by phillipw | May 3, 2020 | AN, AS, HU
Ashokan Amnesia “While the memory of Ashoka having set up stone pillars persisted, what his epigraphs recorded was entirely forgotten. The pillar at Niglihawa, while recognized as Ashokan, is said to have been engraved with “the record of the...
by phillipw | May 3, 2020 | AN, DA, GR, MY
Icarus: When Cleanest Beauty Flies https://dd28.deviantart.com/art/Mourning-for-Icarus-294532709 When young men make mistakes, they still get all The glory. Here he is with nothing wrong About his body. It’s as if the fall Has killed him theoretically. This strong One...
by phillipw | May 3, 2020 | AN
Where Cleanest Beauty Flies “Youths and maidens all blyhe and full of glee, carried the luscious fruit in plaited baskets; and with them there went a boy who made sweet music with his lyre, and sang the Linos-song with clear boyish voice.” ~ Samuel Butler’s English...
by phillipw | May 3, 2020 | AN, Ho, MU, OE, PO
Magnetized Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem “Just as a magnet attracts iron rings and induces in those rings the power to attract others, so the Muse inspires a chain of people possessed by...
by phillipw | Apr 30, 2020 | AN, OL
He and His Old English is so foreign to us now That most of us are lost if we attempt To read it. Modern words do not allow The old ones to come through. New words pre-empt The alphabet and sense of older terms. Some letters are too strange. Those...
by phillipw | Apr 30, 2020 | AN, OL
We Have to be More Sensitive than Bloodhounds in Oblivion “Apart from ‘Cædmon’s Hymn’, we cannot date any Old English poem.” ~ Michael Schmidt, The Story of Poetry, 11 The poets are completely lost. Those scops Have disappeared completely like a fog Told in a tale,...
