New Jersey, of course, has a great tradition of poets, from Philip Freneau, Walt Whitman, William Carlos Williams, Allen Ginsberg up to notable contemporaries like C.K. Williams (born in Newark), Robert Pinsky (from Long Branch), and Gerald Stern and Alicia Ostriker who make their homes in Lamberstville and Princeton respectively. My apologies to other fine […]
Stephen Dunn
Stephen Dunn: Dickens in Pleasantville
It is neither the best nor worst of times, no children begging in the streets, or fathers coming home coughing, covered with soot. The mills, mines, and factories are the nearby casino hotels, all in one, and Dickens sees in the workers’ eyes a familiar dulling of the spirit. But they have jobs. In their […]
Stephen Dunn: Poe in Margate
To come back and learn his alcoholism was an illness–Poe had to laugh at that. He knew the vanity of excuses better than anyone, and how good self-destruction feels when one is in the act of it. Still, he thought, you must be sober to write your autobiography, set things straight. He’d give up all […]