Poets compose new Lyrical Ballads to highlight social relevance of Romantics
Andrew Motion and Alice Oswald among contributors to new version of Wordsworth and Coleridge’s pioneering collectionThe poems are full of waterfalls, frosty moors, sunlit summer days, crumbling...
View ArticlePoem of the Week: World Trade Center/Mail Runner/’73 by Peter Balakian
The American poet was once a messenger for a Manhattan shipping company, delivering mail to offices in the newly erected twin towers. The 9/11 attacks brought memories coursing to the surfaceWorld...
View ArticleWe must save IdeasTap – the arts charity making creative dreams come true |...
I had no contacts or money but IdeasTap helped launch my career as a writer. Other young people who wouldn’t normally stand a chance should be able to benefit tooWhen I first came across the boldly...
View ArticleThomas Asbridge’s top 10 knights in literature
The historian, presenter and author picks his favourite medieval adventurersWhether it be a gallant, armour-clad noble racing to the rescue of an imperilled damsel, or a blood-soaked warrior engaged in...
View ArticleWas 1925 really the best year for literature?
The BBC Culture website has chosen 1925 as “the greatest year for books ever”. Hemingway’s debut, Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway and The Great Gatsby certainly made for a glorious twelve months. But do...
View ArticleToni Morrison, Claudia Rankine and Roz Chast honoured at NBCC awards
Citizen: An American lyric takes the poetry prize while comic book Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant? wins the autobiography awardThe first book to be nominated in two categories at the...
View ArticleIf I were king for a day: an ode to hot potatoes and footballing wise men |...
For my subjects a new poem as I accede to the throne, horses to hand and hosepipe at the ready for reasons of health and safetyRelated: John Hegley - King for a Day – audioOnce I’ve put my royal sealOn...
View ArticleThe Saturday poem: The Swap
by Maurice Riordanfor HugoSomeone snuck over the back fencelast night and pinched my ladder.Then I found a bronze BMXleaning outside the front door.Continue reading...
View ArticleOn my radar: Wilko Johnson’s cultural highlights
The ex-Dr Feelgood guitarist and songwriter on medieval architecture, the poetry of William Blake, Addenbrooke’s Hospital and the power of the bluesWilko Johnson was born John Peter Wilkinson on Canvey...
View ArticleClive James: ‘I’ve got a lot done since my death’
Two years after reports suggesting his imminent death, Clive James still has plenty of life left in him. Ahead of a new collection of poetry next month, the polymath and former Observer TV critic...
View ArticleClive James reads his poem Early to Bed – exclusive video
Exclusively for the Observer, Clive James reads a poem from his new collection, Sentenced to Life• Robert McCrum talks to Clive James at homeContinue reading...
View ArticlePoem of the week: The Beautiful Librarians by Sean O’Brien
A nostalgic homage to the glory of libraries and librarians harnesses Larkin and Keats to point up our lost visions of social bettermentThe beautiful librarians are dead,The fairly recent graduates who...
View ArticleTips, links and suggestions: what are you reading this week?
Your space to discuss the books you are reading and what you think of themRead more Tips, links and suggestions blogsWelcome to this week’s blog. Here’s a roundup of your comments and photos from last...
View ArticlePoems of the Decade anthology swaps Keats for modern masters
From ‘marble men and maidens’ to ‘Burberry clad louts’ … a new Forward prize collection that will be studied by A-level students includes Tim Turnbull’s Ode on a Grayson Perry Urn and work by other...
View ArticleThe Midlands by Tony Williams review – ‘a terrain of the imagination’
A thoughtful study of a pastoral landscape where enclosure is everywhere apparentAsk readers of poetry to name two major living practitioners associated with the Midlands and they would probably...
View ArticleDante: a Very Short Introduction by Peter Hainsworth and David Robey – review
This pithy guide for the nonacademic reader expertly illuminates the Italian poet’s workRegular readers of this column may recall that I get pretty excited about Dante. This usually involves...
View ArticleUS poet defends reading of Michael Brown autopsy report as a poem
Conceptual poet Kenneth Goldsmith’s attempt to reframe the report as poetry has caused an outcry on social mediaThe American poet Kenneth Goldsmith has defended himself in the wake of heavy criticism...
View ArticleAnd now … a glorious late show from Clive James | Peter Bradshaw
Sentenced to Life, James’s new collection of poems, is a vindication of his greatness as a writer and has cemented his reputation as a ‘late developer’Clive James has ready for publication a new...
View ArticleReaders recommend: songs about islands | Peter Kimpton
Caribbean to Coney Island, Crusoe to Craggy, tropical to topical, name your best isle-related songs that offer an escape to fantasy or a prism of reality“Faith is an island in the setting sun,/ but...
View ArticlePay with a poem: cafes around the world to exchange coffee for poetry
To mark World Poetry Day, more than a thousand coffee establishments around the world will use poetry as their currency this SaturdayFind out about the participating cafes in your area here What is a...
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