Pandemic – Interesting Literature

‘But now there is no ever going home’: A Poem about the Year 2020

In this week’s Dispatches from The Secret Library, Dr Oliver Tearle introduces his own venture into the world of poetry

At the beginning of 2020 I had little faith in this Government, but it turns out I was stupidly optimistic. Johnson (‘agent of chaos’, as I like to call him, after the Norman Spinrad novel of 1967 which features a protagonist called Boris Johnson) and his Cabinet have attracted widespread opprobrium in the wake of the double-whammy of a looming no-deal Brexit and the chaotic response to the coronavirus pandemic.

14 Classic Must-Read Poems about Plague and Pestilence

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

Our thoughts here at IL Towers during the recent lockdown period have, perhaps naturally, turned to plague, pestilence, and pandemics. How did poets of previous generations deal with, and respond to, plague and mass illness? How are poets of today writing about the current pandemic?

Here are some of the best poems to deal with this terrifying topic. We’d like to thank Caroline Collingridge for suggesting a number of these poems to us here at IL Towers; a poem by Caroline, reflecting the mood during the current pandemic, concludes this selection.