Tag Archives: John Aubrey

“Thy soul was like a Star and dwelt apart” — William Wordsworth on John Milton

Milton was born on this day in 1608. Although he left Oxford without completing his degree, he remained a thinker, a propagandist/pamphleteer, a scholar till the end of his days. The isolated poet, focused on self and personal emotion, would … Continue reading

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“Look in thy heart and write.” — Sir Philip Sidney

“[The poet] doth grow in effect another nature, as the Heroes, Demigods, Cyclopes, Chimeras, Furies, and such like: so as he goeth hand in hand with nature, not enclosed within the narrow warrant of her gifts, but freely, ranging only … Continue reading

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“Language most shows a man. Speak that I may see thee.” — Ben Jonson

“O rare Benn Johnson.” — Jonson’s incorrectly-spelled epitaph in Westminster Abbey It’s his birthday today. Ben Jonson did everything. Plays, poems, satires, elegies, epigrams. His talent was wide and flexible. Everything he wrote feels inevitable. However, as Michael Schmidt writes … Continue reading

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“Art indeed is long, but life is short.” — Metaphysical poet Andrew Marvell

“Andrew Marvell spans three ages like a delicate but serviceable bridge. The first length spans Charles I’s reign and fall, the second spans the Commonwealth, the third the Restoration.” — Michael Schmidt, Lives of the Poets It’s his birthday today. … Continue reading

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The Books: Six Centuries of Great Poetry: A Stunning Collection of Classic British Poems from Chaucer to Yeats: Sir Philip Sidney

Daily Book Excerpt: Poetry Six Centuries of Great Poetry: A Stunning Collection of Classic British Poems from Chaucer to Yeats, edited by Robert Penn Warren and Albert Erskine As I mentioned in my first post about this nice little anthology, … Continue reading

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Happy Birthday, John Milton

John Milton turns 401 today. Last year, New York went all out in celebrating his birthday – with exhibits, art installations, even a costume ball. I love living here. Milton has the kind of genius that is best not talked … Continue reading

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Happy 400th birthday, John Milton

I am a baffled and awe-inspired fan. He has the kind of genius that is best not talked about too much. Just leave it be. Don’t try to ask why, or HOW … (I can’t help it: HOW????????) Just accept … Continue reading

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November 21: “He was wont to say that man was but a great mischievous baboon”

Excerpted from Christopher Morley’s A Book of Days: Being a Briefcase packed for his own Pleasure: NOVEMBER 21, SAT. 1931 He did delight to be in the darke, and told me he could then best contemplate. He had a house … Continue reading

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National Poetry Month: Ben Jonson

On My First Son Farewell, thou child of my right hand, and joy; My sin was too much hope of thee, loved boy. Seven years wert thou leant to me, and I thee pay, Exacted by thy fate, on the … Continue reading

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National Poetry Month: John Milton

John Milton. Paradise Lost is one of those things we had to read in high school – which … could we even understand a word of it?? I re-read it in, I think, 2000 – and found it to be … Continue reading

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