Epigrams and Epitaphs: Martin Armstrong and “Fifty-Four Conceits”

I was looking through the poetry section at a bookstore. I noticed a small volume with the engaging title of Fifty-Four Conceits by Martin Armstrong. Extracting it from its shelf, I saw the full title – Fifty-Four Conceits: A Collection of Epigrams and Epitaphs Serious and Comic. This sounds weird, but I wondered how long this little book had been waiting for someone to buy it. Being something of a sucker for epigrams, I could say its wait was over. It joined several others I was holding in my hand, found itself scanned and placed in a bag, and was soon out the door. 

I’d never heard of Armstrong (1882-1974). So, I turned to Dr. Google. A graduate of Cambridge, Armstrong served in the British Army in World War I and was best known as a writer of stories and novels. He was also a poet, officially listed in the 1922 (and final) anthology edition of Georgian Poetry. He married Canadian writer Jessie McDonald, the ex-wife of the American poet and writer Conrad Aiken. (Aiken included Armstrong in his 1952 autobiographical “narrative” Ushantbut under a disguised name.)

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

Some Thursday Readings

 

“Snow,” poem by Charles Bertram Johnson – Joseph Bottum at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

How Exactly Did the American Civil War Start? – Sally Lee a Columbia Magazine.

 

Writing Poetry with the Greats – Megan Willome.

 

“The Cremation of Sam McGee,” poem by Robert Service – Joseph Bottum at Poems Ancient and Modern.

 

Faith – poem by David Whyte.