Tag Archives: W.H. Auden

2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Love’s Labour’s Lost

My progress: Shakespeare Reading Project Henry VI, parts 1, 2, 3 and Richard III Two Gentlemen of Verona The Taming of the Shrew Titus Andronicus The Comedy of Errors Love’s Labour’s Lost It’s been a long time since I’ve read … Continue reading

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“Never write from your head; write from your cock.” — Wystan Hugh Auden

W.H. Auden was born on this day in York, England, 1907. I first encountered Auden in my “Humanities” class, senior year in high school. I got a lot out of that class, and I remember we analyzed Auden’s famous most-anthologized … Continue reading

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2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: The Comedy of Errors

My progress: Shakespeare Reading Project Henry VI, parts 1, 2, 3 and Richard III Two Gentlemen of Verona The Taming of the Shrew Titus Andronicus The Comedy of Errors My aunt Regina was in a production of The Boys from … Continue reading

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2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Titus Andronicus

My progress: Shakespeare Reading Project Henry VI, parts 1, 2, 3 and Richard III Two Gentlemen of Verona The Taming of the Shrew Titus Andronicus This is body horror at its most horrible. This is the play featuring the following … Continue reading

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2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: The Taming of the Shrew

My progress: Shakespeare Reading Project Henry VI, parts 1, 2, 3 and Richard III Two Gentlemen of Verona The Taming of the Shrew A popular one, but a tough one! There are elements in Petruchio and Katherina’s dynamic which we … Continue reading

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2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: The Two Gentlemen of Verona

To continue: Shakespeare Reading Project Henry VI, parts 1, 2, 3 and Richard III Scholars have been trying to justify and/or explain or even make SENSE of the last two pages of The Two Gentlemen of Verona for 400 years. … Continue reading

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2026 Shakespeare Reading Project: Rose Rage

… or: the three Henry VIs and Richard III Life is very very hard right now. Unprecedentedly hard on all fronts. And so I wanted a “hard” reading project this year. By hard, I mean, something involved that requires a … Continue reading

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“I doubt sometimes whether a quiet and unagitated life would have suited me–yet I sometimes long for it.” — Lord Byron

— And who is the best poet, Heron? asked Boland. — Lord Tennyson, of course, answered Heron. — O, yes, Lord Tennyson, said Nash. We have all his poetry at home in a book. At this Stephen forgot the silent … Continue reading

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“It is a pity that the poet should be compelled to impart interest and force to his subject, instead of receiving them from it.” — poet and critic Matthew Arnold

“My poems represent, on the whole, the main movement of mind of the last quarter of a century, and thus they will probably have their day as people become conscious to themselves of what that movement of mind is, and … Continue reading

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“Beside her Joyce seems innocent as grass.” — W.H. Auden on Jane Austen

“The little bit (two Inches wide) of Ivory on which I work with so fine a Brush.” — Jane Austen on her writing In 2020 – which feels like it was 1,000 years ago, I reviewed the new film adaptation … Continue reading

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