Friday, June 07, 2013

One end, which is always present ...

... Alexandria, by Peter Stothard - The Spectator. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)


Classical scholars ... will recognise this book for what it really is. The poets of classical Alexandria were renowned for their mastery of the elegy, a finely wrought verse form in which meditation on a past event — typically, a death — inspired mournful reflections, praise for the dead and, perhaps, some offering of consolation. Stothard, whose last book dwelled on his diagnosis with pancreatic cancer, has here written an elegy for himself.

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