In Memory Of Gerald J. Russello, 1971-2021
by Eugene Schlanger We begin again to recall the dead. Poets and lyricists often attempt To reimagine their companions and friends. And then, along comes a younger death That upsets the usual complacency. At our luncheons all things seemed possible, As...
Men Rode to Catraeth
The Gododdin: Lament for the Fallen Translated by Gillian Clarke. Faber & Faber, 2021. Hardcover, 144 pages, $19.95. Reviewed by David J. Davis. At the end of the sixth century, a Celtic British tribe known as the Gododdin met an army of invading Angles at the...
Resurrecting John Keats
Keats: A Brief Life in Nine Poems and One Epitaph By Lucasta Miller. Knopf, 2022. Hardcover, 368 pages, $32.50. Reviewed by Paul Krause. John Keats wrote to his brother on October 14, 1818, “I think I shall be among the English Poets after my death.” Those prophetic...
The Traditions That Gave Us Homer
Hearing Homer’s Song: The Brief Life and Big Idea of Milman Parry By Robert Kanigel. Knopf, 2021. Hardcover, 336 pages, $28.95. Reviewed by J. L. Wall. It can be difficult to escape the image of Homer as blind bard and near-inventor of human literature. Just glance at...
There are metaphorical hills on which I would be willing to die. The Oxford comma is one of them.
So easy to forget that the best way to educate yourself is to read great works of literature and philosophy, then talk about them. Bring back the salon!