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Joseph Brodsky

Joseph Brodsky, a Russian-American poet, was born in St. Petersburg (then called Leningrad)on May 24, 1930. A disciple of Anna Akhmatova, he began writing poetry in 1955. He was first denounced by the state (for

Transatlantic

by Joseph Brodsky (1940–96)

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16

The last twenty years were good for practically everybody
save the dead. But maybe for them as well.
Maybe the Almighty Himself has turned a bit bourgeois
and uses a credit card. For otherwise time’s passage
makes no sense. Hence memories, recollections,
values, deportment. One hopes one hasn’t
spent one’s mother or father or both, or a handful of friends entirely
as they cease to hound one’s dreams. One’s dreams,
unlike the city, become less populous

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Poets Book of Days

May 24

Joseph Brodsky born, 1940

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Poetry Trivia

Question:

Christopher Marlowe's "The Passionate Shepherd to his Love" is a classic poem of ingenuous entreaty. Which of Marlowe's fellow Elizabethans wrote a skeptical response to his poem?

Answer

Sir Walter Ralegh. His "The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd" expresses doubts about the "truth in every shepherd's tongue."

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