James Merrill's "Christmas Tree" episode artwork

EPISODE · Dec 18, 2024 · 4 MIN

James Merrill's "Christmas Tree"

from The Daily Poem · host Sean Johnson

Today’s selection is an ideal poem for Advent–a bittersweet shape poem that expresses the “hopes and fears of all the years.”Poet and critic John Hollander wrote of Merrill that he “was continually reengaging those Proustian themes of the retrieval of lost childhood, the operations of involuntary memory and of an imaginative memory even more mysterious.” This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribe

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James Merrill's "Christmas Tree"

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This episode was published on December 18, 2024.

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Today’s selection is an ideal poem for Advent–a bittersweet shape poem that expresses the “hopes and fears of all the years.”Poet and critic John Hollander wrote of Merrill that he “was continually reengaging those Proustian themes of the retrieval...

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