Word: poems
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1960-1969
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...poems by Byrd appear in the magazine. In the first, which is untitled, he says, "Man attempts too many explanations." The line suggests the proper way to approach the poem: it should be felt. The basis of the poem is experience, not contrived metaphor; Byrd writes simply but powerfully...
Then Khrushchev turned on Young Poet Evgeny Evtushenko: "He shows vacillations, instability of views ... I would like to advise Comrade Evtushenko and other men of letters that they should not seek cheap sensationalism." Everyone was aware, Nikita announced, that Evtushenko recently told a Paris audience that his poem, Babi Yar (which drew fire from the Kremlin), had been "criticized by dogmatists." Such behind-the-back remarks in foreign countries will not do, hinted the Premier: "If the enemies of our cause begin to praise you for works convenient to their purpose, then the people will justly criticize you. So choose...
...concert of music by Boulez, Horatio Appleton Lamb Lecturer 1962-63, would have understood their prudence; for whether one reacts initially with enthusiasm or horror, he knows that, after one hearing or a dozen, he has heard only a tiny fraction of what Boulez' music says. To evaluate a poem is difficult if it is written in a strange tongue...
...seems clear that Yevtushenko is basically a hireling of the Soviet government, bent on emulating the toadying tactics of Ehrenburg. At the World Youth Festival in Helsinki, where he paraded around in loud Italian silk shirts, Yevtushenko became so incensed at the anti-Communist demonstrations he composed a poem on the spot denouncing the "pimple-faced, gum chewing" students. "If I had not been a Communist before, I would have become one tonight," he said...
Divine Drudgery. The Industrial Revolution changed all that, downgrading hand labor, raising up a new-rich middle class, and widening the gulf between servant and master. The reduced status of the servant combined with the mealymouthed piety of the 19th century to produce a quantity of parables and poems designed to convince the lower classes that drudgery was part of the divine order and should be performed with diligence and thanks. A New Testament text, very popular for framing and hanging in the servants' quarters, was Ephesians 6: 5-6.* Such sentiments persisted into the 20th century, even...