The Marginalian
The Marginalian

Reads tagged with “poetry”

Advice on Writing from Emily Dickinson’s Editor
Advice on Writing from Emily Dickinson’s Editor

“Oftentimes a word shall speak what accumulated volumes have labored in vain to utter: there may be years of crowded passion in a word, and half a life in a sentence.”

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Elizabeth Barrett Browning on Art as the Crucible of Progress and the Dangerous Cult of Blind Innovation, with Rare Woodcuts by Artist Elfriede Abbe
Elizabeth Barrett Browning on Art as the Crucible of Progress and the Dangerous Cult of Blind Innovation, with Rare Woodcuts by Artist Elfriede Abbe

“The contemplation of excellence produces excellence, if not similar, yet parallel.”

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The Devil Teaches Thermodynamics: Sean Ono Lennon Reads Nobel-Winning Chemist and Poet Roald Hoffmann’s Ode to Entropy
The Devil Teaches Thermodynamics: Sean Ono Lennon Reads Nobel-Winning Chemist and Poet Roald Hoffmann’s Ode to Entropy

An incantation to “join the imperfect universe at peace with the disorder that orders.”

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You Can’t Have It All
You Can’t Have It All

“…but there is this.”

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How to Rewire Your Broken Behavioral Patterns: Shakespeare’s Advice on Acquiring Better Habits
How to Rewire Your Broken Behavioral Patterns: Shakespeare’s Advice on Acquiring Better Habits

“Assume a virtue, if you have it not.”

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How to Stay Sane as an Artist: Soul-Salving Advice from Poets W.S. Merwin and John Berryman
How to Stay Sane as an Artist: Soul-Salving Advice from Poets W.S. Merwin and John Berryman

Tonic for living with that sacred, terrifying uncertainty with which all creative work enters the world.

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Anne Gilchrist’s Beautiful and Heartbreaking Love Letters to Walt Whitman
Anne Gilchrist’s Beautiful and Heartbreaking Love Letters to Walt Whitman

“Love & Hope are so strong in me, my soul’s high aspirations are of such tenacious, passionate intensity… that what would starve them out of any other woman only makes them strike out deeper roots, grow more resolute & sturdy, in me.”

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After Silence: Amanda Palmer Reads Neil Gaiman’s Stunning Poem Celebrating Rachel Carson’s Legacy of Culture-Shifting Courage
After Silence: Amanda Palmer Reads Neil Gaiman’s Stunning Poem Celebrating Rachel Carson’s Legacy of Culture-Shifting Courage

“Nothing is ever over / life breathes life in its turn / Sometimes the people listen / Sometimes the people learn”

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The More Loving One: Astrophysicist Janna Levin Reads W.H. Auden’s Sublime Ode to Our Unrequited Love for the Universe
The More Loving One: Astrophysicist Janna Levin Reads W.H. Auden’s Sublime Ode to Our Unrequited Love for the Universe

“If equal affection cannot be, / Let the more loving one be me.”

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Mary Oliver’s Advice on Writing
Mary Oliver’s Advice on Writing

“Look for verbs of muscle, adjectives of exactitude.”

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