#poems

The Balliol Rhymes

In 1880, seven undergraduates at Balliol College, Oxford, published a broadsheet of 40 quatrains making fun of their masters. The college suppressed it, but a few copies survived, and librarian W.G. Hiscock published the collection in 1939: First come I. My name is Jowett. There’s no knowledge but I know it. I am Master of this College, What I don’t know isn’t knowledge. Here am I, the often sat on Dancing don; my name is Tatton; Like old wine in a new bottle Is my talk on Aristotle. I am Huxley, blond and merry, Fond of jokes and laughter, very:...

Futility Closet · EN

Turnabout

An “enigma in praise of women,” from an 1820 miscellany: Happy that man may pass his life, Who’s free from matrimonial chains; Who is directed by a wife, Is sure to suffer for his pains. What tongue is able to unfold The falsehood which in women dwell? The worth in women you behold Is almost imperceptible. Adam could find no solid peace When Eve was given him for a mate; Till he beheld a woman’s face, Adam was in a happy state. See, in the female race appear Hypocrisy, deceit, and pride; Truth, darling of a heart sincere, In women...

Futility Closet · EN

Lavinia Greenlaw: Two Poems

Sometimes We Are in the Same CityAfter Rilke/After TsvetaevaHalf a life half my life a half-lifewere/are you?Such immediate/such fittingrecognitionwe floated into place. What next/what...

London Review of Books · EN