Review (& gift articles!)

I bought a very cheap subscription to The New York Times on special because I’m fascinated/horrified by the current US situation, and I wanted to be informed and support journalism (to the tune of $AUS20 for a year, anyway). But today, a poetry article caught my eye and it was so lovely and relaxing to read about the intricacies of art instead, for a change.

‘A Poem That’s Like a Perfect First Date’ is a wonderfully warm close reading of Frank O’Hara’s 1960 love poem ‘Having a Coke with You’. It starts with the full text of the (short) poem, and then as you scroll down, more commentary appears in the left margin, and then on the right, certain parts of the poem are zoomed in or out on (literally), and certain words and patterns are highlighted. As you continue down, context is supplied (who is “you”) and photos of the poet and his muse, as well as the artworks mentioned in the poem. It’s so lovely and amazing.

Here is a gift link to this article — this means you can access the article even if you’re not a subscriber. (I get ten gift article links per month, major perk.)

And here are other gift article links to similar poetic articles by A. O. Scott. (I’ll update this every so often.) Enjoy!

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Scott, A. O. (2024, April 11). A poem that’s like a perfect first date. The New York Times.

Feature image created by me using Canva.