Peter McDonald
@pmcdthisandthat.bsky.social
Poet, translator, critic, editor.
Theodore Roethke, 1948
November 18, 2025 at 10:17 AM
Theodore Roethke, 1948
Michael Longley, 1979
November 9, 2025 at 11:01 AM
Michael Longley, 1979
T.S. Eliot, 1942. There’s a lot to be said for this, and about this.
November 6, 2025 at 10:54 AM
T.S. Eliot, 1942. There’s a lot to be said for this, and about this.
Michael Longley (1985)
October 31, 2025 at 10:56 AM
Michael Longley (1985)
Louis MacNeice, December 1942
October 23, 2025 at 8:39 AM
Louis MacNeice, December 1942
Geoffrey Hill, epigraph page to 1998 edn of The Triumph Of Love.
The ultimate out of office message.
The ultimate out of office message.
October 18, 2025 at 1:15 PM
Geoffrey Hill, epigraph page to 1998 edn of The Triumph Of Love.
The ultimate out of office message.
The ultimate out of office message.
From Geoffrey Hill’s The Triumph Of Love (1998).
October 13, 2025 at 9:13 AM
From Geoffrey Hill’s The Triumph Of Love (1998).
Louis MacNeice, on this National Poetry Day. I like this, though from what I can see it must strike many poetry-lovers these days as a kind of heresy. What a nasty man! (Well, of course he’s a man etc etc - write the rest of the outrage yourself…)
October 2, 2025 at 4:41 PM
Louis MacNeice, on this National Poetry Day. I like this, though from what I can see it must strike many poetry-lovers these days as a kind of heresy. What a nasty man! (Well, of course he’s a man etc etc - write the rest of the outrage yourself…)
Two years today since I quit the job I’d had for nearly a quarter of a century. I miss the students (with a small ‘s’), but little else, and am in many ways busier than ever. This poem partly explains why I had no appetite for being the Irish mud on such distinguished English boots.
September 30, 2025 at 10:33 AM
Two years today since I quit the job I’d had for nearly a quarter of a century. I miss the students (with a small ‘s’), but little else, and am in many ways busier than ever. This poem partly explains why I had no appetite for being the Irish mud on such distinguished English boots.
Sorry to learn of Tony Harrison’s death. Important in his own right, he was also one of the very few modern poets able to turn Greek poetry into poetry in English. His Oresteia (1981) is a permanent achievement: ktema es aei.
September 27, 2025 at 11:36 AM
Sorry to learn of Tony Harrison’s death. Important in his own right, he was also one of the very few modern poets able to turn Greek poetry into poetry in English. His Oresteia (1981) is a permanent achievement: ktema es aei.
Louis MacNeice, looking down into the grave at Dylan Thomas’s burial service, 1953.
August 25, 2025 at 12:54 PM
Louis MacNeice, looking down into the grave at Dylan Thomas’s burial service, 1953.
What being a poet might sometimes mean. Louis MacNeice, from ‘Visitations’ VI (1957).
July 10, 2025 at 8:39 AM
What being a poet might sometimes mean. Louis MacNeice, from ‘Visitations’ VI (1957).
Last snap of Pebbles for now. Beautiful friend, still missed after nearly two years.
July 4, 2025 at 8:45 AM
Last snap of Pebbles for now. Beautiful friend, still missed after nearly two years.
“As for poodles, don’t even get me started.”
July 4, 2025 at 8:43 AM
“As for poodles, don’t even get me started.”
“Look, just get on and take the picture. I have places to be.”
July 4, 2025 at 8:41 AM
“Look, just get on and take the picture. I have places to be.”
“So I like to sit in bags. Have you a problem with that?”
July 4, 2025 at 8:40 AM
“So I like to sit in bags. Have you a problem with that?”
“Either the bear goes, or I do.”
July 4, 2025 at 8:38 AM
“Either the bear goes, or I do.”
I miss Pebbles, and her healthy self regard.
July 4, 2025 at 8:36 AM
I miss Pebbles, and her healthy self regard.
Derek Mahon, 1981.
What a poem. I remember reading it when I was 19, and thinking “Well, that’s what perfection looks like. There’s nothing left for me to say”. I think I might have been right!
What a poem. I remember reading it when I was 19, and thinking “Well, that’s what perfection looks like. There’s nothing left for me to say”. I think I might have been right!
June 3, 2025 at 9:42 AM
Derek Mahon, 1981.
What a poem. I remember reading it when I was 19, and thinking “Well, that’s what perfection looks like. There’s nothing left for me to say”. I think I might have been right!
What a poem. I remember reading it when I was 19, and thinking “Well, that’s what perfection looks like. There’s nothing left for me to say”. I think I might have been right!
From the Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge: wonderful.
June 2, 2025 at 9:41 PM
From the Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge: wonderful.
English pottery.
June 1, 2025 at 12:00 PM
English pottery.
Ezra Pound, from Cathay.
May 31, 2025 at 9:41 AM
Ezra Pound, from Cathay.
As I work (pretty much every day) with the Variorum Yeats, it cheers me to look at the bookplate in my copy, made by Jack Yeats - a lovely thing.
May 19, 2025 at 11:58 AM
As I work (pretty much every day) with the Variorum Yeats, it cheers me to look at the bookplate in my copy, made by Jack Yeats - a lovely thing.
Thom Gunn (after Ben Jonson, maybe?)
Treat ‘em mean …
Treat ‘em mean …
May 12, 2025 at 1:19 PM
Thom Gunn (after Ben Jonson, maybe?)
Treat ‘em mean …
Treat ‘em mean …
Early Allen Tate: fascinating, haunted, still weirdly powerful.
(I’m glad to have lectured on Tate at Oxford in my last year there. The students, given permission to love him, loved him.)
(I’m glad to have lectured on Tate at Oxford in my last year there. The students, given permission to love him, loved him.)
May 10, 2025 at 10:25 AM
Early Allen Tate: fascinating, haunted, still weirdly powerful.
(I’m glad to have lectured on Tate at Oxford in my last year there. The students, given permission to love him, loved him.)
(I’m glad to have lectured on Tate at Oxford in my last year there. The students, given permission to love him, loved him.)