31. (William Cowper)

Cowper is the only really good English poet who seems actively repulsed by the prospect of startling his language. He … More

21. (Geoffrey Hill)

Excess curries parody. The late Hill has not been one to shun excesses: in output, in rhetorical posturing, in allusiveness, … More

Not newly appearing in the new Collected Poems, the poem there that nonetheless surprised me most—-thumbed over, by chance, on the … More

Pierre Bourdieu, in a passage from Distinction, gets a few things slightly wrong but one thing immensely right: To be able … More

Bagehot, a man in the know, confides to his readership: “One of his greatest admirers once owned to us that … More