Page 3 of 3 <

Poet's Choice

Discussion Policy

Comments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. Finally, we will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this site. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.

something like heavens to murgatory,

and all the morphology of remorse.

To think purgatory led to heaven!

An armchair, mon cher , not a chariot,

all that old passion put out to pasture

for grazing, you know, on "past" memories.

This is wit on a rampage, dramatizing its own excessive drama, generating a sense of desperation as well as knowledge. This is not quite a mad song, but nearly.

The word "humor" originates in the fluids of human personality and "comedy" in the performer's mask. Although we say "witticism" to connote something superficially amusing, Sarah Arvio's book reminds us that the term "wit" can mean the mind itself.

< 3

Find More Reviews and Features in Books

War stripped of all its glory

In "The Good Soldiers," Pulitzer Prize winning reporter David Finkel faced an unenviable task in writing his on-the-ground account of war in Iraq.

Who do men say that I am?

Though too cursory to work as an intro to the Gospels, Mary Gordon's "Reading Jesus" should appeal to anyone who wants to wrestle with the problems and paradoxes of the New Testament.