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poetry

The Soldier

IF I should die, think only this of me: That there’s some corner of a foreign field That is forever England. There shall be In that rich earth a richer dust concealed; A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware, Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam, A body of England’s, breathing…

poetry

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

And indeed there will be time To wonder, “Do I dare?” and, “Do I dare?” Here’s an annotated version and recording of Eliot himself reading this perplexing and disturbing poem. The poem, described as a “drama of literary anguish”, is a dramatic interior monologue of an urban man, stricken with feelings of isolation and an incapability…

poetry

Eliot and Swinburne: Idealism and Decedence

Eliot and Swinburne have been part of my consciousness for many years but for different reasons. The former I primarily knew for his Knowledge and Experience in the Philosophy of F. H. Bradley (his Harvard dissertation) and the for latter, my curiosity was piqued through my walking regularly past 11 Putney Hill, Sw15 on my way to…

poetry

A. E. HOUSMAN

I’ve always described Housman’s intellect as akin to “wrestling with razor blades” as least in his classical scholarship. I chanced upon the The Housman Society which I’m pleased to see has been ticking along for almost 40 years. My first exposure to AEH’s austere intellect was through Gow’s A. E. Housman: A Sketch Together with a List of…

aesthetics, companion to michael oakeshott, conservatism, elizabeth corey, liberal education, liberalism, philosophy of history, philosophy of social science, poetry, political philosophy, rationalism, rationalism in politics, rationality

A Disposition of Delight

My chum and the new president of the Michael Oakeshott Association, Elizabeth Corey, has just had this article published in First Things. Since this article is by subscription, I will only post a couple of extracts that caught my eye. Elizabeth is an excellent scholar whose chapter entitled “The Religious Sensibility of Michael Oakeshott” will be…

Leon Malinofsky, metaphysics, philosophy, poetry

The Metaphysics of Skydiving

Some lovely reflections from Leon Malinofsky: Skydiving is three things: It is a submission after years of willfulness; it is wholly absorbing, and therefore distracting from our cares; and it is the rational, peaceful contemplation of death, and eternity made less fearsome. Excerpt from Why Skydive? See also Imagine, Freefall, and my favourite Home. (This is…