The English Miscellany

Most writers and intrigued by the idea that they might be more productive. Some writers want to become prolific. Some writers, such as Shakespeare, were able to churn out two or more major works every year; others, such as Charles Dickens or Walter Scott, astonish us by the sheer quantity of their work. I was surprised to discover recently that my writing notebook lists plans for 23 books. Clearly some of these projects are little more than a title and an outline. So the problem is not having ideas, it’s more a question of having the time, the discipline and the confidence to see them through to completion as published works. In short, I am now trying to increase my productivity by researching some of the recurring ideas typically adopted by successful writers. While doing some research recently on translations of Aristophanes’ Lysistrata , I cam across the impressive productivity of JackLindsay , who produced 170 creative and non-fiction works during his long career. ...

When s tudent reader s s truggle with poetry, it' s often the relation s hip between s ound and s en s e that pre s ent s a high degree of difficulty. It' s very ea s y to be overcome by pitter-patter rhythm s and arcane name s for metrical technique s and poetic form s . But picking s ound pattern s may help to open up a variety of interpretation s . Thi s mean s s hifting from the identification of a local effect to the elaboration of more complex and nuanced s emantic po ss ibilitie s . The fir s t s onic ta s k for the critical reader involve s the s potting of s imilar s ound s s uch a s alliteration. A higher level of creative reading require s s en s itivity in order to link the s e s ound clu s ter s to the poem' s que s tion s , and it s an s wer s . A great poem hold s together, in tight compre ss ion, the different element s of form and technique, tone s and s tyle, form and content. Critical writing - the expo s ition and appre...