of-purloined-imaginary?r=4ghy64&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
James, thank you - another gem! I’ll carry those Wordsworth lines…
I was fortunate enough to encounter the Romantic poets with Peter Malekin. This is a wonderful collection: https://brill.com/display/title/39182?language=en