THE WEEKLY MACHEN will be on hiatus for the first half of this summer. Regular postings of Arthur Machen’s Evening News articles will resume on Thursday, July 11, 2024. In the meantime, there are over 120 news stories available to read. During the break, a personal favorite will be highlighted each week. To start:
POETRY
Congratulations to Jesse Keith Butler, the author of The Living Law, for his recent book launch at Perfect Books of Ottawa. The event included a poetry reading by Butler and concluded successfully with the store selling its complete stock.
A Nursery-Rhyme For Paradox by Joshua Alan Sturgill
Talks About Books: What is your favourite criminal trial? I am all for the case of Madeleine Smith myself, though I think there is a great deal to be said for the Campden mystery, out of which Mr. Masefield made a play.
NEW POETRY
Ages of Information by Joshua Alan Sturgill
A Journey Through Khaki-Land: As it seemed to me, I passed half a dozen of such farms on the journey from Sheffield to Huddersfield, and any one of them might have been the model for “Wuthering Heights.” Emily Brontë pined and sickened away from the moors.
The Ideal Londoner’s Holiday: Narrow winding lanes with hedges all wild and overgrown are not convenient for motorists; and so they must go, for this is an age of progress. I always admit the progress—but I have my own opinion as to the ultimate destination of the progressive. … I suppose we must console ourselves as best we can with the red raw of the new County Lunatic Asylum, and with the thought that lunacy is greatly on the increase.
NEW POETRY
IṢA: The Present and Approaching Lord by Joshua Alan Sturgill
“Merry England!”: “The Middle Ages! What were the drains like in the Middle Ages? Tell me that.” He might have asked what about the motor-omnibuses, the taxi-cabs, the electric lighting, the “tubes” in the Middle Ages. And yet, granting our superiority in these and many other matters. are we merrier than of old? Are we merry at all? I have a shrewd suspicion that we have lost mirth and gained comfort—a very different thing.
AN ARTHUR MACHEN CALENDAR
NEW POETRY
Ash and Maples by Joshua Alan Sturgill
Max Reinhardt’s Latest: There is cold horror upon the heart of Œdipus; he hopes for a moment that there is some mistake. He hopes only for a moment; from the thronging, surging crowd an old man is pushed forward, the herdsman who had exposed him at the bidding of his father and mother; and, as with fire and thunder from heaven. Œdipus and Jocasta are smitten from our sight.
NEW POETRY
Now That It’s Inside Out, a short prose poem by Joshua Alan Sturgill
AN ARTHUR MACHEN CALENDAR
St. George and the Dragon
When Knights Were Bold: But who can get up any shadow of excitement over the encounter of two limp cabbage-stalks with steel?Really, there was nothing in it. Three times only, as far as I can remember, applause sounded; and, in each case the horses ran their course with some spirit and directness, and a shock was at least simulated; one saw the knights swaying in their saddles.
NEW POETRY
Jesse Keith Butler, the author of The Living Law, was interviewed by Rob McLennan.
Exile and Madness: Some Thoughts On Being Cursed by Joshua Alan Sturgill, the author of Now A Major Motion Picture.
The Red-Cross Treasure House: And it struck me that there was a link that united nearly all the objects in Messrs. Christie’s “Great Rooms,” whether they came from medæval China, the France of the Regency, or seventeenth-century England. They are beautiful, all of them, because they were “made for fun”; not because they were made for use.
NEW POETRY
Even This Far by Joshua Alan Sturgill
Religio Poetae, Part 6: Dale Nelson concludes his study of Coventry Patmore’s classic.
A New War Poet: It is with difficulty that I express my meaning—for poetry by its definition is the last and essential truth, which can be defined no farther; but I would say that the poem of “Evening in February” seems to me to picture eternity itself.
Lord Dunsany’s Introduction: I have looked for a poet amongst the Irish peasants because it seemed to me that almost only amongst them there was in daily use a diction worthy of poetry, as well as an imagination capable of dealing with the great and simple things that are a poet’s wares.
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