Louis MacNeice

Poem of the Week: “Autobiography” by Louis MacNeice

Samhain is upon us, so we’re celebrating by sharing poems with a sinister bent in honor of this Celtic predecessor of Halloween. In this week’s poem, Louis MacNeice explores the darker side of youthful memory. MacNeice reflects on the early loss of his mother, a loss which remains as a sort of specter for the child in the poem, one…

Poem of the Week: “Circe” by Louis MacNeice

“… vitreamque Circen”

Something of glass about her, of dead water,
Chills and holds us,
Far more fatal than painted flesh or the lodestone of live hair

Poem of the Week to Celebrate Samhain

It’s the last week of October, which means it’s almost Halloween, the spookiest time of year. Did you know that Halloween originates from the Celtic festival called Samhain? We enjoy getting into the Samhain spirit by reading some of our poets’ eeriest pieces. Here’s a particularly creepy poem of the week from Louis MacNeice. Plant…

Picking a Poem for Ireland

Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ), Ireland’s National Public Service Broadcaster, is currently promoting a campaign called A Poem for Ireland. This contest began in September when RTÉ asked followers to submit stand-out poems from the past century that encapsulated the Irish experience. With their nominations, followers submitted explanations for why their favorite should earn the recognition. Over…

Poem of the Week: “Elegy for Minor Poets” by Louis MacNeice

“Who often found their way to pleasant meadows
Or maybe once to a peak, who saw the Promised Land,
Who took the correct three strides but tripped their hurdles,
Who had some prompter they barely could understand . . .”

Poem of the Week: “…even a still life is alive…”

“The Ray,” Jean-Baptiste-Simeone Chardin (1728) Nature Morte (Even so it is not so easy to be dead) As those who are not athletic at breakfast day by day Employ and enjoy the sinews of others vicariously, Shielded by the upheld journal from their dream-puncturing wives And finding in the printed word a multiplication of their…

MacNeice poem inspires Scottish song

Louis MacNeice is one of the inspirations for the Scottish group, Battlefield Band. MacNeice’s poem, “Bagpipe Music,” provides the lyrics for the song on the group’s newest album Room Enough for All, which has been nominated for an Independent Music Award in the category of “World Traditional Song.” You can read the poem just below, buy MacNeice’s Collected Poems here, and…

Poem of the Week featuring Louis MacNeice’s “To Posterity”

  “To Posterity” When books have all seized up like the books in graveyards And reading and even speaking have been replaced By other, less difficult, media, we wonder if you Will find in flowers and fruit the same colour and taste They held for us for whom they were framed in words, And will…

Louis MacNeice: Collected Poems NY Times Book Review

In his New York Times Sunday Book Review of Louis MacNeice: Collected Poems, entitled “Free Range”, David Orr praises the palimpsestic nature of MaNeice’s final volume. There is a haunting quality, perhaps to do with MacNeice’s talent for refrain, which provides a chilling echo that permeates the soul and leaves the reader with lingering questions…

Louis MacNeice Poetry Evening

On May 17th, in conjunction with Ireland’s National Poetry Day celebrations, contemporary poets gathered to mark the 50th anniversary of Louis MacNeice’s death. Sinéad Morrissey, Ciaran Carson, Lucy Caldwell, and others joined together for readings at Ulster Hall in Belfast. MacNeice also has an international appeal, as demonstrated by the participation of Bermudian poet Paul…

Historic Photograph Featuring Louis MacNeice Up for Grabs

Literary Giants: From left, Louis MacNeice, T.S. Eliot, Ted Hughes, W.H. Auden  and Stephen Spender at Faber and Faber publishing party If you’re looking to be the owner of a rare literary moment in history, look no further! This iconic photograph shows the five men congregating at a party organized by their publisher, Faber and…