March 2, 2024
T.S. Eliot: The Illusion of Reaction (II)
6. Determinism We have seen that the entire tendency of Eliot’s thought is toward a deterministic view of literature. Yet Eliot is very severe in his comments upon deterministic views […]
March 2, 2024
The Isolation of Modern Poetry
The characteristic of modern poetry which is most discussed is of course its difficulty, its famous obscurity. Certain discussions, usually by contemporary poets, have done much to illuminate the new […]
March 2, 2024
Vergil
Since Vergil wrote of empire, the parallel has been drawn between public issues in his time and in ours. But it was perhaps his most endearing characteristic that in discussing […]
March 2, 2024
The Arts
To speak on the future of anything whatsoever is to take on, not only the prerogatives of a prophet, but the risks. And the risk of a prophet is always […]
March 2, 2024
The Way of Life
Suppose that, after various historical discontinuities, archaeologists five hundred years hence were to excavate the ruins of settlements of comparable size in Europe, in America, in Australia, and in other […]
March 2, 2024
The Polity
To divine the future of a people it is necessary to probe its past, for only in the acts that it has done is its spirit to be discerned. In […]
March 2, 2024
Mexican Letter
Mexico City, October 28, 1940. The worldwide attention that the Mexican artistic movement has received should make anyone give Mexico City the importance its million-odd inhabitants could allow it to […]
March 1, 2024
A Tribute to Poet Robert Mezey
Early in the evening of Saturday, April 25, 2020, I finished editing a long interview with renowned American poet and Pomona College professor Robert Mezey. It comprised eight hours of […]
March 1, 2024
The Rights of the Innkeeper
In a hotel on the shores of Lake Erie, in a hotel too far from shore to see the lake, “The Rights of the Innkeeper” were posted on the inside […]
February 29, 2024
Oculus Dexter
The Kenyon Review · “Oculus Dexter” by Alex Tretbar A spider or a remnant of its web, I thought at first. The night before, I had fallen asleep next to […]
February 10, 2024
Lawrence’s Problems
D.H. Lawrence took his ideas quite seriously. He did not think of himself as an “artist” in the usual sense of this word. He had no use for men who […]
February 10, 2024
Triumphant Repetition in Music
It is a commonplace that music allows far more repetition than any other art, with the possible exception of architecture. In the general inadequacy of musical aesthetics, however, practically no […]