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W.S. Merwin’s: Learning a Dead Language (1956)
If I could choose only one poem from W. S. Merwin—by no means an easy task, for there are many exuberant poems to choose from—it would, nonetheless, be “Learning a Dead Language”; a poem which, on the whole, is as melancholic as it is—for the serious and deep reader—an inspiring read. In these troubled times,… Continue reading
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Defending The Western Canon, vol. II (Aesthetic value & Kafka)
As a staunch defender of the Western Canon as it has been characterised by the likes of Samuel Johnson, William Hazlitt, Harold Bloom, George Steiner, Frank Kermode, among many other of our classic, canon-centric critics, I find—as I have done before, see vol. I—that it is necessary to illuminate the notion of “aesthetic merit” as… Continue reading
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Fernando Pessoa’s (unpublished) play: The Duke of Parma
It was around 1909, according to biographer Richard Zenith, that Pessoa wrote the first pages of passages and scribbled fragmented notes for his five-act play, “The Duke of Parma: A tragedy.” Which, if it sounds rather Shakespearean, was supposed to be just that. According to Zenith: “It is one of the largest and weirdest of… Continue reading
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From Alvin Feinman’s: Corrupted Into Song (1990)
Alvin Feinman may very well be one of the most underrated, yet powerful, modern poets I have had the pleasure of reading. I found Feinman—not wholly unsurprisingly—through Prof. Harold Bloom, whose The Western Canon, Anxiety of Influence, How to Read Poetry, among many other works, I have read and still reread incessantly. Few critics (and… Continue reading
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Hegel’s Logic: You have been taught the Hegelian system wrongly
It is no coincidence I have chosen Dutch painter Judith Leyster’s The Last Drop as the “pictorial reference”, as it were, for this crucial issue of which I am, at long last, about to expound. I touched on this in my Walt Whitman essay and later in my commentary on King Lear; but what instigated… Continue reading
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Rainer Marie Rilke: Song of the Sea
I have finally taken to reading Rilke’s poetry in German, by no means an easy task, as I am still very much in the infancy of learning the language. Nevertheless, having studied German for long enough to be able to read Kafka and Mann, and being fortunate enough to have a partner whose mother tongue… Continue reading
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Tennyson’s Ulysses seen through Wallace Stevens’s: Prologues To What Is Possible. A perspective on the Tennysonean Ulysses
I have admired and read Wallace Stevens for years (see my appreciation of Stevens here), and just the other night, while re-reading my way through Harold Bloom’s exuberant A Map of Misreading (1975), in which Stevens is a central figure, I took to my Complete Poetry & Prose edition of Stevens (The Library of America… Continue reading
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From Philip Levine’s: The Simple Truth (1994)
Here’s an excerpt from one of my most treasured poets, Philip Levine, and his exuberant ‘The Simple Truth’, written in 1994, for which he won the 1995 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry. Like other modern poets such as Wallace Stevens, Robert Lowell, Elizabeth Bishop, Randall Jarrell and James Schuyler, among others, Levine is included in Harold… Continue reading
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Emily Dickinson is a cornerstone of Western Literature
I intend this short, introductory essay to be a companion to my “Dissecting Dickinson” series in which I analyse (or, as it was, dissect) Dickinson’s poems. Each is linked here:From Blank to Blank —My Wheel Is in the Dark!The Guest Is Gold and Crimson Within Harold Bloom’s The Western Canon there are approximately 800 authors,… Continue reading
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From Robert Lowell’s: For Lizzie And Harriet (1973)
If there is a poet with whom I find myself connected, perhaps more so than any other, it is Robert Lowell. While his Pulitzer-winning books of poetry Lord Weary’s Castle (1946) and The Dolphin (1973) are best known among readers (and these are indeed magnificent works), it is, quite consistently, his ‘For Lizzie and Harriet’… Continue reading
The Western Canon 