257. (T.S. Eliot)

Since the age of 16 or 17, when I discovered the criticism of T.S. Eliot for myself, I’ve met with … More

238. (Matthew Arnold)

One of Matthew Arnold’s most famous, or infamous, phrases as a critic comes in “The Study of Poetry” where he … More

Aristotle begins his Art of Rhetoric How do we reason in general about what is possible, probable, not necessary; he … More

“Self-accusation,” writes Geoffrey Hill, “is the life-blood of Romanticism.” For a long time, I thought Lowell a late-Romantic, working back, … More

They are almost “conversation” poems, but they offer too many explanations, the sorts of explanations of who the speaker is, … More

Itching dissatisfaction; Mahon is harder to get a hold of than any one poem suggests. The same could be said, … More

Here is another attempt at the Lowell muddle, since the last was either abstruse or wrong. Lowell’s poetry can profitably … More