Tag Archives: Walt Whitman

“I do not write for the public.” — poet Gerard Manley Hopkins

“I shall shortly have some sonnets to send you, five or more. Four of these came like inspirations unbidden and against my will. And in the life I lead now, which is one of a continually jaded and harassed mind, … 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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“And now I long to try a loftier strain, the sublimer Song whose broken melodies have for so many years breathed through my soul…” — poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“He suffered excessive popularity; he has now suffered three quarters of a century of critical neglect.” – Michael Schmidt, Lives of the Poets Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was born on this day in 1807, in Portland, Maine. He was the first … Continue reading

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It’s Ezra Pound’s Birthday: “Do not retell in mediocre verse what has already been done in good prose.”

And give up verse, my boy, There’s nothing in it. — Ezra Pound I grew up hearing stories of Ezra Pound. Not the stories of his fascism or his relaxing time in a cage in Italy, or being indicted for … Continue reading

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Walt Whitman: “This is What You Shall Do”

Walt Whitman, in his preface to Leaves of Grass: This is what you shall do: Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to every one that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote … Continue reading

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On the island

— An orgy of reading. Recuperative. I am feeling less shattered than I have. But I hesitate to even say such things. They anger the gods. — Mitchell, Meghan and Luisa came out for the day and it was seriously … Continue reading

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The Books: “The Norton Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Poetry” – Ezra Pound

“Do not retell in mediocre verse what has already been done in good prose.” – Ezra Pound I grew up hearing stories of Ezra Pound, not just of his fascism and his time in a cage in Italy, or being … Continue reading

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The Books: “The Norton Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Poetry” – D. H. Lawrence

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 A real pioneer in his day, his stuff can seem rather silly now. I never … Continue reading

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The Books: “The Norton Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Poetry” – Walt Whitman

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 A gorgeous two-volume edition of the Norton Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Poetry is the … Continue reading

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November 14: “She has her prophet of it, Walt Whitman.”

Excerpted from Christopher Morley’s A Book of Days: Being a Briefcase packed for his own Pleasure: NOVEMBER 14, SATURDAY 1931 What America imports from Europe is useless to her. It is torn from its roots; and it is idle to … Continue reading

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