Tag Archives: Gerard Manley Hopkins

“Literature is the written expression of revolt against expected things.” Happy Birthday to the least happy man ever, Thomas Hardy

“A certain provincialism of feeling is invaluable. It is the essence of individuality, and is largely made up of that crude enthusiasm without which no great thoughts are thought, no great deeds done.” — Thomas Hardy That quote above from … Continue reading

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“[My ambition is to] give something to our literature which will be our own.” — Walt Whitman

“I like to think that eventually he will shame us into becoming Americans again.” — Guy Davenport on Walt Whitman Whitman is the organizing principle behind my review of Martin Scorsese’s Rolling Thunder Revue. Bob Dylan quotes Whitman all the … Continue reading

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“For never has such soothing voice / Been to your shadowy world convey’d…” — Matthew Arnold on William Wordsworth

“I have said that poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings; it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquillity; the emotion is contemplated till by a species of reaction the tranquillity gradually disappears, and an emotion, kindred to … Continue reading

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“Best be yourself, imperial, plain, and true.” – Robert Browning

“Ah, but a man’s reach should exceed his grasp, Or what’s a heaven for?” — Robert Browning “Andrea del Sarto” It’s Robert Browning’s birthday today. “Imperial”. Spoken like a true Victorian. We had to read Robert Browning’s poem “Meeting at … Continue reading

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2019 Books Read

It’s been such a busy year for me as a writer. The busiest. I’ve had to “make time” for reading stuff that has nothing to do with anything writing-wise. I need to read for pleasure. Many of the books I … Continue reading

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Bookshelf Tour #4

Poetry is important to me. My collection is small but each volume is loved, read, dipped into, used constantly as references. Six Centuries of Great Poetry: A Stunning Collection of Classic British Poems from Chaucer to Yeats, edited by Robert … Continue reading

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Happy Birthday, Gerard Manley Hopkins

Poet Gerard Manley Hopkins was born on this day in 1844. He died of typhus in 1889. A short life that casts a long shadow. Hopkins was against the grain of traditional Victorian poetry, and the way he worked and … Continue reading

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Some Island snapshots

— “I cannot imagine how a casual reference to Suetonius and Petronius Arbiter can be construed into evidence of a desire to impress by an assumption of superior knowledge. I should fancy that the most ordinary of scholars is perfectly … Continue reading

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Happy (Belated) Birthday, William Butler Yeats

William Butler Yeats was born yesterday, in 1865. Yeats is a great poet and all that, but I grew up pretty much “over” him because he was kind of omnipresent in our household. We were made to memorize his epitaph … Continue reading

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The Books: “The Norton Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Poetry” – Gerard Manley Hopkins

Daily Book Excerpt: Poetry The Norton Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Poetry, Volume 1: Modern Poetry, edited by Jahan Ramazani, Richard Ellmann, and Robert O’Clair I know very little about Gerard Manley Hopkins, besides a bare-bones biography and a couple … Continue reading

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