Tag: poetry
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The Last Bard: loops of an invented tradition
By now the ‘invented tradition’ is itself a tradition. Since Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger published their edited collection The invention of tradition in 1983, we’ve become familiar with the idea that rituals, histories and beliefs that seem age-old were actually recent fictions devised with specific purposes in mind. One of the chapters in The…
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More poetry is needed
These are dark times. Walking through the streets of central Swansea, it can seem that the dark is rising. More shops close with every month, leaving empty and boarded windows. In some parts only charity, pawn and vape shops appear to be in business. Never-ending cuts have reduced what were once thriving public and third…
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Poetry as blood donation
O Positive, says his publisher, ‘is the long-awaited debut collection of poetry from Joe Dunthorne’. Faber seem to have forgotten that they published an earlier, shorter collection in 2010 in the Faber New Poets series. Several poems in this are carried over into the new book. Though he started out as a poet, Joe is…
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Helen Dunmore’s Catullus
When Helen Dunmore died at the age of 64 in June 2017 her readers mourned the loss of one of most sensitive and versatile writers of recent years. Many of them will have known her for the novels, short stories and books for children. The first work of hers I read was the first novel,…
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Celf a chrefydd: George Herbert a’r anffyddiwr
Rai blynyddoedd yn ôl ces i wahoddiad i ymddangos ar y rhaglen radio Beti a’i phobl, i sgwrsio â Beti George a dewis ychydig o recordiadau. Un ohonynt oedd darn o waith sy’n bwysig iawn imi, ers y tro cyntaf imi ei glywed rhyw ugain mlynedd yn ôl: Spem in alium, y motét i ddeugain…
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Emily Dickinson’s reticent volcano
It’s taken a long time for Emily Dickinson to come out. During her lifetime (1830-86) only ten of her roughly 1,800 extant poems were published, some of them without her knowledge. After her death her manuscripts lay disregarded by all but a few. It was not till 1955 that anything close to a complete edition…