Tag Archives: Louis MacNeice

“Poetry in my opinion must be honest before anything else and I refuse to be ‘objective’ or clear-cut at the cost of honesty.” — Irish poet Louis MacNeice

“Self-assertion more often than not is vulgar, but a live and vulgar dog who keeps on barking is better than a dead lion, however dignified.” — Louis MacNeice Born in Belfast on this day in 1907, Louis MacNeice went to … Continue reading

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“That is no country for old men.” — William Butler Yeats

“I thought we might bring the halves together if we had a national literature that made Ireland beautiful in the memory, and yet had been freed of provincialism by an exacting criticism, a European pose.” — W.B. Yeats William Butler … Continue reading

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Happy Birthday, Wystan Hugh Auden: “The enlightenment driven away / The habit-forming pain”

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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“I find that I cannot exist without poetry—without eternal poetry—” –John Keats

I was just beautifying him, don’t you know. A thing of beauty, don’t you know. Yeats says, or I mean, Keats says. – James Joyce, Ulysses Born in 1795 on this day, John Keats was orphaned at fifteen. Because his … Continue reading

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The Penguin Book of Irish Poetry: Irish poet Desmond O’Grady

A Limerick man, born in 1935. When Desmond O’Grady died in 2014, Irish President Michael D. Higgins said, “From wherever he was writing, be it Cairo or Kinsale, his work invoked a sense of what was Irish in both heritage … Continue reading

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Happy Birthday, John Keats

Keats was born on this day in London, 1795. “Ode to Autumn” is perhaps my favorite of his – but today, for his birthday, I will post: “Ode on Melancholy”. And below the poem are a bunch of compiled quotes … Continue reading

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