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Although I read poetry every morning, this passage of prose from Saint Paul’s epistle to the Corinthians seems more poetic to me than all the poetry I have recently read. The line between poetry and prose has never been clear and is perhaps becoming less clear as many poets abandon formal structures. I think of…
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This is a crucial poem in the history of 20th century English poetry. It’s the poem that led Thomas Hardy (1840-1928) to replace W B Yeats (1865-1939) as Philp Larkin’s (1922-1985) prime poetic influence and serve as midwife to Larkin’s wonderful poems. All three poets are at the top of the rankings of 20th century…
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I find John Keats (1795-1821) an intoxicating poet. Reading his poems is to drink a “beaker full of the warm South, Full of the true, the blushful Hippocrene, With beaded bubbles winking at the brim, And purple-stained mouth.” I studied The Eve of St Agnes at school, find it the sexiest of…
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James Reeves (1909-1978) might be described as a jobbing writer, writing plays, poems, essays, and whatever was called for, and working as an editor and anthologist. His name rings for me a distant bell but no more. The poem below was sent to me by a friend, herself a poet. She read it first when…
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John Lennon was shot dead aged 40 on 8 December 1980 outside the Dakota building in New York City. Although I was 28 at that time, I always feel that it’s the day that I grew old. His death was a huge shock, much more so for me than the death of John Kennedy. People…
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A good way to find new poems is to follow up a quotation. I came across “One night they kissed my soul out in a burning mist” in Aldous Huxley’s After Many a Summer (the title itself a quote from Tennyson), and thanks to the magic of Google I quickly found that the quote came…
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I sang Dear Lord and Father of Mankind many times at school 60 years ago, but I’m not sure that I’ve sung it since then. I loved both the words and the tune without thinking much about what the words meant. I’m not sure why the phrase “Till all our strivings cease” popped into my…
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Paul Durcan, who died in May this year, has been a favourite poet of mine ever since I heard him read his poems after a dinner at the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland (a ridiculous institution in a country that had spent almost a millennium trying to rid itself of the British crown). https://acairnofpoems.com/2025/03/01/teresas-bar-by-paul-durcan/…
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I find Shakespeare’s sonnets wonderful but tricky. I read them again and again, often out loud, but almost always the full meaning eludes me. Yet there is enough meaning and enough sparkling lines to enchant me William Shakespeare (1564 –1616) wrote 154 sonnets plus a few more in his plays. All sonnets have 14 lines…
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Charles Dickens (1812-1870) is in his novels more a poet and a dramatist than a novelist, a writer friend tells me. As I read Dombey and Son, I reflect on what my friend says and come to see what he means.https://richardswsmith.wordpress.com/2025/12/13/a-life-enhancing-novel-in-which-pride-comes-before-resounding-crashes/ There are many passages in the book where Dickens writes passage that can be…
A Cairn of Poems 