In 2016, we published our first book based on this blog, The Secret Library: A Book-Lovers’ Journey Through Curiosities of History. The following year, we began publishing a weekly column, Dispatches from The Secret Library, which, aptly enough, is a blog series based on that book. Every Friday, we discuss a neglected […]
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The Curious Symbolism of Roses in Literature and Myth
In this week’s Dispatches from The Secret Library, Dr Oliver Tearle explores the symbolism of that perennially popular flower, the rose Roses are sometimes known as the queen of flowers, and they are perhaps the richest in symbolism, whether in Christianity, classical myth, or modern (especially romantic) literature. But the […]
The Meaning and Origin of ‘Poetry Makes Nothing Happen’
In this week’s Dispatches from The Secret Library, Dr Oliver Tearle ponders the meaning of Auden’s famous statement ‘Poetry makes nothing happen.’ This statement, made by W. H. Auden in his 1939 poem ‘In Memory of W. B. Yeats’, has provoked plenty of commentary since Auden’s poem was published. But […]
