Blog of Susannah Quinsee about life, work, parenthood and play
Whilst studying for my PhD, I read a lot of Adriene Rich, as her work on gender and sexuality provided a useful critical context for my work on androgyny, particularly On Lies, Secrets and Silence. She also wrote an essay Continue reading A Ball is for Throwing, Adrienne Rich
One of the poetry books I actually have with me is a collection of Sylvia Plath’s poems, given to me by three friends from university. I do not remember studying her poems, but flicking through the collection I find post-its Continue reading Morning Song, Sylvia Plath
Lockdown: The Return week 3, I think. Starting to lose track of time despite tracking time in various ways. Think it is more that I forget when things actually happened, on which days precisely. The week seemed to go fast Continue reading Monday round-up: 23rd November
I’ve heard of the 13th century Persian, Islamic and Sufi poet, Rumi, but I cannot recall ever reading much of his poetry. So this seemed like a good opportunity. When I started to do more research, I realise that I Continue reading The Guest House, Jalaluddin Rumi
So a bit of a silly poem for Saturday, we all need a bit of light relief. When I told a friend at work that I was putting a poem on my blog each day during Lockdown: The Return, she Continue reading Saturday silly
I went down a bit of an internet rabbit hole trying to choose today’s poem. I remembered I had read a beautiful poem many years ago at a friend’s wedding but I cannot remember which one it was. Cue, endless Continue reading Love Without Hope, Robert Graves
Amazingly, I didn’t really study any of Yeats’ poetry until I was at University. And then I feel like I spent an entire term studying him! Particularly irksome was the Yeats’ classes were scheduled on a Friday morning at 9am Continue reading The Sorrow of Love, W.B.Yeats
A colleague and friend sent me this poem as a suggestion for this blog series, and so I thought I would include it today. I didn’t actually know this poem, but it definitely resonated with some of my current feelings. Continue reading Prayer, Carol Ann Duffy
Another well known poem for today and one that I remember studying at school. I think I must have been given this for either my GCSEs or A-levels as I remember this being one of the first poems I studied Continue reading The Road Not Taken, Robert Frost
My last poet that I studied for my PhD was Aphra Behn. She is probably the most well known of the three. Arguably she was the first English novelist, she wrote plays, novels, poems, certainly she was one of the Continue reading Song. Love Arm’d, Aphra Behn