Category Archives: poetry

A novel with poems for chapters? Yes!

Posted on June 26, 2018 by forstegrupp

I read Elizabeth Acevedo’s novel The Poet X  in a single evening which does not mean anything at all negative. It means rather that the characters and the plot were compelling, but I was even more interested in the structure … Continue reading →

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Mallarme: who is he and so what?

Posted on October 3, 2016 by forstegrupp

He is a nineteenth-century French poet who published little but thrust open the door of modernism with his poetry and his early appreciation for the Impressionist painters. He understood that they were not trying to paint an objective reality but … Continue reading →

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Listen to a poem chanted in Farsi in a mosque with perfect acoustics

Posted on September 28, 2016 by forstegrupp

We had two full days in Esfahan. We spent one day in Nawh-e Jahan Square, which was built by Shah Abbas, a Safavid king, when he made Esfahan his capital in 1602. This square is the second largest in the … Continue reading →

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Discovering poetry

Posted on December 19, 2015 by forstegrupp

The New Yorker is my favorite means of discovering new poetry and poets. Just a few minutes ago, I finished an article by Dan Chiasson in the August 31, 2015 magazine about Linda Gregerson who is a professor at the University … Continue reading →

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Reflection on Donne’s “Death Be Not Proud”

Posted on March 29, 2015 by forstegrupp

Since posting yesterday, I have been thinking about what to write about this Donne sonnet. The meaning is relatively straightforward: don’t fear death, since it is only the passageway to eternal life. The poem is more about the narrator, who … Continue reading →

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What does it mean to analyze a poem — Donne’s “Death Be Not Proud” is on the dissecting table!

Posted on March 28, 2015 by forstegrupp

When I work with a poem, I will sometimes read it for pleasure but then will sometimes “pull” at it. Here is a series of pictures for how Donne’s sonnet was atomized. In the post for tomorrow, I will see … Continue reading →

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Back to the lesson!

Posted on March 24, 2015 by forstegrupp

Now we return to the original promised posting — interrupted by a passing bunny. I called this lesson “Connect the Poetry Dots,” because the students begin with Shakespeare and end with Rossetti and in between are other poets. The way … Continue reading →

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Poetry as a Transformation of Mind

Posted on December 3, 2012 by forstegrupp

I just read a New York Times article “Philosophy and the Poetic Imagination: by Ernie Lapore and Matthew Stone about how how poetry demands a certain type of reading which must be cultivated and nourished and sustained. Here is the … Continue reading →

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