A Poetic Masterwork: "The Shield of Achilles" by W.H. Auden

In 1948, poet W.H. Auden (1907-1973) received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for The Age of Anxiety, a long poem in six parts that addressed the search for identity and meaning in an industrialized world that was constantly changing. His poetry was already recognized as among the very best being published; the native-born Englishman and naturalized American occupied the top, or almost top, of the poetic literary world. 

The poem reflects an event in Auden’s life that would become more pronounced as he grew older. He had embraced religious faith, and his poetry was increasingly reflecting that acceptance. But his poetry was also developing into a more cohesive entity, with poems informing and relating to each other in a directed and consistent way. 

That cohesiveness (critics usually call it coherence) blossomed into full maturity with Auden’s 1955 collection The Shield of Achilles. It’s a remarkable work, not only for how the individual poems relate to each other but for Auden’s mastery of language that is often stunning.

To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.

Some Tuesday Readings

 

The Necessity of Continual Pitching – Terry Whalin at The Writing Life.

 

Grandmother – poem by Eva Salzman at Every Day Poems.

 

6.16.2024 – poem by Paul Wittenberger at Paul’s Substack.

 

How to Sell Your Next Book – Harvey Stanbrough at The New Daily Journal. 

James Boswell’s East End – Spitalfields Life.

Some Monday Readings

“Recuerdo” by Edna St. Vincent Millay – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern. 

The Tragedy and Triumph of The Killing Fields – Bradley Birzer at Law & Liberty.

 

Turbulence After the Trump Verdict – Charles Lipson at The Spectator.

 

What Lowry saw in the sea – William Cook at The Critic Magazine on the philosophical side of the British painter.

 

How Hadrian’s Wall is revealing a hidden side of Roman history – Julia Buckey, CNN.

 

A Confederate Buried at Mount Vernon? – Evan Portman at Emerging Civil War.

 

AI, Poetry, and Prayer – Dwight Longenecker at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

Comps and Circumstance – Lincoln Michel at Counter Craft.

 

Daniel Defoe: The first futurist – Jeremy Black at The Critic Magazine.

 

London Maps in Books – A London Inheritance.

 

Photograph: Hadrian’s Wall near Waltown Crags,by Ray Harrington via Unsplash. Used with permission.

 

Run with endurance

After Hebrews 12:1-17 

We are to run

with endurance,

this race set

before us, keeping

our eyes on the prize,

the founder and

perfecter of our faith,

our belief, our hope,

the one who kept

his eyes on the prize

and endured,

endured the cross,

enduring the pouring

of the sins of all

upon himself, endured

the hostility and hatred,

so that we, too, could

run the race, and

run with endurance.

 

Photograph by Isaac Wendland via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Sunday Readings

 

A Son’s Journey to His Father – Art Kusserow at Front Porch Republic.

 

Making Good Return – Tim Challies reviews the book on caring for aging parents by Kathleen Nelson.

 

Seven Things Good Days Say – Chap Bettis at The Disciple-Making Parent.

 

The Getting of Wisdom – Andy Farmer at Biblical Coalition.

 

The Least of My Brethren: Sally Thomas’ Works of Mercy – Abigail Wilkinson Miller at The European Conservative.

My Dad Gave Me Books - and More Besides - Joel Miller at Miller's Book Review.

Saturday Good Reads - June 15, 2024

If you visit New Orleans, a must-see is the D-Day Museum, expanded into the World War II Museum. You can watch movies about the war in Europe and the Pacific (part of the admission fee) produced by Steven Spielberg. And the exhibits are incredible. The reason the museum ended up in New Orleans has to do with a man named Andrew Jackson Higgins, whose New Orleans firm designed and manufactured the D-Day landing boats. Higgins has been called “the man who won the war for us.” 

Charles Dickens was a major writer (some say the major writer) of the 19^th century, but he wasn’t a poet. And yet. Joseph Bottum at Poems Ancient and Modern considers a poem he wrote and placed in The Pickwick Papers. It’s about a dying frog, of all things. 

 

This is what passes for journalism today. Concerning the rescue of the four Israeli hostages, CNN reported they’d been “freed” and Reuter’s sad they’d been “released.” And the BBC asked an Israeli interviewee if the residents of the apartment building where three of the hostages were imprisoned should have been warned first. (Not to mention that three of four rescued were being held in the apartment of a journalist for Al-Jazeera.) Seth Mandel at Commentaryexplains the truth about the war in Gaza.

 

Quote of the Week: “The New York Times, which will delete its own website before admitting they got anything wrong about Biden, Russia, or Covid, is still saying the Hunter Biden laptop could all be fake: ‘Many claims about the laptop’s contents have not been proved, but it played a role in the prosecution of Mr. Biden over a firearm purchase.’ Hmmm. Claims. Not been proved.” – Nellie Bowles, The Free Press.

 

More Good Reads

 

Israel

 

Why We Shouldn’t Trust ‘The Facts’ Coming Out of Gaza – Eli Lake at The Free Press.

 

Israel Killed 31 of My Family Members in Gaza. The Pro-Palestine Movement Isn’t Helping – Ahmed Fouad Alkatahib at The Free Press.

 

I Went to Cover a Protest. I Was Surrounded by a Mob – Olivia Reingold at The Free Press.

 

Iron Dome: Israel’s Double-Edged Sword, Part 1 – Michael Oren at Clarity with Michael Oren. 

 

Activism Uncensored: Thousands surround White House with two-mile long “red line” banner for Palestine – Ford Fischer and Matt Taibbi at Racket News.

 

American Stuff

 

The Foundation of American Folly – N.S. Lyons at The Upheaval.

 

Lincoln’s Grief – David Bannon at Front Porch Republic.

 

Faith

 

Dickens, Diabetes, and Positive-Sum Games – Dr. Anne Bradley at Acton Institute.

 

Does Bach’s Music Prove the Existence of God? – Trevin Wax at The Gospel Coalition.

 

1994 and All That, 30 Years On – Matthew Hosier at Think Theology.

 

Culture

 

A Doctor Told the Truth. The Feds Showed Up at His Door – Emily Yoffe at The Free Press.

 

FBI Asked Co-Workers of Bureau Employee About Trump Support, Vaccine Beliefs – Matt Taibbi at Racket News.

 

We are not Users: The Hidden Impact of Digital Labels – Brent Lucia at Far From Equilibrium. 

 

How Public Schools Became Ideological Boot Camps – Robert Pondiscio at The Free Press.

 

Ukraine

 

War and (A Just) Peace in Ukraine – Yury Avvakumov at Church Life Journal.

 

Writing and Literature

 

Good (and Bad) Fathers: Six Perspectives on Fictional Fathers, for Father’s Day – Dixie Dillon Labe at The Hollow.

 

The Problems Posed by AI and Flannery O’Connor’s Unfinished Novel – Jessica Hooten Wilson at Church Life Journal.

 

Poetry

 

The Inaugural First Things Poetry Prize – First Things Magazine.

 

Longfellow’s Bridge – Gunny Markefka at Society of Classical Poets.

 

Looking – poem by David Whyte.

 

British Stuff

 

‘I wouldn’t call it a victory’: Fossil Free Book Organizers on Baillie Gifford’s exit from literary festival funding – Lucy Knight at The Guardian.

 

J.S. Bach’s “Chaconne” – Marc Bouchkov and the Frankfort Radio Symphony

 Painting: An old man reading by candlelight, oil on canvas by Godfried Schalcken (1643-1706).

She found the field

After Ruth 2:1-18 

Without knowing

any better she

found the field

owned by the man

who would show

favor, the man

who heard about

her, her story,

the man who knew

what she had given

up and why, the man

who repaid her 

kindness with one

of his own.

His kindness is

a picture, a type

of the unimaginable

kindness of God.

 

Photograph by Matteo Raimondi via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Friday Readings

 

The Pains of Sleep – poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge at Kingdom Poets (D.S. Martin).

 

Another Doubting Sonnet – Renee Emerson at Rabbit Room Poetry. 

 

‘I Talk to God in Public’ – Joel Miller at Miller’s Book Review talks with Wheaton professor and writer Esau McCaulley. 

 

One Day Leads to Another – Seth Lewis.

 

Who Was the ‘Black Spurgeon’? – Kelvin Washington at The Gospel Coalition.

"In the Key of Death" by Scott Hunter

DCI Brendan Moran is actually retiring from the Thames Valley Police. Nobody, including Moran, can quite believe it, but it’s his retirement party and everyone is celebrating. His love interest Alice is there, too, and things have moved well beyond serious. 

The phone rings early the next morning. It’s Moran boss. The police officer taking Moran’s place had a bit too much to drink and was in an accident on the way home. He’s now in the hospital, and the prognosis is grim. And the boss wouldn’t be calling except there’s been a murder and there’s no senior investigating officer to take charge. Might Moran consider coming back to lead the investigation?

 

Moran does, much to Alice’s anger. The case is a disturbing one. An elderly woman has been found with her hands nailed to her piano. The official cause of death will be determined to be a heart attack brought on by the trauma. Her sister, who discovered the body, the victim’s piano students, and everyone who knew her are shocked; she didn’t have an enemy in the world and was universally loved. And she has been a master pianist.

 

It would be a Brendan Moran stories without side stories, usually involving the police. There’s Moran’s rapidly deteriorating love life. One of his team witnesses an accidental death and agrees, at least initially, to help cover it up. An old nemesis, a vicious MI-6 agent protected by the government despite her killing two innocent people, makes an unexpected and unwelcome return. And his Number 2 on the team is rather furious at Moran’s return and is doing what he can to undermine him.

 

Scott Hunter

The investigation will take Moran and his team into the past and ultimately depend upon chemical analyses, a bust fragment, and an old woman’s memory to finally piece the puzzle together.

 

In the Key of Death is the 10^th and hopefully not the final in the Irish Detectives series by British author Scott Hunter. With all of the characters and sub-plots, it requires a close reading, but it is a richly rewarding one. Hunter spins a good tale, often keeping the reader biting his nails and telling himself “It’s just a story; it’s just a story.”

And I'm putting in my plea for there to be an eleventh in the series.

The Irish Detective series includes Black December, Creatures of Dust, Death Walks Behind You, A Crime for All Seasons, Silent as the Dead, Gone Too Soon, The Enemy Inside, When Stars Grow Dark, The Cold Light of Death and Closer to the Dead. Hunter has also published the novels The Trespass, The Ley Lines of Lushbury, Long Goodbyes, and The Serpent & the Slave, and the memoir Rattle and Drum.  In addition to writing fiction, Hunter is an IT consultant and musician. He lives with his family in England.

 

Related:

 

My review of Black December by Scott Hunter.

 

My review of Creatures of Dust by Scott Hunter.

 

My review of Death Walks Behind You by Scott Hunter.

 

My review of Silent as the Dead by Scott Hunter.

 

My review of Gone Too Soon and A Crime for All Seasons by Scott Hunter.

 

The Enemy Inside by Scott Hunter.

 

When Starts Grow Dark by Scott Hunter.

 

The Cold Light of Death by Scott Hunter.

 

Closer to the Dead by Scott Hunter.

 

The Fragile Cage by Scott Hunter.

 

Some Thursday Readings

 

On Poe’s “Fall of the House of Usher” – Allen Tate at The Imaginative Conservative. 

 

The Backlist: Joe R. Lonsdale on a Forgotten Classic of Southern Noir – Polly Stewart at CrimeReads.

 

Historical Society Confirms Supreme Court Justices Were Secretly Recorded at Event – Zachary Stieber at The Epoch Times. 

 

Following the Greek Cross and the Overland Campaign – Samuel Flowers at Emerging Civil War.

Some Wednesday Readings

Studying the Midwest Just Became Cool – Caitlin Evans at Midstory. 

Stratford Caldecott & the Secret Fire: Understanding Tolkien’s Works – Robert Lazu Kmita at The Imaginative Conservative. 

 

“To Celia,” by Ben Jonson – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

In Europe, Chaos is the New Normal – Yascha Mounk at Persuasion.

 

Scenes from a Stolen Childhood: A Review of Kinderszenen – Nadya Williams at Front Porch Republic.

 

Leisure, Work, and the Writer’s Life – Michael De Sapio at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

At Fulham Palace – Spitalfields Life. 

 

Illustration: Ben Jonson (1572-1637), engraving by Edward Scriven (1775-1841). 

“Poems (1930)” – The First Published Collection by W.H. Auden

Wystan Hugh (W.H.) Auden (1907-1973) is considered one of the finest, if not the finest, poet of the mid-20^th century. He had a large influence on poetry, including American poetry. Born in Britain, he emigrated to the United States in his 30s and became a U.S. citizen, and he eventually managed to win both a Pulitzer Prize for Poetry (The Age of Anxiety: A Baroque Eclogue) and a National Book Award for Poetry (The Shield of Achilles).  

Auden exercised considerable influence in literary circles. He was first a poet, yes, but he was also a critic, a lecturer, a playwright, and a librettist for opera. Many have pointed out that no one since Auden has had such a literary influence on writing in English, an influence that was global. His style and his intellect had a significant influence on such poets as Robert Lowell, John Ashbery, James Merrill, the New Formalists, Maxine Kumin, and many others. His influence could also work the opposite way – it was so pervasive that the Beat Generation poets were said to be writing like they did in reaction to Auden.

To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.

Some Tuesday Readings

 

Legends of Liberty Volume II by Andrew Benson Brown – review by Theresa Werba at Society of Classical Poets.

 

I fly, too, or in my mind I do – poem by Mark Kraushaar at 32 Poems.

 

My Papa’s Waltz – poem by Theodore Roethke at Rabbit Room Poetry.

 

“God’s Grandeur,” poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern. 

Bearing – poem by Will Willingham at Every Day Poems.

"Murder of Angels" by Jack Gatland

A police detective dying from cancer walks into his local police station and confesses to a murder of a teenaged girl. He will bring the police to where the body is buried, but only if it’s with his onetime subordinate DI Declan Walsh.  

Walsh is found and accompanies his long-ago mentor to the scene. Sure enough, a body is buried. The self-confessed murdered tells Walsh that he didn’t really do it; he’s simply taking the fall from the real murderer who’s connected to one of England’s crime families. If he does, he says, a big payment goes to his ex-wife and their college-aged daughter. And he’s hoping Walsh will be able to solve the case and find the real murderer.

 

It appears that the burial happened about a year before. The case begins to turn into something else when a second body is found, buried about the same time in Birmingham. Both are of teenaged girls about the same age. The case becomes even more interesting, and confounding, when it appears the two girls are the same person, down to the rose tattoo on a shoulder. 

 

Two identical murder victims can’t happen. Both were killed in the same way – strangled with some like a metal rosary. And he knows the policeman didn’t do it. As Walsh and his team dig deeper, they find themselves in the crossfire of what looks like a budding criminal gang war. And it’s a gang war than even most of the gangs involved even know is getting ready to happen.

 

Jack Gatland

The only thing Walsh can be sure of is that just about everyone involved is lying, including people on his own team.

 

Murder of Angels is the second of 19 DI Declan Walsh mysteries by British writer Jack Gatland. It’s almost a dark, noirish version of a Shakespearean comedy about twins and mixed-up identities. Throw in misdeeds by policemen themselves. Add ambitious young criminals and their elders prepared to do anything to keep control. The result is an explosive mix or murder and mayhem.

 

Gatland is the pen name for bestselling writer Tony Lee, who’s written comics, graphic novels, audio drama, TV and film series, the BBC and ITV, and a host of publishers. In addition to the Declan Walsh series, he’s also published four novels in the Ellie Reckless series, six in the Tom Marlowe series, and several others.

 

Related:

 

Letter from the Dead by Jack Gatland.

 

Some Monday Readings

 

DOJ Indicts Doctor Who Exposed Barbarism of “Gender-Affirming Care” – Christopher Rufo at City Journal.

 

How 3M Executives Convinced a Scientist the Forever Chemicals She Found in Human Blood Were Safe – Sharon Lerner at ProPublica. 

 

Give Me a Place: An East Tennessee farmer praises a simple piece of technology – Brian Miller at Plough Quarterly.

 

Baillie Gifford cancels all remaining sponsorships of literary festivals and Book festival activists are making absurd demands over Baillie Gifford – The Guardian. 

 

Preventing the Naomi Wolf Problem – Joel Miller at Miller’s Book Review.

A kindness

After Ruth 2:1-18 

She left all she knew,

home, family, everything

familiar, to travel with

her mother-in-law back

home. The others 

returned to their own

families, but she left

all behind, faithful 

to her dead husband 

and his mother. It was

a kindness, a blessing.

Her story was told,

shared among the people

she now lived with, she

a foreigner, an alien,

among strangers and

enemies. A kindness

recognized, a kindness 

told to the owner 

of the field, the owner

who favored her and

blessed her. It was

a kindness on his part,

a kindness given

for a kindness shown. 

 

Photograph by Mona Eendra via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Sunday Readings

 

Releasing Artists to Renew Culture: A new course to help you engage with the arts – Think Theology. 

 

Throw Yourself Away in Hope: The Sacred Death of Fatherhood – Greg Morse at Desiring God.

 

The Incredible Blessing of My Father’s Difficult Final Months – Ruth Wood at Eternal Perspective Ministries.

 

Selina Hastings: The Means of Doing Much Good – Vance Christie.

Saturday Good Reads - June 8, 2024

For some time, the news media have been reporting how school and public libraries are under siege – from the book banners, the right-wing zealots, and those crazy fundamentalist wackos. (To be fair, when the news media start citing what objections people have, the reports tend to get almost deliberately vague.) This week, when I saw the story “Why I quit as a school librarian,” I expected more of the same. That’s not what happened. See former librarian Nina Welsch tell her story at UnHerd.  

Speaking of news media, the so-called news deserts are spreading. Mainstream media in general are in serious financial trouble, including big media names like the Washington Post. Sara Fischer at Axios gives a rundown, if not an explanation for why.

 

Writing for the blog at Slant Books, William Cain, a professor of English at Wellesley College, tells a story of how he first encountered a 1923 poem by Wallace Stevens, entitled “Death of a Soldier.” Stevens encapsulated history in that poem (included in the poet’s first published collection) that is rather wonderful and well worth exploring.

 

More Good Reads

 

Art

 

Doreen Fletcher’s Early Paintings – at Spitalfields Life.

 

These marks – Sonja Benskin Mesher.

 

Exploring the rise and fall of British architectural sculpture – Roger Bowdler at The Art Newspaper. 

 

Israel

 

‘The first premeditated social media war against a people and a nation’ – Alan Rosenbaum at The Jerusalem Post.

 

Campus Protests

 

Anti-Israel Protesters Arrested at Stanford after Breaking into President’s Office, Injuring Officer – Zach Kessel at National Review.

 

Culture

 

We Have Been Subverted – Ali Hirsi at The Free Press.

 

The verdict boosted Trump – Lionel Shriver at The Spectator.

 

Poetry

 

Monday Morning’s Cupboard – poem by Kate Gaston at Rabbit Room Poetry.

 

Approaching Zero – poem by A.M. Juster at The Hudson Review.

 

“To a Mouse” by Robert Burns – Joseph Bottum at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

Writing and Literature

 

Who Was Q. Patrick, the Golden Age Mystery Author? – Curtis Evans at CrimeReads. 

 

Rise of the Ghost Machines – Brian VanDyke at The Millions.

 

What Caleb Carr Taught Me about the Families We Make – Zack Budryk at CrimeReads.

 

One Hundred Years of Obscurity – David Heddendorf at Front Porch Republic on The Rector’s Daughter by F.M. Mayor.

 

Faith

 

The Least of My Children’s Accomplishments – Tim Challies. 

 

3 Waves That Have Shaped Evangelical Churches (and a 4^th on the Way) – Trevin Wax at The Gospel Coalition. 

 

American Stuff

 

Cross-Channel Trip: A report from Normandy – A.J. Liebling at The New Yorker (June 23, 1944).

 

Overture from Handel’s Messiah – Boston Baroque

 Painting: Magdalen Reading, by follower of Piero di Cosimo (1462-1521), The Courtauld, London. 

 

A definition

After Hebrews 10:29-12:3 

Someone asks,

what is faith?

What do

you

say?

It is

conviction

resting

on promises,

a change

in our hearts

so fundamental

that we seem

different

people.

Faith is

an assurance.

Faith is

a conviction

Faith is

a gift,

an active gift,

a living gift

received.

Just ask.

 

Photograph by Billy Pasco via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Friday Readings

 

Is There a Preferred Bible Translation Christians Should Use? – R. Scott Clark at Beautiful Christian Life.

 

Somewhere a pendulum moves – poem by Irina Ratushinskaya at Kingdom Poets (D.S. Martin).

 

Light – poem by Seth Lewis.

 

The Real Deal – Spencer Klavan at The New Jerusalem.

 

Wisdom is Work – T.M. Suffield at Nuakh. 

Some Thursday Readings

The new edition of An Unexpected Journal is now online, and its 15 essays focus on modernity. Writers include Annie Nardone, Seth Myers, Jasmin Biggs, and many others. 

Murders for June – Jeremy Black at The Critic Magazine.

 

Poet Laura: The Tapestry of Poetry – Michelle Rinaldi Ortega at Tweetspeak Poetry.

 

“Bed in Summer,” poem by Robert Louis Stevenson – Joseph Bottum at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

Pentecost and AI: Being Human in a World of Disabling Algorithms – Charles Cotherman at Front Porch Republic.

 

Not Taken – poem by David Whyte.

 

D-Day & the Battle for Normandy: A History & a Reflection – Mark Malvasi at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

“To a Cicada” and “Fiona” – poems by Matin Rizley at Society of Classical Poets. 

 

Photograph: The first edition of A Child’s Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson.