by David Ignatow I stopped to pick up the bagelrolling away in the wind,annoyed with myselffor having dropped itas if it were a portent.Faster and faster it rolled,with me running after itbent low, gritting my teeth,and I found myself doubled overand rolling down the streethead over heels, one complete somersaultafter another like a bageland strangelyContinue reading “The Bagel”
Category Archives: Literature
Spring
by Gerard Manley Hopkins Nothing is so beautiful as spring -When weeds, in wheels, shoot long and lovely and lush;Thrush’s eggs look little low heavens, and thrushThrough the echoing timber does rinse and wringThe ear, it strikes like lightnings to hear him sing;The glossy peartree leaves and blooms, they brushThe descending blue, that blue isContinue reading “Spring”
Old Botany Bay
by Dame Mary Gilmore I am he, who paved the way,that you might walkat your ease today;I was the conscriptsent to hellto make in the desertthe living well;I bore the heat,I blazed the track -furrowed and bloodyupon my back.I split the rock;I felled the tree:The nation was -Because of me!Old Botany BayTaking the sunfrom dayContinue reading “Old Botany Bay”
The Blind Boy
by Colley Cibber O say what is that thing called light,Which I can ne’er enjoy?What is the blessing of the sight?O tell your poor blind boy!You talk of wond’rous things you see.You say the sun shines bright!I feel him warm, but how can heThen make it day or night?My day or night myself I makeWhene’erContinue reading “The Blind Boy”
Epitaph on the Tomb of a Child
by Aphra Behn This Little, Silent, Gloomy, Monument,Contains all that was sweet and innocent;The softest pratler that e’er found a Tongue,His Voice was Musick and his Words a Song;Which now each Listn’ng Angel smiling hears,Such pretty Harmonies compose the Spheres;Wanton as unfledg’d Cupids, ere their CharmsHas learn’d the little arts of doing harms;Fair as youngContinue reading “Epitaph on the Tomb of a Child”
It’s a brand new year – can we look after it properly this time round
It’s a funny old world, not necessarily the funny that makes you laugh, although I can still manage a wry smile for the tragedy that is humour. I started this year with a poem, by Dannie Abse, the poet brother of politician Leo Abse. I rather pre-empted the New Year by posting this short poem,Continue reading “It’s a brand new year – can we look after it properly this time round”
Last Words
by DANNIE ABSE Splendidly, Shakespeare’s heroesShakespeare’s heroines, once the spotlight’s on,enact every night, with such grace, their verbose deaths.Then great plush curtains, then smiling resurrectionto applause, and never their good looks gone.The last recorded words tooof real kings, real queens, all the famous death,are but pithy pretences, quotable quotationscomposed by anonymous men decades later,never withContinue reading “Last Words”
Even a drunk rugby club crowd can not outdo Swift in bawdiness
In my wayward youth I did spend time carousing in pubs and in the rugby season my friends and I would head off to one of our favourite pubs and, once we had consumed an appropriate amount of alcoholic liquid, we would entertain ourselves, and many of the other patrons, with a variety of whatContinue reading “Even a drunk rugby club crowd can not outdo Swift in bawdiness”
Before we mothernaked fall
by Dylan Thomas Poem “Eleven” in Notebook “Started 23rd August 1933”; dated September 16, 1933 Before we mothernaked fall Upon the land of gold or oil Between the raid and the response Of flesh and bones Our claim is staked for one and all Near to the quarry or the well Before the promises fulfillContinue reading “Before we mothernaked fall”
Who’s book began like that?
I hope you enjoyed the book quiz. Here are the answers: A “The boy with the fair hair . . .” was the opening of Lord of the Flies, the masterpiece about how quickly we could return to savagery, written by William Golding. Following a plane crash, a group of schoolboys find themselves on aContinue reading “Who’s book began like that?”
Robin's Nest 