Literature

‘Eternity’s a terrible thought’, as Tom Stoppard famously said. ‘I mean, where’s it all going to end?’ Poets have often dealt with the vast and limitless, the boundless and infinite – whether it’s the concept of the eternal (in time) or the idea of the infinite universe. Or, indeed, the idea of living forever. The

There is a long scene in Those Bones Are Not My Child (1999), Toni Cade Bambara’s posthumously published novel about the Atlanta murders of 1979-81, where she describes the 1980 explosion at the Bowen Homes Daycare Center, a nursery in a mostly black community: “See about that guy,” Lafayette said quietly to Speaker, motioning his chin

Thinking and thought loom large in poetry, whether it’s the intellectual exercises of the metaphysical poets, the deep, personal introspection of the Romantics, or the modernists’ interest in subjectivity and interiority. Below, we introduce ten of the greatest introspective poems about thoughts, thinking, and meditation. William Wordsworth, ‘Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey’.

The following is excerpted from Megha Majumdar’s debut novel, A Burning, the story of three unforgettable characters who seek to rise–to the middle class, to political power, to fame in the movies–and find their lives entangled in the wake of a catastrophe in contemporary India. Majumdar was born and raised in Kolkata, India and moved

Hamlet is not the only character in Shakespeare’s play who offers us a soliloquy. Claudius, Hamlet’s uncle and the murderer of Hamlet’s father (Claudius’ own brother), also gives us a detailed insight into his thoughts, for the first time, in this private moment as he goes to pray in Act III Scene 3 of Shakespeare’s

How many times have you heard someone say, ‘I don’t read poetry. I just don’t get it.’ Or perhaps, ‘Why can’t poets just come out and say what they want to say? Why say something in such a way?’ For many people, poetry is ‘difficult’. But whilst it’s true that poets like John Donne, T.

‘Mending Wall’ is a 1914 poem by the American poet Robert Frost (1874-1963). Although it’s one of his most popular, it is also one of his most widely misunderstood – and, like another of his widely anthologised poems, ‘The Road Not Taken’, its most famous lines are often misinterpreted. Before we address these issues of

In this week’s Dispatches from The Secret Library, Dr Oliver Tearle examines a famous phrase derived from Shakespeare The old line about Hamlet, that it’s ‘too full of quotations’, wittily sums up the play’s influence on not just English literature but on the everyday language we use. Many of us know, and some may use,

‘Is this a dagger which I see before me, / The handle toward my hand?’ So begins one of the most famous soliloquies in Shakespeare’s Macbeth – indeed, perhaps in all of Shakespeare. Before we offer an analysis of this scene – and summarise the meaning of the soliloquy – here is a reminder of

First published in 1819, ‘Rip Van Winkle’ is one of the most famous pieces of writing by Washington Irving, whose contribution to American literature was considerable. ‘Rip Van Winkle’ has become a byword for the idea of falling asleep and waking up to find the familiar world around us has changed. But what is less

On this episode, Kristen talks with Carmen Maria Machado, author of In the Dream House and Her Body and Other Parties, about home renovating, Philadelphia, foot surgery, and that time when her dog ate a weed gummy. From the episode: Carmen Maria Machado: I actually had a productive day today. So I am working, though

‘To a Wreath of Snow’ shows Emily Brontë (1818-48), some ten years before the publication of her sole novel Wuthering Heights (1847). Written when she was still a teenager, ‘To a Wreath of Snow’ deserves some words of analysis to illuminate the language and imagery Brontë so deftly uses in what might be described as

May 28, 2020, 2:10pm It’s the kind of timing a publisher dreams of. Less than one week out from its U.S. launch, latest Irish literary phenom Naoise Dolan’s debut novel Exciting Times (Ecco, June 2) has been optioned for TV. Yes, following a hugely successful release in the UK and Ireland back in April, when it

What are the most beautiful poems in English verse? There are many mellifluous, melodic, and pleasingly arranged poems in English literature, so picking ten was always going to be a tough call. However, for one reason or another – because they are visually striking, or because they put to effective use beautiful sound-effects like alliteration

In Russia, in the summer of 1914, as war with Germany looms and the Czar’s army tightens its grip on the local Jewish community, Miri Abramov and her brilliant physicist brother, Vanya, are facing an impossible decision. Since their parents drowned fleeing to America, Miri and Vanya have been raised by their babushka, a famous

How to reduce the whole span of an average human life into just a few lines of verse? Shakespeare managed it, in this famous speech from As You Like It, which begins with the famous declaration that ‘All the world’s a stage, / And all the men and women merely players’. Jaques’ ‘philosophy’ on the

May 27, 2020, 12:06pm The announcement of a forthcoming Amazon series focusing on Lisbeth Salander, the protagonist of Steig Larsson’s Millennium series, challenges our assumptions about what a literary adaptation actually is. We know that the Amazon show is currently titled The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. So, will it align thematically with Larsson’s 2005 book

‘Dreamers’ is a poem by the British poet of the First World War, Siegfried Sassoon (1886-1967). Written while Sassoon was convalescing at Craiglockhart Hospital, ‘Dreamers’ is a poem which contrasts the realities of war with the soldiers’ longing for home and domestic comfort and security. You can read ‘Dreamers’ here before proceeding to our analysis