First Known When Lost

Seamus Heaney's " Postscript " (which appeared in my previous post) is paired in my mind with an earlier poem of his.  I think...

For the past few days, autumn squalls have been quickly moving through from the west.  Puget Sound has alternated between bright-blue and wh...

We have previously heard Christina Rossetti ask of Life:  " Does the road wind up-hill all the way? "  Ian Hamilton takes a simila...

I intended to move from the subject of love to the subject of memory.  But, as it happens, the three poems that I had in mind turn out to ha...

I would like to stay with the subject of love a moment longer.  I have been thinking about a couple of things written by Edward Thomas.  In ...

I have remarked previously that I don't mind circling back on my tracks. Thus, I beg the pardon of any loyal (and, of course, greatly ap...

One of the nice things about poetry is that one thing leads to another. Elizabeth Jennings's poem " Delay " ends with this lov...

I presume that most of us have had thoughts similar to those expressed by Louis MacNeice in " Star-gazer " (which appeared in my p...

I can easily picture Louis MacNeice -- that urbane and questioning figure -- deep in thought in a smoke-filled train.  Perhaps he is on his ...

It is a commonplace that travelling by train is more conducive to observation and to contemplation than travelling by, say, car or airplane....