In an earlier post on Song of Solomon I tried to make sense of the presence of melodrama in the … More

Note: looking back at this post, it seems to show how “patterns” by being everything are also nothing—the paraphrases of … More

          The relations of poetry to pattern are diverse. A poem is patterned by conventions of rhyme, exists in a … More

Modernism is a disputed word. Critics nowadays remind us that there are many modernisms, and rightly, since there are many … More

In my last post on Stevie Smith, I suggested that the poet writes from a perspective of innocence, translating into … More

It might be tempting to think Stevie Smith is putting on an act; with such a thought, we might be … More

A Poem of Despondencies . We go whatever route to run un-      obstructed. A city without seasons may bug … More

The problem of criticism—and the study of criticism—is what to say about, how to reflect on and make sense of, … More