In a new post over at The Curator I take a look at poems by Alfred Tennyson and Suheir Hammad about violence, suggesting that we might be better off if poetry had a more central role in how we remember and think about war. The article begins:

 

Crimea. When the name appeared in the news last month, I suspect that it sounded exotic but vaguely familiar to modern, Western ears. At first, it might have sounded as if Russia was attempting to annex a part of Narnia or Middle-earth. We began to ask, What is Crimea?, Who owns Crimea?, Where, after all, is Crimea?—and is it “Crimea” or “the Crimea”? So, many of us turned to the source we expect to settle our most niggling questions: the internet.

Strange. Or was it?

In the Crimean War, just 160 years ago, poetry still played an important public role, perhaps even more central than the role of news outlets. [Read the rest over at The Curator.]