Every lover of poetry remembers the poem that made them fall in love with the art. It’s usually not even an entire poem that makes us fall in love. Often it’s just one line. Sometimes one phrase or word. Stephen Fry, in the wonderful Ode Less Travelled cites an innocuous line from Keats’ ‘The Eve […]
‘Love Among the Ruins’ by Robert Browning: Poetry Reading (Video)
‘Love Among the Ruins’ is the first poem to kick off a series of 51-poems in my favourite two-volume poetry collection by Robert Browning: Men and Women (1855). I’ll let you in on a little secret: My nerdy ambition is to record the ENTIRE poetry collection. This is a passion-project of mine and I’ll chip […]
‘La Belle Dame sans Merci’ by John Keats: Poetry Reading (Video)
‘La Belle Dame sans Merci’ by John Keats is one of the most beautiful, heart-breaking poems I’ve ever read. Let me know if you want a break-down and analysis. For now, we read. ‘La Belle Dame sans Merci’ by John Keats La Belle Dame Sans Merci I. O WHAT can ail thee, knight-at-arms, Alone […]
‘Ode to a Nightingale’ by John Keats: Poetry Reading (Video)
‘Ode to a Nightingale’ by John Keats is my favourite poem of all time. I read it every few months and always find something new to fall deeply, madly in love with. Perhaps we’ll do an analysis of the poem sometime, but I’m worried. At best, picking apart the poem fails to do Keats justice. […]
Ezra Pound’s ‘In a Station of the Metro’ Poem Analysis (Video)
‘In a Station of the Metro’ by Ezra Pound is an incredibly short, but incredibly effective, representation of the Imagistic movement in poetry. This is basically what a haiku would look like rendered into English. The poem is also a perfect example of the three ways one can “charge language with meaning” and thus create […]
What Is Great Literature?
Ezra Pound, in ABC of Reading (1934), states that great literature is ‘language charged with meaning to the utmost possible degree’. As a concise definition of great literature, could there be a more accurate statement than Pound’s? Great writers use language with originality, mastery, and ingenuity. Writers who are not great have little originality beyond […]
‘The Eagle’ by Alfred, Lord Tennyson: Poetry Analysis (Video)
Another day, another poem analysis. This one’s a short one, easy to memorise, called ‘The Eagle’ by Alfred, Lord Tennyson. I only expected to read it, but couldn’t help picking apart why it’s so poignant to me too. ‘The Eagle’ by Alfred, Lord Tennyson: Poetry Analysis What do you think of Tennyson’s ‘The Eagle’? He […]
‘The Solider’ by Rupert Brooke: Poetry Reading (Video)
This one always gets me. ‘The Soldier’ by Rupert Brooke
Analysing Shakespeare’s Sonnets: 2, 20 & 29 (Video)
Three of my favourite Shakespeare sonnets are: II, XX & XXIX. Here’s a reading followed by a quick analysis, linking them together. I just scratched the surface of why I love these sonnets. I’m thinking I’ll put together a series of quick “intro” type videos to Shakespeare’s sonnets, three at a time, not going above […]
‘Love and Sleep’ by Swinburne: Poetry Reading (Video)
Patrick Stewart’s been reading a sonnet a day during lockdown. And Billy Collins has been giving poetry readings. How marvellous is that? And though the idea to scatter some occasional poem readings amongst Hardcore Literature did cross my mind, I kind of wrote the idea off. Best stick to deep analysis, I thought. But I’ve […]