Portal:Poetry

Four Quartets is a set of four poems written by T. S. Eliot that were published individually over a six-year period. The first poem, Burnt Norton, was written and published with a collection of his early works following the production of Eliot's play Murder in the Cathedral. After a few years, Eliot composed the other three poems, East Coker, The Dry Salvages, and Little Gidding, which were written during World War II and the air-raids on Great Britain. The poems were not collected until Eliot's New York publisher printed them together in 1943. They were first published as a series in Great Britain in 1944 towards the end of Eliot's poetic career.

Four Quartets are four interlinked meditations with the common theme being man's relationship with time, the universe, and the divine. In describing his understanding of the divine within the poems, Eliot blends his Anglo-Catholicism with mystical, philosophical and poetic works from both Eastern and Western religious and cultural traditions, with references to the Bhagavad-Gita and the Pre-Socratics as well as St. John of the Cross and Julian of Norwich.

Although many critics find the Four Quartets to be Eliot's great last work, some of Eliot's contemporary critics, including George Orwell, were dissatisfied with Eliot's overt religiosity. Later critics disagreed with Orwell's claims about the poems and argued instead that the religious themes made the poem stronger. Overall, reviews of the poem within Great Britain were favourable while reviews in the United States were split between those who liked Eliot's later style and others who felt he had abandoned positive aspects of his earlier poetry. (Full article...)

Dylan Marlais Thomas (27 October 1914 – 9 November 1953) was a Welsh poet and writer whose works include the poems "Do not go gentle into that good night" and "And death shall have no dominion", the "play for voices", Under Milk Wood, and stories and radio broadcasts such as A Child's Christmas in Wales and Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog. He became popular in his lifetime and remained so after his premature death in New York. In his later life he acquired a reputation, which he encouraged, as a "roistering, drunken and doomed poet".

Although Thomas was appreciated as a popular poet in his lifetime, he found earning a living as a writer difficult, which resulted in his augmenting his income with reading tours and broadcasts. His radio recordings for the BBC during the latter half of the 1940s brought him to the public's attention and he was used by the Corporation as a populist voice of the literary scene. In the 1950s, Thomas travelled to America, where his readings brought him a level of fame, though his erratic behaviour and drinking worsened. His time in America cemented Thomas' legend, where he recorded to vinyl works such as A Child's Christmas in Wales. (Full article...)

• ... that when her local cafe was in lockdown, Kate Baer wrote her bestselling poems in her van in the cafe parking lot?
• ... that the tallest captive elephant in Asia has been commemorated in verse, sculpture and film?
• ... that Manuel Carpio's 1849 poem is the earliest literary depiction of the weeping ghost La Llorona?
• ... that Micah Joseph Lebensohn began to translate poetry into Hebrew at the age of twelve?
• ... that in The Arraignment of Paris, poet Denis Glover stated Charles Allan Marris was the "arbiter of all our art and letters / presenting rotten apples to his betters"?
• ... that the "Poetic Essay of the Great Bliss of the Sexual Union of Heaven and Earth and Yin and Yang" argues that heterosexual sex is the "ultimate human pleasure", but affirms homosexuality as well?

Beyond Seas by Sohrab Sepehri

I shall build a boat I shall cast it in the water I shall sail away from this strange earth Where no one awaken the heroes in the wood of love A boat empty of net And longing heart for pearls I shall continue sailing Neither I shall loose my heart for the blues Nor for the mermaids who emergeed from the water To spread their charm from their locks On the shining solitude of fishermen I shall continue sailing I shall continue singing “One should sail away, sail away.” The man in that town had no myth The woman in that town was not as brimful as a cluster of grapes No hall mirror repeated joys Not even puddles reflected a torch One should sail away, sail away Night has sung its song Now it is the turn of windows I shall continue sailing I shall continue singing Beyond the seas there is a town In which windows open to manifestation There rooftops quarter pigeons that looks at the jets of human intelligence In the hand of each 10-year-old child a branch of knowledge lies The townsfolk took at hedges As if they look at a flame, a tender dream Earth hears the music of your feeling And the fluttering sound of mythological birds are heard in the wind Beyond the seas there is a town Where the sun is as wide as the eyes of early-risers Poets inherit water, wisdom and light Beyond the seas there is a town! One must build a boat

Full set of selected poems

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