There’s a thought-provoking article article on the Poetry Foundation’s Harriet blog, by Robert Archambeau: What Conceptual Poetry Lacks And What It’s Got. In case you, like me, were wondering what he means by conceptual poetry, it turns out to be very similar to the more familiar (ahem) concept of conceptual art, i.e. work in which […]
Auden
Coleridge and Auden on Puns
Great minds think alike: And Puns, then best when exquisitely bad; (S.T. Coleridge, poem quoted in Letter to John Thelwall, 31 December 1796) Good poets have a weakness for bad puns. (W.H. Auden, ‘The Truest Poetry is the most Feigning’) I’m tempted to call this 1-0 to Auden: he trumps Coleridge for pithiness, memorability and […]
Derek Walcott – ‘A Sea Change’
With a change of government the haze of wide rain which you begin to hear as the ruler hears the crowd gathering under the balcony, the leader who has promised the permanent cobalt of a change of government with the lilac and violet of his cabinet’s change. I couldn’t resist posting this today. It’s from […]
Philip Larkin — ‘A Study of Reading Habits’
Following on from Auden’s American accent, I’ve discovered the reverse phenomenon in Larkin’s Sunday Sessions. In ‘A Study of Reading Habits’ he uses the American word ‘dude’ — which, in the recorded version, he pronounces ‘dyood’ (instead of the usual ‘dood’) in a very arch Received Pronunciation. It’s very funny. And I’m guessing deliberately conservative, […]
W.H. Auden — ‘The Fall of Rome’
The causes of Auden’s move to the States have been debated ad nauseam, but here’s a minor side effect I’ve not seen anyone comment on: Caesar’s double-bed is warm As an unimportant clerk Writes I DO NOT LIKE MY WORK On a pink official form. ‘The Fall of Rome’ Surely that’s an American accent in […]