This week I have written about Crabbe, Lowestoft and authenticity in contemporary narrative verse. (And a bit about soft play centres, which Crabbe would certainly have included in The Borough had they existed in 1800.)

New edition of Peter Didsbury's "new and collected poems" this April. I am very excited. Poetry's best kept secret. www.bloodaxebooks.com/ecs/product/...

A third Christmas poem, while we’re still in the season.

This week in the poetry blogs w/ @johnsiddique.bsky.social @jamesmcconachie1.bsky.social @myheadtheforest.bsky.social @clareshawpoet.bsky.social @alinaetc.bsky.social @victoriamoul.bsky.social @shotscarecrow.bsky.social @pearlpoet.bsky.social 1/3 www.vianegativa.us/2025/12/poet...

A seasonal post about Jonson’s Christmas masque, performed at this time of year in 1616/1617.

Up today, the first in a short series of favourite Christmas poems. Merry Christmas everyone!

The poetry of snow, brilliance in the dark & more w/ @shotscarecrow.bsky.social @robin-gow-poet.bsky.social @victoriamoul.bsky.social @alinaetc.bsky.social @elcurwen.bsky.social @myheadtheforest.bsky.social @webbish6.bsky.social @velveteenrabbi.bsky.social 2/3 www.vianegativa.us/2025/12/poet...

Every time there's a breaking story about a celeb's treatment of women, everyone in the book world asks, "Is it finally Walliams?" Well, it finally is.

A seasonal piece today on the different ways of writing a Christmas poem in early modern England.

Celebrating Emily Dickinson's 195th b-day & more with @victoriamoul.bsky.social @wendypratt.bsky.social @clareshawpoet.bsky.social @jntod.bsky.social @annettemakino.bsky.social @myheadtheforest.bsky.social @johnglenday.bsky.social @writtenbyallison.bsky.social 2/4 www.vianegativa.us/2025/12/poet...

The running of the deer: celebrating Christmas in 1644 open.substack.com/pub/vamoul/p...

Poets on silence, erasure, winter & more @victoriamoul.bsky.social @clareshawpoet.bsky.social @myheadtheforest.bsky.social @lesleymwheeler.bsky.social @velveteenrabbi.bsky.social @garybarwin.bsky.social @pfanderson.bsky.social @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social 2/3 www.vianegativa.us/2025/12/poet...

This week I have written about William Harvey and the circulation of the blood in the poetry of the 1660s. Not expecting a massive flood of readers for this one.

This week in the poetry blogs with @victoriamoul.bsky.social @robmclennan.bsky.social @emmalee1.bsky.social @kimmoorepoet.bsky.social @kent-nj.bsky.social @beckyltuch.bsky.social @robin-gow-poet.bsky.social @matriches.bsky.social 1/3 www.vianegativa.us/2025/12/poet...

Read my louche sex poem and much more besides in the new Little Review.

This weeks episode of The Poems We Made Along The Way is with the wonderful Gillian Allnutt whose book Lode has been shortlisted for this years T.S. Eliot Prize. Check it out wherever good podcasts can be found.

Very interesting to see Penguin venturing back into the waters of parallel text. (They used to do this a lot but I haven't seen one for ages.)

I'm not on here much, but I am so excited to share the cover of my forthcoming Catullus translation, featuring an amazing painting by Eduardo Mata Icasa (called "Nature of Emptiness"). As soon as I saw the painting, I knew no other work of art could more perfectly capture how I think about Catullus.

This week I’ve written about e. e. cummings and Horace’s least fashionable poem.

2/3 @robin-gow-poet.bsky.social @victoriamoul.bsky.social @clareshawpoet.bsky.social @jntod.bsky.social @annettemakino.bsky.social @writtenbyallison.bsky.social @victoriaspires.bsky.social @kelliagodon.bsky.social @kristybowen.bsky.social www.vianegativa.us/2025/11/poet...

This week I have written about two big anthologies of love poetry, published originally in the 70s, how they were redone for the new century, and what makes an anthology really stand out.

This week in the poetry blogs with @roguestrands.bsky.social @robmclennan.bsky.social @mcrucefix.bsky.social @emmalee1.bsky.social @chaucercameron.bsky.social @kent-nj.bsky.social @robin-gow-poet.bsky.social @victoriamoul.bsky.social 1/3 www.vianegativa.us/2025/11/poet...

Today I have written about Pound's first canto and Homer in Latin.

A commitment to express the inexpressible from @alinaetc.bsky.social @victoriamoul.bsky.social @shawnalemay.bsky.social @annettemakino.bsky.social @myheadtheforest.bsky.social @pi-and-anne.bsky.social @vanopticon.bsky.social @jamesmcconachie1.bsky.social 2/4 www.vianegativa.us/2025/11/poet...

Some readers of my substack might be interested in this interview I did with Greg Allum as part of the launch of his new Ink and Ribbon press:

My comment, for @pnreview.bsky.social, on the Len Pennie & Sarah Doyle affair - or Canongagegate, as I like to think of it. Honourable mentions: @naush.bsky.social, @thetimes.com. Feel free to share, to attack me with your little jelly pitchforks, or to ignore. www.pnreview.co.uk/archive/rema...

Today I’ve written more about a fun Gunpowder Plot play from the 1680s. (A day late -- it was Guy Fawkes' in the UK yesterday.) Intrepid adventurer in early modern Latin that I am, I actually read the whole thing this morning and this is my field report. TLDR: surprisingly good.

A book mess, the ancient netherworld & more w/ @robin-gow-poet.bsky.social @victoriamoul.bsky.social @shawnalemay.bsky.social @myheadtheforest.bsky.social @kathleenjamie.bsky.social @writtenbyallison.bsky.social @vanopticon.bsky.social @kent-nj.bsky.social 2/3 www.vianegativa.us/2025/11/poet...

For paid subscribers to my substack (but everyone can read the first few paras) here’s a fairly long review essay about the great but rebarbative American poet Anthony Hecht, which I wrote originally for “The Dark Horse”. There’ll be a free piece as usual on Thursday.

Today I’ve written about poetic harvests in Housman, Virgil, Homer, Marvell, Fisher, Rosenberg and Davies.

Fluff under pressure, a man in a shattered house & more with @victoriamoul.bsky.social @suefinch.bsky.social @alinaetc.bsky.social @clareshawpoet.bsky.social @pi-and-anne.bsky.social @dharmabam.bsky.social @victoriaspires.bsky.social @velveteenrabbi.bsky.social 2/3 www.vianegativa.us/2025/10/poet...

Today a review of a huge new book on the translation of Virgil - written for the TLS, here on substack available in full to paid subscribers only. (Free subscribers can read the first part.)

Today I’ve written about the enduring popularity and stimulating ambiguity of a little poem about a naughty monk.

this is very very nice and I am still not sure I read the email accurately - big thanks to @leverhulme.ac.uk, without whom, incidentally, I could not have written A FLAT PLACE

I have belatedly noticed that my review of Susanna Morton Braund’s giant new book on the translation of Virgil was in the TLS last week. Paid substack subscribers will have access to a copy on there fairly soon.

A covert translation, how to bake a foole & more with @robin-gow-poet.bsky.social @victoriamoul.bsky.social @wendypratt.bsky.social @suefinch.bsky.social @myheadtheforest.bsky.social @vanopticon.bsky.social @webbish6.bsky.social @velveteenrabbi.bsky.social 2/3 www.vianegativa.us/2025/10/poet...

When does eccentricity become dangerous? The Campaign Requiring Obliteration Of Pillboxes (C.R.O.O.P) believe pillboxes are portals to an England invaded by Nazis. Normally this would just be thought of a bit mad, but C.R.O.O.P. also believe in bombs. – Bob Wellings, BBC Nationwide

Hardly an earth-shattering observation, but I am very moved by Marcus Aurelius's "Meditations", and the Greek is lovely. (Though text quite messy.) Good option for anyone interested in reading some koine Greek which is a bit more literary/rhetorical in flavour than most of the NT.

Under Over Over - West Hampstead So it's taken a while, but I've finally found a location where you can clearly see London Underground trains traveling over London Overground trains. The vantage point is at West Hampstead Overground station at the end of the platform.

'Her singular blend of severity and skittishness is unrivalled in the poetry of her peers.' Anthony Lane for @newyorker.com on The Miraculous Season, by V. R. Lang, edited by Rosa Campbell. Read the review: www.newyorker.com/magazine/202... Browse the book: www.carcanet.co.uk/978180017337...

Today I’ve written about a poem by Michael Longley and the questions it raises about obscurity, in-jokes and what makes a poem work.

This week in the poetry blogs with @jntod.bsky.social @robmclennan.bsky.social @pearlpoet.bsky.social @willsjack.bsky.social @salenagodden.bsky.social @shotscarecrow.bsky.social @victoriamoul.bsky.social @suefinch.bsky.social @saudaminideo.bsky.social 1/3 www.vianegativa.us/2025/10/poet...

One of my mum’s last wishes was that she wasn’t remembered for the way that the cancer had brutalised her. So today, four years gone, I choose to remember: 1) she was accepted into the Royal Ballet 2) she saw The Beatles, twice 3) she loved Higher State of Consciousness by Josh Wink Love you Mum x

This week half the family (including me) are a bit ill, and French politics has gone even madder than usual, so it has been a comfort to remind myself of the vagaries of fortune with one of my oldest and wisest poet friends, Ben Jonson.

Hilarious total lack of any kind of safety equipment in this classic clip. You have to wonder about the insurance situation.

A gun utters a death wish; a spare poem spares us nothing— @victoriamoul.bsky.social @suefinch.bsky.social @alinaetc.bsky.social @clareshawpoet.bsky.social @myheadtheforest.bsky.social @dharmabam.bsky.social @vanopticon.bsky.social @richfergusonpoet.bsky.social 2/3 www.vianegativa.us/2025/10/poet...

Ah the distant (but not that distant) scent of yet another French election. I've been French for about six years and it has been really excellent value, electorally speaking.

I was once hungover at Heathrow, after an unplanned night of excess that included inexplicably watching the World Darts Championship. In the horrible pub in departures at 7am was the guy who came second, chain-downing pints of lager. I wanted to sympathize but I know nothing at all about darts so

Today I have written about some of the many poetry books people have sent me over the last year (plus one fabulous one that I bought myself). Featuring James Appleby, David Bleiman, Graeme Richardson, Suzannah V. Evans, Reagan Upshaw, Alex Wylie, Henry Gould and Souleymane Diamanka (pictured).

Up on the substack today is an essay I wrote for PNR on translation, grace and (according to me) one of the great unexpected love poems to the English language.