Micah Mattix on The Integrity of Poetry
by R. R. RenoEditor R. R. Reno is joined by Micah Mattix to talk about his article, “The Integrity of Poetry,” from the February 2023 issue. Continue Reading »
Les Murray the Misfit Poet
by Stephen SchmalhoferThe late Australian poet Les Murray shared with Aquinas, another fat genius, a devotion to the Unmoved Mover and dedicated each of his thirty books to the greater glory of God. He was not a voice crying out in the wilderness. He was a poet sweating out in the bush. Continue Reading »
The Poet’s Eye
by Josh ChristensonTo seek publication is to seek to be judged. It is to learn, finally, what kind of writer one is (or is not) meant to be. Continue Reading »
What We’ve Been Reading—November 2021
by EditorsOur editors reflect on Czesław Miłosz, crime fiction, Roger Scruton, and the divine right of kings. Continue Reading »
The Old Man in the Nursery School
by Shalom CarmyNathan Alterman (1910–1970) was the most important Hebrew poet of his generation. He was popular with readers of poetry and continues to be much-studied. Side by side with the major modernist works that established his reputation, Alterman was also a prolific producer of occasional verse on . . . . Continue Reading »
Thumbing an Issue of Forbes
by J. L. WallIn the obits, ballplayers still finish first,their August exploits no one quite remembersrestored to life: the diving stop unrehearsedamid the routine plays of life’s surrender. But beneath our unnamed pastoral hero,I’ll find her, too, Ms. Forbes-Under-Thirtywho built a company up from zero,ran . . . . Continue Reading »
Private Faces in Public Places
by Shalom CarmyIf the stature of a poet is measured by how well his words stick in the reader’s mind and refurbish our language, then W. H. Auden is one of the dominant English voices of the twentieth century. It is ironic that he came to “loathe” (his word) some of his best-remembered work. The most . . . . Continue Reading »
The Poet and the Mob
by Dan HitchensMurray’s poems pack an impossible amount of meaning into short lines. Continue Reading »
Geoffrey Hill, Prodigal
by Garrick DavisAmong poets writing in English during the last forty years, Geoffrey Hill was sometimes named the greatest one alive, but he was always named the most difficult one to read. He had come to live and teach in America in the 1980s, along with a brilliant group which included Paul Muldoon at . . . . Continue Reading »
Three American Poets
by Mark BauerleinThe latest installment in an ongoing interview series with senior editor Mark Bauerlein. Featuring: Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, and Wallace Stevens. Continue Reading »
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