Tagged: poetry

Interview: Stuart Kendall On His New Gilgamesh Translation

  Relating to CC101’s study of the Epic of Gilgamesh is an interview by Biblioklept with Stuart Kendall, a former Core professor whose latest translation is a telling of Gilgamesh that casts the ancient epic poem in modernist poetry. Here is a sample from the interview: Biblioklept: Why Gilgamesh? Stuart Kendall: Gilgamesh is the oldest extended tale that […]

Annual Poetry Reading: Poetry’s Distant Voice

The Core presents a “set of two poems, which are the same poem” as phrased by Zachary Bos, one of the respected speakers at the Annual Poetry Reading this year on April 16th. The theme of the reading was “Poetry’s Distant Voice”, and here is Zachary Bos’ contribution: From The Book of Hours I, 36 MacDiarmid, […]

Boston: Forever Changed

Former US Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky, who teaches here at BU, shares his reaction to the Boston Marathon bombings: Out of town, watching the horror on a screen, in a familiar place on a familiar occasion, I thought first of my daughter, who works at Mass. General, and my daughter-in-law, who was in Copley Square […]

‘In The Waiting Room’ by Laura Sims

In her post for Poetry Foundation, Laura Sims discusses the strange inspiration that waiting rooms can bring, and how they can be “conducive to poetry”. Here is an extract: The speaker of Elizabeth Bishop’s ‘In the Waiting Room’ has a famously crucial moment in a doctor’s office, too. She looks around at all the adults, all the human beings […]

The Economist on Enjambment

The Core presents an article from The Economist, which discusses enjambment’s popularity and origins. Here is an extract: In “The Force of Poetry”, Christopher Ricks, formerly the Oxford Professor of Poetry who is now at Boston University, writes elegantly of the way enjambment can make language seem elastic: Lineation in verse creates units which may […]

e.e. cummings – [l(a]

E.E. Cummings’ style remains unconventional half a century after his death. Below, is a beautiful example of this- his poem titled ‘[l(a]’. l(a le af fa ll s) one l iness To read an interesting discussion of this work, visit bit.ly/11RNSo2

Rachel Richardson: Escape Artists

In her article about studying poetry with prisoners, Rachel Richardson shares the intricacies of the endeavor. Here is an extract: My partner and I went into the prison to write and hear poems, to share poetry with a group of men who might want to have this art in their lives. That was our theory. Any […]

Auden on Memorizing Poetry

Relating to the Core’s study of W.H. Auden is an article about his insistence on memorizing poetry. Here is an extract: Auden would insist that the boys in his class learn poem after poem by heart. Even parrot-fashion. Auden said it didn’t matter whether they understood them. If they learnt the poems now, they would […]

Beastly Boys & Ghastly Girls – Illustrated Poetry

The Core presents a collaboration between editor William Cole and children’s book illustrator Tomi Ungerer, in which various poems by A.A. Milne, Ted Hughes & Shelley Silverstein are illustrated in lovely and amusing ways. For the full set of poems accompanied by their illustrations, visit http://bit.ly/100zIM3

“Penelope Waiting” by Sassan Tabatabai

Core Professor Tabatabai, in his poem Penelope Waiting, writes: They say: ‘After twenty years, why does she still wait for him? He must have succumbed to Poseidon’s wrath. his bleached bones, on an unknown beach, have become the pelican’s fare.’ To read this poem in its entirety, please visit the Core Office in search of […]