Poetry

WH Auden 'In Praise of Limestone'

His great poem about the North Pennines, plus a bit of Italy [1300 words 8 mins

Nov 13 •

Ronald Turnbull

Coleridge's trip to 'Sham-onix'

The 19th century craze for people writing poems about Mont Blanc (even if they'd never been there) [1700 words 7 mins

May 29 •

Ronald Turnbull

Mind has Mountains

Gerard Manley Hopkins could have been the greatest outdoor writer of the Victorian age. But, for religious reasons, wasn’t. [1300 words 6 mins

Mar 13 •

Ronald Turnbull

The Mountains and the Sea

“Two Voices are there,” according to Wordsworth: the Mountains, and the Sea. Suggesting that small boat stuff is a sort of horizontal mountains. [1000…

Jan 10 •

Ronald Turnbull

Coire na Caime, Liathach

Scotland's poet Hugh MacDiarmid has written about Liathach in a verse that embraces the mountain in all its peculiar sandstone grimness. [900 words, 4…

Jan 3 •

Ronald Turnbull

T S Eliot on Rannoch Moor

Was TS Eliot a poet of the Scottish Highlands? Apparently, he was. ‘Rannoch by Glencoe’ has been considered as his only great short lyric. Even if he…

Dec 13, 2023 •

Ronald Turnbull

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