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Bonus PoetryStuff
Rainer Rilke and William Blake: Poetry and Reassessing Spirituality
Between the divinely inspired chaos roaring across the Middle East and the continuing roll call of the horrific abuses of the organised church across Europe, and Ireland in particular, religion has a bad rap. But in a time when young people…
Brave New Voices |2| Poet Profile: Neasa McCormack
Ireland is sending a team to compete on the world stage at Brave New Voices. The team led by Stephen Murray features four teenagers who will be Ireland's first International Slam Poetry Squad. Last week we featured Iobhar, now it's time to…
The Romantics |1| William Blake (The Hipster)
It was the best of times it was the worst of times (and a time of anachronistic literary references apparently). The Enlightenment. Never before had mankind been so purposeful in its great venture to shine the clarity of reason upon the…
Brave New Voices |1| Poet Profile: Iobhar Stokes
Ireland is sending its first poetry team to compete on the world stage at Brave New Voices in Atlanta. In this series, we meet the four young poets that will be making the journey to represent us on the world stage. First up is Iobhar…
WHY I BROKE UP WITH SEAMUS HEANEY, OR WHY IT’S GOOD TO BE UNCERTAIN
Let me ask you a question that you don't have to answer.
Have you ever had a boyfriend who was really nice and really considerate, but with whom the sex was nonetheless not really amazing because he had a habit of doing things like…
Close Reading Fleur Adock
Fleur Adcock was born in New Zealand in 1934 and moved to Britain in 1963 where she lives today. Although Adcock began writing poems in New Zealand, a lot of her poetry has an ironic mood camouflaging fear or anxiety – providing her work…
“My rhymes more than their rhyming tell” | Magic, ghosts and W.B. Yeats
As his 150th anniversary comes around, many eyes have turned to re-examining the work of the great Irish poet W. B. Yeats. But in many ways a key area of his life has been overlooked: magic. Yeats’ interest in the supernatural and the…
19 Year Old Poet Pens Poem for the Yes Vote
With just days left till the referendum, we’re all more than familiar with the vote Yes campaign. Mel Kavanagh, a young Dublin based Slam Poet, has added her voice to the Yes! Campaign. We’re chuffed to feature her recent video poem for the…
3 Line Thursday. A weekly poetry competition. Also for non-poets.
Hi, I'm Bart Van Goethem. You may remember me from such one sentence stories as The Not So Great Escape, My One Day At The Donut Factory and The Bear That Hated Spring. You don't? But they all appeared on this fine blog. Doesn't ring any…
A Metaphorical Platypus and the Art of Rhetoric
What is a rhetorical question?
You probably know the answer to that one, which means you also know you're not expected to say it out loud.
What, though, is rhetoric?
That's what this article is about.
Rhetoric is a very old way…