Might Stain Your Shirt

POETS Day! Sappho

She was revered enough by the ancient world to be called “The Poetess” as Homer was called “The Poet.” That’s rarefied air.

Oct 16 • Ben Sears

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POETS Day! Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, Probably not Shakespeare

It’s a shame that de Vere couldn’t be left alone and considered without the Shakespeare question. He’s very good when not badgering like a four year…

Oct 9 • Ben Sears

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POETS Day! Oscar Wilde

This is speculation on my part, but could it be that his poetry was personal in a way that his prose and theatrical work were not?

Oct 2 • Ben Sears

September 2026

POETS Day! “Little Gidding,” the Fourth of TS Eliot’s Four Quartets

The poems are prayerful, and moving in the sense we mean when we first say moving, before we know to reach for the word as pat.

Sep 25 • Ben Sears

POETS Day! William Barnes

Barnes wrote a great deal in iambic, more often than not tetrameter, but made it pop with frequent hard consonant alliteration in nod towards old…

Sep 18 • Ben Sears

POETS Day! Poet-pourri

Sharing a few of the bookmarked poems I’ve been holding onto for a while

Sep 11 • Ben Sears

POETS Day! The Scoundrel, Sir John Suckling

Guys like this are why I read biographies. God love the childlike short sighted immediacy junkies blessed or cursed with immeasurable confidence.

Sep 4 • Ben Sears

August 2026

POETS Day! The Surprising Alice Meynell

It is more likely that her contemporary readers would know her for prose. That speaks to the smashing power of her prose more than diminishes her verse.

Aug 28 • Ben Sears

POETS Day! W.H. Auden’s “Musée de Beaux Arts”

Run of the mill needs are stubborn. Call it The Fall or biology, we are shackled with needs. No grandeur or horror will change that.

Aug 14 • Ben Sears

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POETS Day! Elinor Wylie

I didn’t expect to be as impressed by her work or that I’d enjoy the voyeur’s “tut-tut” as I have. She charmed me.

Aug 7 • Ben Sears

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July 2026

POETS Day! William Morris

As hard as it would be for one of his contemporaries to believe, he’s almost forgotten as a poet now. This was the man Victoria offered the Laureate…

Jul 24 • Ben Sears

POETS Day! Leonora Speyer

There’s sadness and optimism and acceptance throughout "Fiddler's Farewell," and for all the promise of the precocious musician, it was written by the…

Jul 17 • Ben Sears

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