PolyArchive

The Man-Moth Elizabeth Bishop Man-Moth: Newspaper misprint for “mammoth.” Here, above, cracks in the buildings are filled with battered moonlight. The whole shadow of Man is only as big as his hat. It lies at his feet like a circle for a doll to stand on, and he makes an inverted pin, the point magnetized […]

Inventory Dorothy Parker Inventory: Four be the things I am wiser to know: Idleness, sorrow, a friend, and a foe. Four be the things I’d been better without: Love, curiosity, freckles, and doubt. Three be the things I shall never attain: Envy, content, and sufficient champagne. Three be the things I shall have till I […]

The Mower to the Glow-Worms Andrew Marvell Ye living lamps, by whose dear light The nightingale does sit so late, And studying all the summer night, Her matchless songs does meditate; Ye country comets, that portend No war nor prince’s funeral, Shining unto no higher end Than to presage the grass’s fall; Ye glow-worms, whose […]

“You never know what worse luck your bad luck has saved you from.”–Cormac McCarthy, No Country for Old Men  

Links of the Week, vol. 17 The following are links to interesting content we’ve read recently. If you would like to recommend a piece to share with our readers (no paywalled content, please), please use the contact form on our About page. ────────────── ● ────────────── Ivan Bunin hated everyone… well, almost everyone. A very interesting […]

“I have a foreboding of an America in my children’s or grandchildren’s time — when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest […]

A Remedy for Insomnia Vera Pavlova (tr. Steven Seymour) Not sheep coming down the hills, not cracks on the ceiling— count the ones you loved, the former tenants of dreams who would keep you awake, once meant the world to you, rocked you in their arms, those who loved you . . . You will […]

Gastro Obscura: A Food Adventurer’s Guide by Cecily Wong and Dylan Thuras Workman Publishing Company Description A New York Times, USA Today, and national indie bestseller. A Feast of Wonder! Created by the ever-curious minds behind Atlas Obscura, this breathtaking guide transforms our sense of what people around the world eat and drink. Covering all seven […]

Nothingsville, MN Franz Wright The sole tavern there, empty and filled with cigarette smoke; the smell of beer, urine, and the infinite sadness you dread and need so much of for some reason.

To Jane: The Invitation Percy Bysshe Shelley Best and brightest, come away! Fairer far than this fair Day, Which, like thee to those in sorrow, Comes to bid a sweet good-morrow To the rough Year just awake In its cradle on the brake. The Brightest hour of unborn Spring, Through the winter wandering, Found, it […]

Links of the Week, vol. 16 The following are links to interesting content we’ve read recently. If you would like to recommend a piece to share with our readers (no paywalled content, please), please use the contact form on our About page. ────────────── ● ────────────── Mosab Abu Toha’s Substack is among the most important documentation […]

The Queen of Carthage Louise Glück Brutal to love, more brutal to die. And brutal beyond the reaches of justice to die of love. In the end, Dido summoned her ladies in waiting that they might see the harsh destiny inscribed for her by the Fates. She said, “Aeneas came to me over the shimmering […]

A Woman of Adventure: The Life and Times of First Lady Lou Henry Hoover Annette B. Dunlap University of Nebraska Press Description When Lou Henry married Herbert Hoover in February 1899, she looked forward to a partnership of equality and a life of adventure. She could fire a rifle and sit a horse as well […]

May-Day Ralph Waldo Emerson Daughter of Heaven and Earth, coy Spring, With sudden passion languishing, Maketh all things softly smile, Painteth pictures mile on mile, Holds a cup with cowslip-wreaths, Whence a smokeless incense breathes. Girls are peeling the sweet willow, Poplar white, and Gilead-tree, And troops of boys Shouting with whoop and hilloa, And […]

Absence Matthew Arnold In this fair stranger’s eyes of grey Thine eyes, my love, I see. I shudder: for the passing day Had borne me far from thee. This is the curse of life: that not A nobler calmer train Of wiser thoughts and feelings blot Our passions from our brain; But each day brings […]