Nigeness

 Born on this day in 1867 was Ernest Dowson, a minor poet, Decadent and doomed – but he left the English language three fine, musical phrase...

 Every time I post about having seen my last swift of the year , I do so with an unspoken hope of tempting benign fate into granting me a fu...

 Blog posts might be a little sparser over the next few weeks, as my daughter and family are visiting from Canada (via Rome). 

In the chapter devoted to Marianne Moore in Their Ancient Glittering Eyes , Donald Hall examines the structure of Moore's verse, which b...

 My review of Lea Korsgaard's The Butterfly Season is on Engelsberg Ideas, embellished with a rather lovely butterfly print by Rasmus Ch...

It looks very much as if the swifts have flown, from Lichfield at least – a notably early departure. It's been a strange, but ultimately...

 On this evening 14 years ago, I was watching, aghast, the television coverage of the London Olympics opening ceremony. My memories of it ar...