The City is of Night; perchance of Death…
James “B.V.” Thomson (1834–1882) – poet, journalist, translator, anarchist, atheist – was born #OTD, 23 Nov, in Port Glasgow. Best known for his long poem THE CITY OF DREADFUL NIGHT, he influenced TS Eliot & is seen as a progenitor of Modernism
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https://psychogeographicreview.com/the-city-of-dreadful-night/
#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #Victorian #19thcentury #modernism #TSEliot
An extract from a film by Ernest Schonfield of the poet Tom Leonard speaking extempore about writing the biography PLACES OF THE MIND (Cape, 1993), on the life & work of James “B.V.” Thomson
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYq5YZbXjnM
#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #Victorian #19thcentury #modernism #TSEliot
The wine of Love is music,
And the feast of Love is song:
And when Love sits down to the banquet,
Love sits long:
Sits long and ariseth drunken,
But not with the feast and the wine;
He reeleth with his own heart,
That great rich Vine.
—James “B.V.” Thomson, “The Wine of Love”
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https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/50320/the-wine-of-love
#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #Victorian #19thcentury #modernism #TSEliot
Works by James “B.V.” Thomson – “The City of Dreadful Night” & “Satires & Profanities” – are available free online via @gutenberg_org
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https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/569
#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #Victorian #19thcentury #modernism #TSEliot
Assoc for Scottish Literature
