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I never felt so much Since I have felt at all The tingling smell and touch Of dogrose and sweet briar, Nettles against the wall, All sours and sweets that grow Together or apart… —“A Birthday”, by poet, novelist & translator Edwin Muir (1887–1959), born #OTD, 15 May #poem #poetry 1/10

“Edwin Muir (1887–1959) is a mysteriously neglected, gorgeous, & emotionally penetrating poet. Of all the many pieces of writing spurred by the Cold War & the threat of nuclear apocalypse… his poem ‘The Horses’ may be the most effective” — @rpinsky.bsky.social #poetry 2/10 slate.com/culture/1999...

Barely a twelvemonth after The seven days war that put the world to sleep, Late in the evening the strange horses came. By then we had made our covenant with silence, But in the first few days it was so still We listened to our breathing and were afraid… —Edwin Muir, “The Horses” #poem #poetry 3/10

“On the second Friday of March 2020, before the first UK lockdown had begun… I was listening to the BBC news & boiling pasta for my children’s tea when a line of verse ran through my head” @jntod.bsky.social on Edwin Muir’s poem “The Horses” #poetry 4/10 someflowerssoon.substack.com/p/we-would-n...

The houses stir and pluck their roofs and walls Apart as if in play and fling their stones Against the sky to make a common arc And fall again. The conflagrations raise Their mountainous precipices… —Edwin Muir, “The River” #poem #poetry 5/10

“What is remarkable is that Muir did not become a social realist, like WH Auden, Cecil Day-Lewis, Stephen Spender, & other related British poets… who didn’t know anything close to what Muir knew about urban poverty” @andrewfrisardi.bsky.social on Edwin Muir 6/10 www.sacredweb.com/volume-51/th...

Old gods and goddesses who have lived so long Through time and never found eternity, Fettered by wasting wood and hollowing hill, You should have fled our ever-dying song… —Edwin Muir, “To the Old Gods” #poem #poetry 7/10

One foot in Eden still, I stand And look across the other land. The world’s great day is growing late, Yet strange these fields that we have planted So long with crops of love and hate… —Edwin Muir, “One Foot in Eden” #poem #poetry 8/10

Edwin Muir reads “One foot in Eden” #poem #poetry 9/10 www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2Rw...

“[Edwin Muir’s] travels in the 1920s immediately after the end of World War One, and again at the end of World War Two, tell a story of Europe itself at critical points in its history” —Dr Margery Palmer McCulloch, on the OUP blog 10/10 blog.oup.com/2017/05/edwi...