English Reading Circle on Poetry and Prose Poetry
ENGLISH READING CIRCLE ON POETRY – POEM OF THE MONTH ANALYSIS: “IN THE BLIZZARD” BY MARK CONWAY
This month, we’re very pleased to welcome Mark Conway to our poetry session, where he will be sharing his new poem “In the Blizzard” (the text of the poem appears at the bottom of this message). Last month we contemplated matters of life and death with Nick Flynn’s “If This Is Your Final Destination.” Flynn’s
ENGLISH READING CIRCLE ON POETRY AND PROSE POETRY – POEM OF THE MONTH ANALYSIS: “ON THE PULSE OF MORNING” BY MAYA ANGELOU
In our final poetry session before summer vacation, we finish with a poem about new beginnings, Maya Angelou’s “On the Pulse of Morning.” Angelou read this poem at the inauguration of President Bill Clinton 1993, and the critics were quick to point out how the themes of the poem mirrored the themes of Clinton’s acceptance
ENGLISH READING CIRCLE ON POETRY AND PROSE POETRY – POEM OF THE MONTH ANALYSIS: “DIVING INTO THE WRECK” BY ADRIENNE RICH
This month we’re going deep into the realms of poetry with Adrienne Rich’s “Diving into the Wreck” (1973). Rich was an accomplished poet by the age of 22, winning the prestigious Yale Younger Poets Prize in 1951. Much of her early poetry is characterized by an adherence to formalist poetic traditions and has been described
ENGLISH READING CIRCLE ON POETRY AND PROSE POETRY – POEM OF THE MONTH ANALYSIS: “FILLING STATION” BY ELIZABETH BISHOP
Stopping off at Elizabeth Bishop’s “Filling Station” (1965), to reflect on the beauty of everyday life. Published in 1965, the poem contains a number of unfamiliar or uncommon words, which make it seem to belong to an even earlier time: taboret (i.e., small table or stool), monkey suit (i.e., uniform), hirsute (i.e., hairy). Saucy (i.e.,
ENGLISH READING CIRCLE ON POETRY AND PROSE POETRY – POEM OF THE MONTH ANALYSIS: “POETRY” BY MARIANNE MOORE
This month’s poem, “Poetry,” by Marianne Moore, is a curious little poem. Moore wrote the first version of this poem in 1924, and then spent nearly five decades revising it, finally settling on a three-line version that she included in her 1967 volume, The Complete Poems of Marianne Moore. (You can read the two versions
ENGLISH READING CIRCLE ON POETRY AND PROSE POETRY – POEM OF THE MONTH ANALYSIS: “A SUNSET OF THE CITY” BY GWENDOLYN BROOKS
This month’s poem is “A Sunset of the City,” by Gwendolyn Brooks. Brooks was a prolific and accomplished poet, and was the first black writer – male or female – to win the Pulitzer Prize for poetry, which she was awarded in 1950 for her second collection of poems, Annie Allen. In addition to poetry,
ENGLISH READING CIRCLE ON POETRY AND PROSE POETRY – POEM OF THE MONTH ANALYSIS: “To My Dear and Loving Husband” by Anne Bradstreet
This month, the English Reading Circle: Poetry and Prose Poetry group is going back to the beginning. We’ll be travelling back in time to the beginning of America, the beginning of American poetry, and the beginning of American women’s writing, with Anne Bradstreet’s “To My Dear and Loving Husband.” In 1650, Bradstreet’s volume of poetry,
ENGLISH READING CIRCLE – POETRY AND PROSE POETRY: “MARGARET” BY SPENCER REECE
Summer is over, autumn is here, and our monthly poetry reading group is back! This year brings us some exciting new developments. We are now called the English Reading Circle: Poetry and Prose Poetry (sister group to the English Reading Circle: Short Stories); and as this new name indicates, we will be expanding our reading