This continues the series of columns that highlight a much-loved poem and presents other poems that speak to, or resonate with, that poem. In this column I’m reacting to a nearby tragedy. A poet friend of mine has lost her husband in a bicycling accident, leaving her to finish raising two girls on her own. Because one poem confronts the absence of a spouse head-on, it quickly came to mind: “Lament”
This continues a series of columns that feature a much-loved poem and a poems that speak to, or resonate with, that poem. This week’s poem is “Oatmeal,” written by Galway Kinnell in the late 1980s. The two poems that resonate with Galway’s are “Dinky” by Theodore Roethke and “Jabberwocky” by Lewis Carroll. Kinnell was Poet Laureate of Vermont from 1989 to 1993 and a Nobel prizewinner. A follower of Walt
This continues the series of columns that highlights a much-loved poem and presents other poems that speak to, or resonate with, that poem. This week features “Ode to a Nightingale” by John Keats, written in 1819, almost two hundred years ago. The two related poems are both by F. Scott Fitzgerald: “Thousand and First Ship,” and “Lamp in the Window.” The Poetry Foundation states “John Keats, who died at the age
This continues the series of columns that highlights a much-loved poem and presents other poems that speak to, or resonate with, that poem. This week features “The Weary Blues,” crafted by Langston Hughes. The two related poems are “The Blues Don’t Change,” by Al Young and “Slow Drag Blues” by Kevin Young. (While they share the same surname and were both Stegner Fellows, Al and Kevin are unrelated). The Poetry Foundation
This is one in a series of columns that examines a much-loved poem, and poems that speak to, or resonates with, that poem. Featured is “Spring Day [Bath],” crafted by Amy Lowell (1874-1925) in 1914 or 15. The Poetry Foundation states: “An oft-quoted remark by poet Amy Lowell applies to both her determined personality and her sense of humor: ‘God made me a business woman,’ Lowell is reported to have quipped, ‘and I
This is the seventh in a series of columns that feature a much-loved poem, and a second poem that speaks to, or resonates with, the first poem. This week’s poem is “Requiem,” written by Robert Louis Stevenson. This poem was carved into Stevenson’s gravestone. The line that attracted me was “Glad did I live and gladly die.” Some critics consider this a bold lie, but I prefer to think of
