Literary Criticism – Page 65 – Interesting Literature

November 27 in Literary History: Roman Poet Horace Dies

The most significant events in the history of books on the 27th of November

8 BC: Horace dies. The Roman poet whose full name was Quintus Horatius Flaccus once observed, ‘It is not enough that poetry is agreeable, it should also be interesting.’ He wrote the Satires, the Odes, and numerous other poems, including the Ars Poetica (‘The Art of Poetry’), a poem that doubles up as a sort of ‘how-to’ guide for aspiring poets. Several well-known phrases, such as carpe diem (‘seize the day’) and dulce et decorum est pro patria mori (‘it is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country’), derive from Horace’s work.

A Short Analysis of ‘Thaw’ by Edward Thomas

A short introduction to the poem ‘Thaw’ by Edward Thomas (1878-1917), written by Dr Oliver Tearle

‘Thaw’ is one of the shortest poems Edward Thomas wrote, and he was a master of the short poem. In a brief flurry of poetic creativity between late 1914 and his death in 1917, Thomas produced some of the finest poems of the early twentieth century. Here is ‘Thaw’, along with a brief analysis of its language and imagery.

Over the land freckled with snow half-thawed
The speculating rooks at their nests cawed
And saw from elm-tops, delicate as flowers of grass,
What we below could not see, Winter pass.

A Short Analysis of Marvell’s ‘The Mower to the Glow-Worms’

A brief summary and analysis of the Andrew Marvell poem ‘The Mower to the Glow-Worms’

Andrew Marvell’s poem ‘The Mower to the Glow-Worms’ is one of the little jewels in the crown of seventeenth-century poetry. Marvell (1621-78) was one of the Metaphysical Poets and ‘The Mower to the Glow-Worms’ is one of his finest poems. Here is the poem, followed by a short summary, along with an analysis of its language and imagery.

Ye living Lamps, by whose dear light
The Nightingale does sit so late,
And studying all the Summer-night,
Her matchless Songs does meditate;

Close Reading: How to Read a Poem

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 you close-read a poem? F. R. Leavis was one of the most influential literary critics writing in English in the twentieth century. Yet he often claimed he was performing a ‘close reading’ of a poem which was actually, at best, a sort of flirtatious dalliance with the words and meaning of the text.

A Short Analysis of Laurence Binyon’s ‘For the Fallen’

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

Laurence Binyon’s ‘For the Fallen’ (1914) is one of the most widely quoted poems of the First World War. Unlike Wilfred Owen’s ‘Futility’, it wasn’t written from the trenches but by a poet back home, reflecting on the sacrifice thousands of men on the Western Front were making every week. But how well do we really know ‘For the Fallen’?