Conversational Theology

It is difficult to make too much of the words a good poet employs, although one might read them badly – for instance, by confusing poetic language with dogmatic or scientific statements. [A] poem then should be read with the presumption that every word is deliberately chosen and therefore important. If a word seems out [...]

Lots of good things in this programme to enjoy: Ian Macmillan (who was my top choice for Poet Laureate, though I am pleased about Carol Ann Duffy), Song of Songs, Marvell, Ben Jonson, Gerard Manley Hopkins and more. On the whole I thought the poems were read well (and I am not a good listener [...]

I’m very much looking forward to watching this on BBC 2 tonight. I will report back and let you know whether it’s worth catching up on iPlayer (only if you’re in the UK, I’m afraid). ETA: Okay, they got me. Beautiful reading of Song 2.

I don’t know who decides these things, but someone has decreed that today is National Poetry Day and apparently the theme is work, so this poem by Philip Levine seems appropriate. What work is We stand in the rain in a long line waiting at Ford Highland Park. For work. You know what work is–if [...]

You know, I’ve read very little of T. S. Eliot’s poetry. The Journey of the Magi. The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock. I’ve never quite brought myself to read a poem called The Wasteland. It just sounds too depressing for words. Today I came across this passage from Eliot’s Ash Wednesday and was completely bowled [...]

Lord, Who createdst man in wealth and store, Though foolishly he lost the same, Decaying more and more, Till he became Most poore: With Thee O let me rise, As larks, harmoniously, And sing this day Thy victories: Then shall the fall further the flight in me. My tender age in sorrow did beginne; And [...]

From Wilfred Watson’s ‘Classical Hebrew Poetry’, the proper approach to analysis of a poem: Delimitation Segmentation Inner-strophic analysis Isolation of poetic devices Tabulation Synthesis Comparison with other literature And after all that, why not pick up the poem and read it?