Richard Burton Reads John Donne
My lovely wife discovered a wonderful series of audio clips of Richard Burton reading John Donne. As a Shakespearian actor with a wonderful voice, Burton brings these poems alive. Enjoy!
My lovely wife discovered a wonderful series of audio clips of Richard Burton reading John Donne. As a Shakespearian actor with a wonderful voice, Burton brings these poems alive. Enjoy!
Read The Poem (scroll down to the one entitled “Poem”) What is so great about this poem is its excellent rhythm. Some of this is created through alliteration, as in the lines: They drift about the darkening city squares […] fingers feeling / familiar holes […] a half-contented ghost among my guest
I’ve been following some of Ron Silliman’s recent posts about the effect he and Gabe Gudding have been tracing of “McPoem”–cookie-cutter work based on personal experience churned out through the business of MFA programs–on the course of poetry in the past thirty years. Ron’s musings on Gudding seem to imply a strong connection between, “self-expression …
Read the poem What is so great about this poet is that she can really turn a compact phrase. I have heard Emily Dickinson sneeringly called, “the undergraduate’s favorite poet” and at the same time critical giants like Harold Bloom consider her one of the greatest. Whether you think her poems are clever (in the …
Read the poem What is so great about this poem is that it makes excellent use of the momentum of the English sonnet form, culminating in a beautiful pair of lines that simultaneously do and do not make sense:
I am planning to select a new poem each Monday and write about it. I figure most people could use a dose of poetry on that day more than any other in the week, and it’s high time I say more about things worth talking about. My plan is to present the poem (or a …