Literature Past
You're walking along and notice a straggling heap of unhewn stones. The story of those stones is known locally, and your personal encounter comes in from outside of that communal knowledge. Blurring those two perspectives together, you have a lyrical ballad. In "Michael"—the concluding poem
Literature Past
> It was no madness, for the bodily eye Amid my strongest workings evermore Was searching out the lines of difference As they lie hid in all external forms, Near or remote, minute or vast, an eye Which from a tree, a stone, a withered leaf, To the broad ocean
Literature Past
Recollections of Early Childhood That William Wordsworth would, starting in the late 18th century, begin writing an epic poem about the growth of his mind from childhood to his current state as a mature poet is interesting enough; that this lengthy, metrical task—in 13 books by 1805, eventually expanding
Literature Past
The post below is about Bloomsday, the literary holiday set on June 16 in commemoration of the setting of James Joyce's novel, Ulysses, which is in turn the date on which Joyce had his first outing with Nora Barnacle. For those in New York City, I am organizing
Literature Past
A poem title might be a brief cryptic image or phrase – some little glimpse of something that gets one thinking of evokes an emotion. It is sometimes imagined that Romantic poetry is all about emotion, yet many of William Wordsworth's titles are very precisely defined. Charlie Kaufman'
Literature Yet to Come
At the start of this month, I sent out "Anti-Text Revolution [https://www.precursorpoets.com/anti-text-revolution/]." April Fools' is a fun opportunity to play with expectations. Of course I support literacy, and ultimately make the case there for the need to support an exceptionally high level of
Electronic Literature
Explaining "generative poetry" without demonstration is harder than explaining the plot of Finnegans Wake, but adapting a generative poem with one's own original text is easier than writing a haiku. The device you are reading on right now is capable of much more than writing static
Literature Past
The sea is everything that is the case. > underrated how "everything is water," despite being the first philosophical idea, has not gotten any less wacky since — Evan (tweed) (@beingandslime) July 9, 2020 [https://twitter.com/beingandslime/status/1281076498707951617?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw] This tweet refers to the
Literature Past
Falling for, or falling with, "Sirens" in Ulysses and Finnegans Wake. The "Sirens" chapter of James Joyce's novel Ulysses opens with an overture. As is standard with Ulysses, each chapter is very distinct in style, in accordance with the form. Here the chapter is
Literature Past
Three glimpses into Romantic poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge's cottage in the late 1790s show us instead a vision of future generations. Coleridge published many poems in 1796, but particularly interesting are the two which critics group as the first of his "conversation poems." "The Eolian
Personal Writing