Poetry & Poets in Rags of September 13 Options

[rus bowden]

Dear Poetry Aficionados,

Poetry & Poets in Rags blog

The poem that moves me most when it comes to 9/11, is Edwin Arlington Robinson's 1896-7 version of The House on the Hill. It was introduced to me as a 9/11 poem shortly after, when Robert Pinsky came to Lowell MA ten years ago, and shared his research, giving a talk on poetry that would apply to this tragedy. Robinson's villanelle still holds, that "there is nothing more to say" as the refrain goes. Yet, we still need to keep facing it, talking about it, and writing and sharing poetry and art about it. 9/11 silences us, but with the silence of the poem when the read is done, never enough, always more to repeat, as I share this often-repeated verse:

By Edwin Arlington Robinson

The House on the Hill

They are all gone away,
The House is shut and still,
There is nothing more to say.

Through broken walls and gray
The winds blow bleak and shrill:
They are all gone away.

Nor is there one to-day
To speak them good or ill:
There is nothing more to say.

Why is it then we stray
Around the sunken sill?
They are all gone away,

And our poor fancy-play
For them is wasted skill:
There is nothing more to say.

There is ruin and decay
In the House on the Hill:
They are all gone away,
There is nothing more to say.

As we did last week, we begin Poetry & Poets in Rags with the 9/11 theme. Our first link is to an article that discusses 9/11 poetry. E.A.R.'s poem is not in the discussion. And there are many more articles about poets and poetry in all three of our sections, many not about 9/11, but a few more are are.

Thanks for clicking in.

Yours,
Rus

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