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 […]
In this post, we introduce ten of the greatest poems about various hobbies, pastimes, and interests: everything from reading to walking to fishing to sports and games. But obviously ‘activities’ is quite a broad term, so which great poems about hobbies and activities have we missed off this list?
‘A Defence of Poetry’ is an essay written by the Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822). One of the most important prose works of the Romantic era, and a valuable document concerning Shelley’s own poetic approach, the essay is deserving of closer analysis and engagement.