By Dr Oliver Tearle Thomas Hardy’s novels often overshadow his poetry, although a handful of poems from his vast poetic output remain popular in verse anthologies. One such case is ‘The Darkling Thrush’, a great winter poem which was first published on 29 December 1900. Poised on the cusp of a new […]
A short analysis of a classic autumnal poem by A. E. Housman (1859-1936) Much of A. E. Housman’s poetry requires no analysis or criticism; its meaning is plain enough to the reader. But the following poem, poem VIII from the posthumously published More Poems (1936) – sometimes known by its first […]
Some tips for the close reading of poetry, by Dr Oliver Tearle ‘Close reading’ is not as straightforward as it may appear. Many readers of poetry, for instance, may have encountered ‘close readings’ of poems which are anything but. They’re not so much ‘close’ as ‘at arm’s length’. How do […]
By Dr Oliver Tearle ‘He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven’ is one of W. B. Yeats‘s (1865-1939) most popular poems. It’s also one of his shortest – just eight lines in all.
A short introduction to the poem ‘Adlestrop’ by Edward Thomas – written by Dr Oliver Tearle The latest in our series of short analyses of short poems takes Edward Thomas’s ‘Adlestrop’ as its subject. Before we get to the analysis, then, here is the wonderful sixteen-line poem, which was once […]