Poetry Forum

Enjoyed this Ray, especially S5 with its elderly / bweilderedly. Lines 3 and 4 maybe a bit bland? S3 feels a bit limp too. Otherwise good.

Thanks all. Some useful specific comments and suggestions. I have taken something from each of you and rejigged it slightly. Hopefully the later part is a little easier to follow now.

Hi there, I really like the revised version, a big imnprovement. I too was disappointed the first time I had a sno-cone! S2 is the best part I think. Struggling with "grown silent". Isn't it implied that S3 if part of "what I remember"? In which case, you're remembering that the ...

I think "empty and dark" is fine grammatically, but I think it's rather obvious (what else would abandoned mines be?) Instead of wall and roof maybe use some mining terminology, technical terms are always nice. http://www.coaleducation.org/glossary.htm "Something must be done" ra...

Sal volatile Thanks, skunk for irradiating our home. No whisky could take effect so swiftly or so crudely. We reeled. One of us looked for you in the lightwells. And after you left, or after the acrid stench of you left our home, I tried out Burton: A quiet mind cureth all . But that's not true at ...

I read Oliver Twist out of curiosity. There was some pay-off: the manipulative evil of Fagin, the elemental violence of Bill Sikes. Essentially may interest waned when Oliver became less present in the narrative. What did you dislike about David Copperfield ? It was some time ago but here's what I ...

A Confederacy of Dunces. One of the most overrated books I've ever read. Just utter shit. Exactly what I thought about Infinite Jest . (Not one of your favourites, I hope.) Clever shit, admittedly. But dear me. I haven't read it David. Your appreciation of Pynchon gives me cause to trust you on thi...

September Vanity Fair - Thackeray - satirical and sentimental surfaces, but essentially human wickedness is the heart of the novel for even the 'good' have their vanities exposed. I can recommend this one for humour and insights on the destructive, corrupt behaviour of hierachies. I feel the narrat...

Yes, another great example of Jonson's anachronistic personal touch. He wrote a similar poem for a daughter of his, also moving. Makes me want to look at his plays again (read them at university) to see if I can detect the same quality in them. I do remember thinking they were pretty great as plays.

September books: YT by Alexei Nikitin - intriguing post-Soviet story about a group of friends who, as schoolkids in the early 80's, create a sort of correspondence-based empire-building game (like Civilization) which attracts the attention of the KGB. Fast forward to the current century and someone ...

Just finished the anthology of this title selected by John Williams. I suppose it does what it says on the tin, but I've concluded this isn't my favourite period. So much of it is just gauzy lovelorn abstraction and some of the rhyming really is laboured. But here are a few pieces that stood out: 1....

I don't remember reading Richard III but I did see it in about 2003 at the Globe. Many great lines in that one and yes, the plot is a ripper too. Richard II I saw and read maybe 10 years ago in Vancouver, but all I remember is the sceptred isle... Last night finished Voss by Patrick White. Not perfe...

I like this (v2 much better than v1). But I don't think either title works, first one is too vague and the second one too explicatory. If you can't think of a good title, especially for a short poem, just leave it without one! But there probably is one. Only other thing is "plants or eagles&quo...

I have to admit my pace on Anniversaries has slackened significantly. I'm at about page 550 I think but have only been reading a chapter or two per day once or twice a week. It doesn't help that the damn thing's too big to take along with me when I travel, which is more than ever this year. That sai...

I love those King poems - wasn't familiar with him at all. Thanks guys.

As for me, I've been reading a lot this year. Since last September, books I've rated 9 or 10: Slow Boats to China - Gavin Young - reread of probably my favourite travel book ever, with amazing characters throughout but highlights are a ride in a clapped-out cargo dhow with a crew of fatalistic Baluc...

Never read On the Road but I read The Dharma Bums when I was about 17 and thought it was pretty good. I just remember the scene where the guy is working as a fire lookout sitting on top of a mountain and a mosquito settles on his arm but he's so zenned-out that the mozzer doesn't realise he's alive ...

I get the "just dip in and read a page at random" approach to the Wake - probably the only way I could manage it - but I suppose there's a reason why the pages were arranged in the order that they're in. Then again, if we can't discern that reason then it's moot, and all that matters is yo...

That Housman poem is also one of my favourites, Mac. I recently read Housman Country: Into the Heart of England by Peter Parker. It's a terrific Housman companion which includes the full text of A Shropshire Lad as an appendix for ready reference. Rather than building one argument or thesis it comes...

Yes, TB. I remember when I was younger reading 19th century novels where everyone was ailing with "consumption" or just generally wasting away, and not realising it was what we call TB. Life was ghastly back then - I mean the 19th century, not when I was younger. Mann chooses not to name t...

Wow! A great pleasure to read this in Portuguese (and many, many new words learnt)! This poem really seems to catch the Brazilian zeitgeist. It's completely crazy and I couldn't stop reading! I like "Watergates, Tea Parties and Trail of Tears" (should be "Trails") as a piece of c...

Much enjoyed. Maybe cut "along them" which doesn't add anything and the shorter line seems nice?

Cut "most" for the metre?

I love "anti-toothpaste" and the whole description of the cash transferral system (which I don't think I've come across before).

Georg Heym - The Thief and Other Stories (pub. 1913) I've not read Heym's prose, although I've been meaning to for years. I do love his poetry though. I have a bilingual edition which I keep returning to. Won't be attempting the stories in German though! Staying on matters Teutonic I'm about 2/3 th...

I like this a lot. I like the way it jumps around but still seems coherent. The way "something significant" is repeated. I really like the Jolly Blue Giant / Jolly Green Giant / Jolly Blue Dragon triangle and I think I even understand it. I don't know who Mr. C. is though. I think the end ...

I like the general sense of building, cohering, and then the dissolving again in the last stanza. However I think it is too impressionistic. "Blossom, / eagle-echo" for example, I simply can't relate to the subject of the poem. And "the infinite / within each moment" doesn't say ...