Posts By: Steve Ely
‘The Word made Fresh’ – Restoring the Bible to English Poetry
My history with the Bible goes back a long way and has materially influenced the course of my life as well as my intellectual, artistic and religious development. As a militant teenage atheist from an a-religious background, I would nevertheless regularly read the King James Bible — as ‘literature’ (that is, for enjoyment) but also…
Steve Ely
‘Liberating Poetic Chaos’
Sylvia Plath worked hard at her poetry throughout the 1950s. She studied, read widely and mastered a range of poetic techniques, writing hundreds of poems. Her work received awards and prizes, was published in magazines and Plath was regarded as — and regarded herself as — a ‘success’. However, by 1960, Plath had become dissatisfied…
Steve Ely
Poetry of public and social engagement
A trawl of the poetry-publishing magazines and presses confirms that there is a lot of well-written, intelligent and sensitive poetry around today. However, much of it is pretty samey — first-person lyric poetry stimulated by occasion, experience and impression. The poet encounters something more or less out of the blue — a landscape, a ‘feeling’,…
Steve Ely