Autumn Journal

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These are the assets of the form of the journal, which “flows from human life” ( Selected Literary Criticism 114), by accreting more than “self–glory” and “self–indulgence” ( Autumn Journal III). This [→page 199] dynamic, heterogeneous, and fluid space traversed by the speaker on foot, on train (most often “in a bijou car”), and by plane is the space of emotional traces left on previous contacts. This division gives it a dramatic quality, as different parts of myself … can be given their say in turn".

The poem is not, however, intended to fulfill what he identifies as demands of his public: “a final verdict or a balanced judgment.Its provisional character is repeatedly self–advertised to enhance the readers' interest and cooperation. The ratings/reviews displayed here may not be representative of every listing on this page, or of every review for these listings. In "arguing for a philosophical and political relativism and agnosticism that contest hierarchy and authority", the Sequel updates that tradition and gives it fresh relevance in a more structured way than had the Journal. Thus the section about Barcelona having been written before the fall of Barcelona, I should consider it dishonest to have qualified it retrospectively by my reactions to the later event.

Canto IX refracts the post-Munich-agreement mood, its mingled shame, relief and foreboding, through a historical lens, connecting that much-mythologised "golden age" of classical Athens to an equally tarnished European present.

Renouncing the tribe for wider humanity, without stumbling into passivity or fanaticism, MacNeice kept his eyes open when other poets passed off indignation as passion and slogans as thought. I have certain beliefs which, I hope, emerge in the course of it but which I have refused to abstract from their context. The essential diurnal pattern of the journal, as I have established, does not aim to reveal in any way the unified pattern of a lifetime. I bought this book on a whim due to its gorgeous cover, and I was pleasantly surprised by some stream-of-consciousness poetry (written from August to December 1938) that reminded me of Hope Mirrlees' "Paris: A Poem" with some instants that smacked of T. I discovered Louis Macneice in my 30s … and it’s interesting that Michael has quoted one of his lines that really lodged in my brain then … the one about his fellow countrymen being like drayhorses and dragging their ruin behind them.

Dead Poets Live have gained a cult following at The Coronet Theatre for their vivid presentations of poetry, and Autumn Journal is a thrillingly intimate and powerful dramatic monologue. When it was about the vacation in Spain just before the fall to Franco, the trip's clichés given piquancy by the looming horror and very uncertain future, that was a poem I thought might give me some sort of solace, or at least perspective, when faced with our own uncertainty. blue cloth, 96pp, extremities a bit rubbed, spine a bit darkened, endpapers unevenly toned with some light spotting else a nice copy in a rubbed, spine-sunned, extremity-worn/torn/creased dustjacket.In his earlier Modern Poetry he had also commented on the Ancient Greek poet's understanding of his role: “It was assumed that life was the source and subject of poetry. but also at the end of a love affair, voting in the Oxford by-election (fought over Chamberlin's appeasement policy), musing on Greek philosophy, and close observation of London life. It also mentions that a number of the characters named there are the pseudonyms of personal friends. Clearly, in Autumn Journal meter plays a very personal emotional role which cannot be experienced in isolation from the poem's communication pattern.