I’ve been writing an essay on Darwin and metaphor and came across this entry from the ‘N’ notebook [Metaphysics and Expression] of 1838-39 (the line breaks are my own and the ellipses refer to a long break of text about Darwin’s children):
“Hope is the expectant eye.
looking to distant object, brightened
& moistened by emotion,–…
Expression of affection
is [...]
Tag Archive > Charles Darwin
Darwin as poet 2
A lost chance Darwin poem
I was just searching out an answer to a question posed by Dr. Paul White of the Darwin Correspondence Project in relation to the death of Charles Darwin and never remembering where I find anything, I returned to The Complete Works of Charles Darwin Online and to Emma’s diary for the year 1882 and discovered [...]
Wallace to her Darwin
I wanted to see Ruth Padel speak at Edinburgh Writers’ Fest, but sadly parental commitments prohibited me at the last minute. I have been both curious and a bit tentative about meeting her, though I sent her an email proposing we should and she responded very sweetly to me. Two women poets with essentially the [...]
Edinburgh Festival in The List
Here’s a link to my event in The List magazine. I’m reading with Jen Hadfield, the T.S. Eliot poetry prizewinner featured here. Full details of our event are also listed below if you scroll down to August 17th, 4:30.
A Darwinian Dialogue
I haven’t blogged in quite some time, since my days at Loch Long, collecting old pottery from the beach. Since then, a couple of readings, most recently at the lovely Cambridge Libraries Garden Party under Milton’s tree at Christ’s College. A gorgeous evening and I got to meet a lot of keen librarians, my favorite [...]
Polarbear and Evolving Words–Darwin200
Polarbear and Evolving Words–UK-based performance poet Polarbear has worked with local writers to create spoken word pieces about evolutionary theory. They’ll be performing on July 9th 8 p.m. at The Junction in Cambridge. This is part of Darwin200, a national (and frankly international) festival celebrating Charles Darwin and his ideas around the 200th anniversary of [...]
Ten Things I’ve Learned from Darwin
This is a short piece I wrote for the weekend Australian Magazine about my work with Charles Darwin. It was published the weekend following his birthday in February, 2009.
When I was five, my father put me on his knee and tried to explain the history of evolution to me. I stared in disbelief, as everything [...]
The Reception of Charles Darwin in Europe
I attended the Colloquium on Charles Darwin in Europe at Christ’s College, Cambridge last week (to launch The Reception of Charles Darwin in Europe, edited by Eve-Marie Engels and Thomas F. Glick), and read a few poems at the cocktail reception. It was a fascinating and personally thrilling day which included scholars from around the world [...]
Blog for Darwin
There’s still a day left to Blog for Darwin. The site is taking new posts until February 15th.
I also discovered today, and have linked it below, a site called ‘Darwinian Poetry’ in which a 1,200 random words have been fed into a computer program which tracks the evolution, as it were, the descendants of random groupings [...]
Happy Birthday Charles Darwin
If I post this now, ten minutes to midnight on February 12, 2009, I can still officially say Happy Birthday. But then again I’m now in London, and in Australia, his birthday ended ten hours ago. I’ve just returned from the Natural History Museum’s Birthday Celebration, where the white marble statue of a be-seated Darwin [...]
