My sister asked: “what is the literary structure/form of the Our Father?” A friend of hers uncovered the following article: Inquiry into the Form of theLord’s Prayer: Structure and Poetic Form I’ve written before about my fascination with the structure of Hebrew poetry. I was therefore delighted by this question and answer. I had never […]
Archive | Poetry
Flowers by the Sea
Flowers by the Sea When over the flowery, sharp pasture’s edge, unseen, the salt ocean lifts its form—chicory and daisies tied, released, seem hardly flowers alone but color and the movement—or the shape perhaps—of restlessness, whereas the sea is circled and sways peacefully upon its plantlike stem –William Carlos Williams This poem was […]
Assault
Assault Edna St. Vincent Millay I had forgotten how the frogs must sound After a year of silence, else I think I should not so have ventured forth alone At dusk upon this unfrequented road. I am waylaid by Beauty. Who will walk Between me and the crying of the frogs? Oh, savage Beauty, suffer […]
“Time does not bring relief; you all have lied”
Time does not bring relief; you all have lied Who told me time would ease me of my pain! I miss him in the weeping of the rain; I want him at the shrinking of the tide; The old snows melt from every mountain-side, And last year’s leaves are smoke in every lane; But […]
Not shaking the grass
And the days are not full enough And the nights are not full enough And life slips by like a field mouse Not shaking the grass –Ezra Pound I’ve posted this short poem before. Every time I stumble across it, it’s like finding it for the first time. A thrill of excitement, […]
Sea Fever
Sea Fever by John Masefield I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky, And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by; And the wheel’s kick and the wind’s song and the white sail’s shaking, And a grey mist on the sea’s […]
Argonautika: The Clashing Rocks
The kids and I have been reading Padraic Colum’s The Golden Fleece and the Heroes Who Lived before Achilles. It’s a beautiful literary retelling of the story of Jason and the Argonauts for children (the edition we have is gorgeously illustrated by Willy Pogany). Padraic Colum was a poet of the Irish Literary Revival […]
The Gulf Stream, another Homer’s Hand
“Art is immortal and weighs heavily on us, and museums leave us at a loss for words. Outside becomes a museum: its ornate frames square off a dome, a few trees, a brace of sparrows; till every view is a postcard signed by great names: that sky Canaletto’s, that empty bench Van Gogh’s. I […]
Cold Iron
Cold Iron Gold is for the mistress — silver for the maid — Copper for the craftsman cunning at his trade.” “Good!” said the Baron, sitting in his hall, “But Iron — Cold Iron — is master of them all.” So he made rebellion ‘gainst the King his liege, Camped before his citadel and summoned […]
The Castle
The Castle All through that summer at ease we lay, And daily from the turret wall We watched the mowers in the hay And the enemy half a mile away They seemed no threat to us at all. For what, we thought, had we to fear With our arms and provender, load on load, Our […]