Hamlet and Horatio, by Eugèné Delacroix. 1839
Below, we have some new poetry from Robert Mueller, one of our frequent contributors. Robert has a great sense of the potential for soundful poetry, for the music of language, its aural qualities. His poems should be read aloud, listened to carefully, chewed on a bit.
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Reading a bit of Harold Bloom on Genius makes me ponder the difference between talent and genius. As was his intention. An early quote:
Though Shakespeare is the largest consciousness studied in this book, all the rest of these exemplary creative minds have contributed to the consciousness of their readers and auditors. The question we must put to any writer must be: does she or he augment our consciousness, and how is it done? I find this a rough but effectual test: however I have been entertained, has my awareness been intensified, my consciousness widened and clarified? If not, then I have encountered talent, not genius. What is best and oldest in myself has not been activated.
