Great Regulars: Political obsessions marked Byron's last years

as he moved from Ravenna to Pisa to Genoa, often followed by the countess. His death came, famously, on a self-financed military expedition in support of Greek independence from the Ottoman empire. He died in mid-flight, as it were, a legendary figure whom [Edna] O'Brien describes as "the embodiment of Everyman, human, ambitious, erratic, generous, destructive, dazzling, dark and dissonant". But in what sense do these adjectives embody Everyman?

from Jay Parini: The Guardian: The rake's progress

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But the poem of his [W.D. Snodgrass's] that has stayed with me for decades, and sounds in my head at least once a week, is "April Inventory". It's spoken by a college teacher who sees his life passing before his eyes, looking wistfully at his circumstances:

Though trees turn bare and girls turn wives,
We shall afford our costly seasons;
There is a gentleness survives
That will outspeak and has its reasons.
There is a loveliness exists,
Preserves us, not for specialists.

The tone here is so idiosyncratic and yet so perfectly in touch with its moment, with its linguistic environment, that one reads and recites, again and again, satisfied and thrilled.

from Jay Parini: The Guardian: W.D. Snodgrass's last walk through the universe

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