Occasional Glimpses of the Sublime

George Herbert’s Easter Wings (1633)

davewheeler2@hotmail.com — Fri, 11 Apr 2025 13:01:28 +0000

Easter is round the corner once again so it’s perhaps time for a themed blog, and this week I’m taking a look at the “shaped” poem Easter Wings by 17ᵗʰ century poet and theologian George Herbert. “Shape” poetry, AKA “concrete” poetry or “pattern” poetry, is a form of visual poetry in which the words are … Continue reading George Herbert’s Easter Wings (1633) →

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Charles Laughton’s The Night Of The Hunter (1955)

davewheeler2@hotmail.com — Fri, 28 Mar 2025 13:57:54 +0000

The Night of the Hunter is an American thriller directed in 1955 by Charles Laughton (his first and only directorial feature) and starring Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters and Lillian Gish. I streamed this from the Internet Archive site recently, and what a movie it is! Mitchum excels as creepy serial killer cum self-styled preacher-man Harry … Continue reading Charles Laughton’s The Night Of The Hunter (1955) →

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Brad Bird’s The Iron Giant (1999)

davewheeler2@hotmail.com — Fri, 14 Mar 2025 14:18:39 +0000

Animation as an art form essentially got underway with the advent of celluloid film in 1888. Several different animation techniques were developed over the ensuing decades including stop-motion with objects, puppets, clay or cut-out figures, and hand-drawn or painted animation, the latter becoming the dominant technique of the 20th century. Today of course, traditional animation … Continue reading Brad Bird’s The Iron Giant (1999) →

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Edward Thomas’s Adlestrop (1915)

davewheeler2@hotmail.com — Fri, 28 Feb 2025 13:45:50 +0000

In the course of my work, I am occasionally called upon to visit the village of Mentmore in Buckinghamshire, serviced by the nearby railway station of Cheddington. I have boarded and alighted trains here on perhaps a dozen occasions (the latest being just a couple weeks ago) and on not one occasion have I ever … Continue reading Edward Thomas’s Adlestrop (1915) →

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Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 (1875)

davewheeler2@hotmail.com — Mon, 17 Feb 2025 11:53:53 +0000

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840–1893) is often hailed as Russia’s greatest composer (from a strong field), and his works epitomise the emotional depth for which Russian music is known. You might say he was something of a Russian Beethoven, with the same genius for dramatic intensity and emotional range, and indeed Tchaikovsky deeply respected and acknowledged … Continue reading Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 (1875) →

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Kate Bush’s Cloudbusting (1985)

davewheeler2@hotmail.com — Sat, 01 Feb 2025 10:40:57 +0000

Kate Bush is nothing if not innovative. She burst onto the scene in 1978, aged nineteen, with her debut single Wuthering Heights. Whilst the rest of the charts were populated either by the new generation of punk and new wave or the old generation of disco and soft rock, here was Kate singing theatrically about … Continue reading Kate Bush’s Cloudbusting (1985) →

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Oscar Wilde’s The Importance Of Being Earnest (1895)

davewheeler2@hotmail.com — Fri, 17 Jan 2025 12:04:55 +0000

Oscar Wilde is remembered these days for being 1) witty (“I have nothing to declare but my genius”) and 2) gay, in a far-from-ideal period of history in which to be gay (Bosie, Reading gaol and all that). I suppose all writers can be boiled down to a simple phrase (Orwell: edgy political allegory and … Continue reading Oscar Wilde’s The Importance Of Being Earnest (1895) →

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Robert Altman’s Short Cuts (1993)

davewheeler2@hotmail.com — Fri, 03 Jan 2025 12:18:47 +0000

I have just finished reading Raymond Carver’s collection of disquieting short stories, Short Cuts, which inspired the subject of today’s blog, Robert Altman’s 1993 movie of the same name. Carver was a master of the sub-genre of literary fiction dubbed “dirty realism” by American journalist Bill Buford. Dirty realism is characterised by depicting the seamier … Continue reading Robert Altman’s Short Cuts (1993) →

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Greg Lake’s I Believe In Father Christmas (1975)

davewheeler2@hotmail.com — Fri, 20 Dec 2024 10:48:39 +0000

We all have our favourite Christmas songs. Most of these we like through sheer tradition – songs like Slade’s Merry Christmas Everybody (1973) or Paul McCartney’s Wonderful Christmastime (1979) are just as part of the Christmas landscape, ingrained by sheer repetition, as Christmas trees and Father Christmas. I have delved into Spotify to explore Christmas … Continue reading Greg Lake’s I Believe In Father Christmas (1975) →

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Jerome K Jerome’s Three Men In A Boat (1889)

davewheeler2@hotmail.com — Sat, 07 Dec 2024 10:54:13 +0000

I don’t get out on boats very often, admittedly, but there is a very appealing aesthetic, isn’t there, of being on a boat in a slow-flowing river in the middle of summer? Think of punting down the river Cam, with the hum of insects in the hot air, a straw boater shielding your eyes from … Continue reading Jerome K Jerome’s Three Men In A Boat (1889) →

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