Essays - Poetry Letters by Huck Gutman

Over half a year ago, I began writing about a great poem by Alfred, Lord Tennyson.

What makes a poem a poem?

Alexander Pope “An Essay on Criticism” 1685 saw the birth of three great composers: Johann Sebastian Bach, perhaps the greatest artist who ever lived; George Frederick Handel, almost his peer; and Domenico Scrlatti, who composed hundreds of keyboard sonat…

The Silesian Weavers Heinrich Heine In gloomy eyes there wells no tear.

Spring and All [By the road to the contagious hospital] By the road to the contagious hospital under the surge of the blue mottled clouds driven from the northeast – a cold wind.

Easter, 1916 I have met them at close of day Coming with vivid faces From counter or desk among grey Eighteenth-century houses.

Writing this letter has been more difficult than any other I have written.

One of the crises facing Jews in America today is antisemitism.

Ode to the West Wind I O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn's being, Thou, from whose unseen presence the leaves dead Are driven, like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing, Yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red, Pestilence-stricken multitudes: O thou,

“Attachment,” a poem by Greg Delanty How good we are at holding on to what brings us down, turning it into a life-inflation device that we refuse to let go of long after the boat has sunk and we’ve drifted into shallow water, and all we need do is put our…

Essential Poetry: Four Poets of New England with Huck Gutman Thursdays, January 4 – 25 (4 sessions) 4-5:30 pm FREE to OLLI members (see below about how to register) New England has produced some of the finest poets in America's history.

William Shakespeare Sonnet 73: That time of year thou mayst in me behold That time of year thou mayst in me behold When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang Upon those boughs which shake against the cold, Bare ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet birds…

Free course I am offering a short course on poetry written over the past two centuries.

Postcard IV I fell beside him; his body turned over, already taut as a string about to snap.

The Poems of Our Climate Wallace Stevens The Poems of Our Climate I Clear water in a brilliant bowl, Pink and white carnations.

The Present Moment There is currently an assault on ‘truth’ as we have understood it.

Yehuda Amichai The Diameter of the Bomb The diameter of the bomb was thirty centimeters and the diameter of its effective range about seven meters, with four dead and eleven wounded.

A Utilitarian View of the Monitor’s Fight Plain be the phrase, yet apt the verse, More ponderous than nimble; For since grimed War here laid aside His painted pomp, 'twould ill befit Overmuch to ply The rhyme’s barbaric symbol.

Lovely snipe and tender turn, excellent vapor and slender butter, all the splinter and the trunk, all the poisonous darkening drunk, all the joy in weak success, all the joyful tenderness, all the section and the tea, all the stouter symmetry.

In Memory of Eva Gore-Booth and Con Markievicz The light of evening, Lissadell, Great windows open to the south, Two girls in silk kimonos, both Beautiful, one a gazelle.