by phillipw | Jun 17, 2020 | AR, IT, OD, PE, TE
Ithaca ( Ἰθάκη), the Dull Town Your wife is there, your two-balled heir, and hound Still true (like bone to brawn) behind his eyes Destroyed with cataracts—but his snout’s bound To ravel your armpit; he’s the surprise That isn’t surprising when you return Among the...
by phillipw | May 26, 2020 | CH, ET, Ho, HU, MU, PA, PE
The Pergola of Composition “There is also a setting of Horace’s Ode ‘Persicos odi puer apparatus,’ for A.T.B.B. ‘written in school [Eton College] , February 22, 1865’ ”. ~ Emily Daymond, 77 As strange as ancient Persia might have seemed To sixteen-year-old Parry...
by phillipw | May 22, 2020 | BL, EN, GR, PE, PO, SC, SH, TE, WI
Poets Are the Legislators of the Scientific World In 2011 I was reading a biography of John Keats. In the introduction Lord Byron is quoted as saying that Keats "belonged to that second-hand school of poetry" because he got his inspiration from...
by phillipw | May 20, 2020 | AL, AN, BO, CO, DO, GI, OS, PE, RO, WI
The Ultimate Chamber of Silent Adoration Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem “When Robbie Ross died, […] he triumphed over both Bosie and Constance, by having his ashes interred in Oscar’s tomb.” ~...
by phillipw | May 16, 2020 | PE, TR
There’s Perfection Three Times Perfection “All other loves are lost in only thine” ~ Alexander Pope translating Ovid writing in the voice of Sappho An ocean is a puny thing compared To outer space, more like a quark to strengths Of galaxies. Just as the Big Bang...
by phillipw | May 16, 2020 | IN, MA, PE
6, 28, 496, 8128 . . . Perfection is a state devoutly sought, Evinced alone in mathematics, though. Reach out for it in other realms, there’s naught For seekers of this purest state. There’s no Escaping it: the sciences and art Collaborate against perfection,...
