British poet Carol Rumens, whose Guardian poem of the week column ran for nearly 20 years and was beloved among its loyal readership, has died aged 81. Her family said that she... Read more »
A lost copy of a poem composed in the seventh century by a Northumbrian cattle herder – the earliest surviving poem in the English language – has been discovered in Rome. Scholars... Read more »
Son of Nobody by Yann Martel review – Life of Pi author discovers a long-lost poem from Troy | Books
In Yann Martel’s fifth novel, a Canadian classicist, Harlow Donne, has been offered a year’s fellowship at Oxford University. His wife, Gail, has a full-time managerial job, and they have a seven-year-old... Read more »
Over its two centuries, acclaimed writers and artists have found inspiration at London zoo, from Edwin Landseer’s Trafalgar Square lions, to AA Milne’s naming “Winnie” after resident bear Winnipeg, and Sylvia Plath’s... Read more »
A poem about language, love, and processing distressing world events has won this year’s £5,000 National Poetry Competition. The Gathering by Partridge Boswell was picked from more than 21,000 entries by poets... Read more »
01.29 When we look up at stars on breakwe see only stars behindthe exhaled Milky Wayof Bobby’s Golden Virginia,ways to navigate shift patterns,nothing seismic or anything approachingtruth; for us stars mean only... Read more »
To Wordsworth Poet of Nature, thou hast wept to knowThat things depart which never may return:Childhood and youth, friendship and love’s first glow,Have fled like sweet dreams, leaving thee to mourn.These common... Read more »
The Secret Day My yesterday has gone, has gone and left me tired,And now tomorrow comes and beats upon the door;So I have built To-day, the day that I desired,Lest joy come... Read more »
Cancer is a subject the poet laureate Simon Armitage has always shied away from. “I find it very daunting,” he said. “I’ve lost friends and family to cancer.” But when he was... Read more »