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Auden on Lenin: Propaganda poems make nothing happen (twice)
Happy birthday, Wystan, born today 112 years ago (February 21, 1907). Here’s an article that appeared in the Guardian in 2009. Note that the newspaper uses a photograph of Auden the elder statesman, face cracked; Auden…
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A Single Small Voice and a Silence Answering After: Six Brief Reviews by Dante Di Stefano
Not Elegy, But ErosNausheen EusufNYQ Books, 2017 Nausheen Eusuf’s protean debut collection, Not Elegy, But Eros, shuttles between elegy and ode, nimbly shifting between formal styles as it memorializes and praises subjects and people…
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“Sexism” in Two Languages [by David Lehman, trans. Saulius Vasiliauskas]
Sexism [by David Lehman] The happiest moment in a woman’s lifeIs when she hears the turn of her lover’s keyIn the lock, and pretends to be asleepWhen he enters the room, trying to beQuiet…
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Knott as a Stranger: On Bill Knott’s Birthday (“Why can’t I just write my crummy poems?”) [by David Lehman]
The late Bill Knott, born February 17, 1940, was a terrific poet who distinguished himself from nearly all other American poets by wanting to keep his poems from…
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Myth(ologies) in the Making in Chicago [by Stacey Harwood]
From the Archives (November 8, 2012): About a year ago, the Chicago-based theater artist Erica Barnes approached David Lehman for permission to adapt his poem "Mythologies" for the stage as a dance performance piece…
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“The Known Universe” is the New Terence Winch [by David Lehman]
The old Verdi is the new Joe Green,you know what I mean? The knownuniverse is a known unknown. So it’s decided. The computers turned us on.The new Nixon and the old Nixon are one.…
