Monthly Archives: July 2014

Herodotus’ Histories

Posted on July 31, 2014 by Houyhnhnm

My previous experience of Herodotus had been, as for many classicists, that of reading isolated episodes, either as set texts for teaching Greek GCSE, or as passages for unseen translation. I’d also read some of his stories in secondary literature, … Continue reading →

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Poetry Review 104:2 Summer 2014

Posted on July 28, 2014 by Houyhnhnm

Philip Gross is always very interesting (e.g. Deep Field), so I was pleased that the first three poems in this edition were his. The first, “The Players” is a brilliantly subtle evocation of the causes and ramifications of the First … Continue reading →

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John Stammers: Stolen Love Behaviour

Posted on July 24, 2014 by Houyhnhnm

A volume from 2005 which I think I received when I was in the Poetry Book Society. Hadn’t touched it. Definitely a voice new to me, and largely very successful. The usual few poems that I don’t understand [and about … Continue reading →

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Dickens: “Dombey and Son”

Posted on July 22, 2014 by Houyhnhnm

So long ago now I can’t remember it all, and it took me so long to read. How did they get away with it then? Ah yes – serialisation over months, and that’s how long it took me to read. Totally immersing, … Continue reading →

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Nietzsche’s Ecce Homo

Posted on July 21, 2014 by Houyhnhnm

[what follows is, even more than usual for this blog, an amateur reaction from dipping ignorant toes into vast oceans] Visionary, poetic, extreme: Nietzsche and Blake provide book-ends to Romanticism. Both seek to up-end conventional morality, Blake because it represents … Continue reading →

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The Poetry of Birds, ed. Simon Armitage and Tim Dee

Posted on July 17, 2014 by Houyhnhnm

If you like poetry and birds, this book removes the hendiadys. Two engaging essays by the editors, and a wealth of poems from all sorts of poets on all sorts of birds. The highlight for me was discovering the poetry … Continue reading →

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