Clik here to view.
Don't look for e-literature in novels
There is a great deal of literature emerging from the new technology, but most of it is not in traditional formsRobert McCrum asks writers some searching questions about where the literature of new...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Dominic Hibberd obituary
Leading authority on the life and work of the war poet Wilfred OwenDominic Hibberd, who has died aged 70, was the world's leading authority on the life and work of Wilfred Owen. In 1973 he became the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Notes & Queries: What were William Blake's dark satanic mills?
Plus: Summer – what summer? When did women stop fainting in public?William Blake was a radical Christian, so his dark satanic mills were not the factories of the industrial revolution but the orthodox...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Miriam Darlington's top 10 literary otters
From Tarka to Ted Hughes, the author chooses the best attempts to capture this beguiling but elusive creatureHumans have always used animals to tell their stories, and children often make their first...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Place by Jorie Graham - review
Jorie Graham places herself at the centre of this collection. By Sean O'Brien"Untitled" from Jorie Graham's Place (shortlisted for both the TS Eliot and Forward prizes) is a meditation arising from...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Espresso
By Christopher ReidLittle cup of melancholy,inch-deep well of the blackestconcentrate of brown,it comes to your table without ceremonyand stands there shudderingback to an inner repose.Pinch it: it's...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Nonsense by Christopher Reid – review
A brilliant long poem about the abject travels of 'a blundering widower' is the stand-out in Christopher Reid's latest collectionReading Christopher Reid's Nonsense is like being inside a theatre – a...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Poem of the week: The Phoenix and the Turtle by William Shakespeare
An enigmatic allegory that seems steeped in Elizabethan court politics is full of music worth listening to for its own sakeThis week's poem, William Shakespeare's "The Phoenix and the Turtle", was...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Smokey Robinson reinvents himself as a performance poet
Motown man will present six poems in a new spoken-word show, taking people on 'a walk through his history'Smokey Robinson is to perform his poetry at an event in Los Angeles this weekend.The former...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Notes & Queries: How can you avoid being bitten by a menacing dog?
Plus: Was Neil Armstrong the greatest explorer? Are shiny supermarket apples any good? What are those dark satanic mills really about?How best to avoid being bitten by a menacing dog?Dogs always think...
View ArticleClik here to view.
It's not all nonsense: exhibition shows the artistic side of Lear
Surprising versatility is revealed as Ashmolean celebrates his bicentenaryThere once was a man known for his nonsense – but Edward Lear should also be known as one of the most wonderful of all British...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Prophet – review
Kahlil Gibran's prose-poem may have Hallmark sentiments, but this is a cinematic rhapsodyGary Tarn is a British director creating collages of images and ideas, in the tradition of Chris Marker –...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Write us your best political limerick | Open thread
With party conference season kicking off, and US elections looming, it's time to get rhyming and try out some comic verseAs we celebrate the bicentenary of Edward Lear, it is worth remembering the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
John Keats was an opium addict, claims a new biography of the poet
The author of Ode to a Nightingale wrote his greatest poems with the aid of opium, believes Prof Nicholas RoeJohn Keats, the poet of "beauty", a devotee of aesthetic isolation who swooned at the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Easel
By Sharon OldsWhen I build a fire, I feel purposeful –proud I can unscrew the wing nutsfrom off the rusted bolts, dis-assembling one of the things my exleft when he left right left. And laying...
View ArticleClik here to view.
John Fowles: Selected Poems – review
Maria Johnston assesses John Fowles's 'long dream' of poetry"His own verse was feeble in comparison; he would rather have died than show it to anyone else." This, from John Fowles's 1969 novel The...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Poem of the week: Silt Whisper by Ailbhe Darcy
This week's poem has an economy of narrative that creates a playful, flirtatious feeling, yet is oblique and tenderThis week's poem, Silt Whisper is by Ailbhe Darcy, and comes from her lively first...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Harry Chambers obituary
Founder and director of the publisher Peterloo PoetsHarry Chambers, who has died aged 75, was the founder and director of the publisher Peterloo Poets, and described by his friend Seamus Heaney as...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Alice Oswald, poet – portrait of the artist
'As a child, I wrote in a little notebook I hid in a bush. It was 20 years before I went public'What got you started? At eight, I made a commitment to poetry. Until then, I thought I'd be a policeman....
View ArticleClik here to view.
The perfect poetry lesson: how my teacher brought poems to life
Ahead of National Poetry Day, Ian McMillan remembers the teacher and lessons that inspired him to become a poetI remember the best poetry lesson I ever had as though it was yesterday; it was at Low...
View Article