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Following on from Lessing, there are some brilliant religious poems in various forms. The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám is an example of Persian poetry translated by Edward FitzGerald and first published in 1859. Some for the pleasures here below Others yearn for The Prophet’s Paradise to come; Ah, take the…

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Nathan the Wise, a five Act dramatic poem. I have borrowed the German Library edition (Vol. 12) of this work of the Enlightenment period.  Lessing’s message, conveyed in a simple love story, is that humanity can overcome hatred and the fear of difference. Revealed faiths are part of the same…

On our wedding anniversary I try to pen something romantic and usually my efforts are appreciated by my wife, Clare. At a writing workshop at Queen’s University Belfast recently, there was a man whose life had dealt him some hard knocks and who had been inspired to try his hand…

Does anyone know of a poet called Connor Dallacht? I vaguely remember reading a poem of his when I was in the coffe shop outside Falcarragh – the O’Kanes’s pottery studio on the site of the old rectory. This is a beautiful spot for enjoying good coffee in very pleasant…

   WB Yeats by Augustus John The Lake Isle of Innisfree    I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree, And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made: Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honeybee, And live alone in the bee-loud glade.…