The library
Hesiod, Theogony, Part 1 – Hymn to the Muses
A reading of 'Hymn to the Muses' from Hesiods Theogony. Read by Daniel Mirante and accompanied by high-res closeups of 'Parnassus', by Andrea Mantegna, oil and egg tempera painting.
Essay
Hymn to Proserpine
“Hymn to Proserpine” is a poem by Algernon Charles Swinburne, published in Poems and Ballads in 1866. The poem is addressed to the goddess Proserpina, the Roman equivalent of Persephone, but laments the rise of Christianity for displacing the pagan goddess and the pantheon.
Essay
Novalis: Hymns to the Night (Part I)
Novalis, pseudonym of Friedrich Leopold, Freiherr von (baron of) Hardenberg, (born May 2, 1772, Oberwiederstedt, Prussian Saxony [Germany]—died March 25, 1801, Weissenfels, Saxony [Germany]), early German Romantic poet and theorist who greatly influenced later Romantic thought. Seven…
Essay
The Mistress of Vision by Francis Thompson
Francis Thompson's poem 'The Mistress of Vision' was written and worked on c.1895‒6 while FT was living at Pantasaph, and it was first published in New Poems (1897) in a section titled 'Sight and Insight'.
Essay
On Raglan Road by Kavanaugh Paul
The attested story is that Patrick Kavanagh personally gave Luke the poem. The setting of the ballad to the air of the older song 'The Breaking of the Day', which Kavanagh himself desired, is in no way straightforward; in fact it's a work of musical genius. That's why Kavanagh probably thought "I can't fit the words and music quite right, I've tried; if anyone can, this man can do it."
Essay