Summer greetings to the readers of From the Wunderkammer. I’m grateful to everyone who voted in my poll about what you’d like to read. It looks like the leader is “The Making of a Poem,” which will be short (or whatever length) essays on poems and how they get written. In keeping with the name of this Substack, I reserve the right to cover the waterfront. That said, in coming installments, I will share what I have learned about poems and poetry, and offer you a glimpse into conversations I have been having with students over the past thirty years. Teaching has always been one of the best ways for me to further my own studies, so I’m hoping this will be an opportunity for me to figure out just what it is I do (and don’t!) know about poems.
I took a short break and went on a vacation to Sweden. My partner and I were there for Midsommar, which meant that the sun set around 10 pm, and it was light again around 3:00 am. We spent most of our time on the Island of Gotland which sits out in the Baltic, and there we were mostly in the city of Visby. Visby was an important medieval trading center, and it was a prosperous member city of the Hanseatic League. There are numerous church ruins throughout the city, and the stone wall encircling the town is largely intact. Because of its location, Gotland has a milder climate than mainland Sweden, and as a result the town is something of a garden city. Roses are the main crop of Visby, and they climb on almost every house and wall. Elders were blooming as well while we were there, and the air was fragrant with elderflower and rose.
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