Category: Poetry
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Wordsworth’s finest
Which is Wordsworth’s finest poem? How can one even ask such a question? He has written so many memorable poems, it seems impossible to single out any one as the very best. Yet the question has been on my mind these past two days since the birthday of Wordsworth (April…
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Typewriter poems
Pressrun.net has a new look today. The typeface is different. It reminds me of typewriters. I love smartphones, tablets, laptops, but typewriters were my first love. Not smooth, electric typewriters but the manual variety. Such as the one George Orwell is working on in this photo. With a cigarette in…
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Fourth of July: This Land Is Your Land, Leaves of Grass
Today is the Fourth of July: US Independence Day. So here’s one of the most beautiful songs about America: This Land Is Your Land, by Woody Guthrie. Here it is sung by Pete Seeger and Bruce Springsteen. I just discovered that the Fourth of July was also the day Walt…
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Blogs, Whitman, Singapore
Bloggers, feel free to write on about Singapore on your blogs and personal websites, the Media Development Authority has said on Facebook, clarifying the new rules that apply only to news sites. So words will continue to pour into cyberspace documenting everything on this island until blogging becomes passé and…
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A man’s reach should exceed his grasp: Browning
Poor Andrea del Sarto. A successful Italian painter who was overshadowed by his contemporaries, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael. We admire the works of Leonardo, Michelangelo and Raphael while Andrea del Sarto is almost forgotten. Yet that is what makes him more like most of us. We may not…
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Adlestrop, Edward Thomas and Sweet Tooth
I had to look up this poem after reading about it in Ian McEwan’s novel, Sweet Tooth. Adlestrop, a poem by Edward Thomas, comes up in a moment of intimacy between the heroine, Serena Frome, and her lover, Tom Haley, a writer.
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1963: Annus Mirabilis, Beatles!
I saw a video of a concert given by the Beatles in 1963 which made me think, oh my God, 50 years have gone by since then, some of the young fans singing along with their idols at the concert may no longer even be around any more, but gone…
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Andrew Marvell and His Coy Mistress
Today is the birthday of Andrew Marvell (March 31,1621 – August 16,1678), the author of one of the most anthologized love poems, To His Coy Mistress. I love the poem. I saw it described somewhere as a lover asking a virgin to sleep with him. But that is overlooking its…
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The Gift Outright by Robert Frost
Today is the birthday of Robert Frost, who was born on March 26, 1874. His poems make us think of rural New England, but he was born in San Francisco. Here is the poem he read at the inauguration of President Kennedy in January 1961. The poet died in Boston…
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Lawrence Ferlinghetti is 94
Today is the birthday of Lawrence Ferlinghetti, says The Writer’s Almanac. His 94th birthday! just think of it. I first read him in a Penguin paperback which included a selection of poems by him, Allen Ginsberg and Gregory Corso. Here are two of his poems: I Am Waiting Sometime During…
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