David Rhodes reviews Orlando Reade’s What in Me is Dark, which traces how revolutionaries from Jefferson to Malcolm X and Castro read Milton’s Paradise Lost, from Blake to the Mardi Gras krewes.
Poetry editor’s column responding to readers on Dylan Thomas’s ‘Do not go gentle’, Bach, Hesse, Palestinian poet Haia Mohammed and Una Marson, considering anger, death and the values of peace.
A columnist responds to readers’ poetry suggestions, from Dylan Thomas and Hesse to Palestinian poet Haia Mohammed and Una Marson. He considers anger, facing death, and turning anger into words and deeds that serve peace.
Poetry editor’s column presenting poems sent in by members, including Tom Hall’s poem on the differing images of God in the Bible, and poems by Blake, Brooke, Dylan Thomas and others.
James Priestman considers poems that use tides as images of the irresistible, from Tennyson, Browning and Arnold to Dickinson and Dylan, and argues that apparently irresistible forces can still be resisted.
Review of A Century of Poetry, Rowan Williams’s anthology of 100 poems, each with a short critical essay. The reviewer praises its breadth across faiths and its view of poetry as a way of knowing the holy.
Biographical sketch of Arthur Shearly Cripps, Anglican missionary and poet in Rhodesia who criticised settler attitudes, lived simply and built a church for African converts, with family recollections.
Review of Dónall Dempsey’s collection The Fox, the Whale and the Wardrobe, poems of Irish childhood, grief and joy. The reviewer notes the poet’s lack of religious belief and his whimsical, conversational voice.
Review of Annemarie Ní Churreáin’s The Poison Glen, poems on Irish mother and baby homes and the myth of Balor’s daughter Eithne. The reviewer praises its inside view of secrecy, shame and love.
Review of Martina Thomson’s posthumous Selected Poems, My Life, You See. The reviewer describes poems of memory, childhood in Berlin, craft and everyday ritual, and credits the editors and publisher.