POETS Day! George Gascoigne, Birth of the Modern
Much of George Gascoigne’s poetry is very good, but the man himself is fun, one of those characters history frowns upon while winking.
Author: Ben Sears
Ben Sears is a writer and restaurant guy in Birmingham, Alabama. He lives quite happily across from a creek with his wife, two sons, and an obligatory dog. You can follow him on Twitter and read his blog, Might Stain Your Shirt.
Spaghetti on the Wall: Autopens and Out to Lunch Presidents
Per the Constitution, a barking madman elected to the presidency is a barking mad president. That’s for the best.
POETS Day! Lascelles Abercrombie
Abercrombie was known for big dramatic pieces that read like plays, plays more so than poetry, and for poetic criticism more than anything
POETS Day! Dryden and Marvell were Mean Girls
Dryden didn’t exactly cover himself in glory picking on Flecknoe as he did, publishing four years after the latter’s death. Not strictly ballroom.
POETS Day! Talkin’ Chaucer at the Godsibbing Fense
Chaucer is assumed to have died in 1400…I say assumed, because there were no dates on his grave at Westminster until someone added them in 1566.
POETS Day! William Makepeace Thackeray
Financially and domestically, promise and hope were dashed. The world did not unfold as hoped. He wrote several poems along the same lines
POETS Day! Leigh Hunt
From what I’ve read, Hunt seems fun loving, blithe, and inconsiderate, but not malicious. Impish.
POETS Day! John Keats at Last, Apparently
Young and tragic opens doors. Today he’s considered one of the greatest poets in the English language.
Spaghetti on the Wall: Tariffs and Free Trade
For those who want to take on Leviathan and raise hell about any and every thumb messing with and fouling up measurements, Godspeed.
POETS Day! A Few Poems by Kingsley Amis as Pretense to Discuss One of His Novels
All the references to Welsh habit, Welsh ways, all the references to Wales and Welshness.
Fannie Farmer, Mickey Mouse, and the Virtues of Cheating
It’s important to know that running on automatic, acting without thought is something we are capable of.
POETS Day! Poems Found While Reading an Essay by Anthony Hecht
I found “Beauty Extoll’d” as an alternate title so I put it in brackets, but Hecht says “Gaze Not on Swans,” and Hecht is Anthony Hecht.
POETS Day! Stephen Crane
An adventuring war correspondent with a predilection for ladies of the night and a life-long love of dogs is endearing in our anti-hero age.
POETS Day! Skipwith Cannéll’s “Nocturnes”
I tried to give the new poem an unbiased look, but was bothered in the first sentence. “Iridescence” doesn’t act. It’s an effect.
POETS Day! Edward Thomas
It’s true that he didn’t enjoy writing much of what he produced, but the needs of his growing family required it of him.
POETS Day! The Author of “A Visit from St Nicholas” Again
It is not known how “A Visit from St. Nicholas” came to be published in The Troy Sentinel in December of 1823.
POETS Day! John Clare
John Clare’s reputation rises and falls. There are claimed instances of a revival, but dispersed over the years at regular intervals.
POETS Day! Richard Aldington
I’m reminded of the first principle of Imagism: “Direct treatment of the ‘thing’, whether subjective or objective.” Strip away everything, and there she is.
POETS Day! Thomas Hardy Learns About Dames
I’m not immune from the sort of self-flattery that arises when someone whose writing I respect enforces a gut felt but not fully considered opinion.
