Archaeology in Poetry
Randall Jarrell on Indispensable Warfare
Randall Jarrell (American poet). ca 1945. Siegfried.
T.S. Eliot on History's Cunning Passages - Archaeology Quotations
Thomas Stearns Eliot. 1920. Gerontion. In Poems, Alfred A. Knopf, New York.
John Dryden on What is Past - Archaeology Quotations
John Dryden. 1685. Imitation of Horace. Book iii. Ode 29, line 71
Emily Dickinson on an Armed Past
Emily Dickinson. 1896 (posthumously printed). XLV. The Past.
Walt Whitman on the Infinite Greatness of the Past
From Leaves of Grasses, a little snippet on the dark, unfathomed past...
Randall Jarrell on Indispensable Warfare - Archaeology Quotations
A snippet from Randall Jarrell's Siegfried (1945)
Emily Dickinson on an Armed Past
A snippet from Emily Dickinson's poetry, posthumously printed in 1896.
The Society Upon the Stanislaus
The poem Society upon the Stanislaus was first published by American writer Bret Harte in 1912, and it joins our Archaeology Poetry anthology courtesy Geoff Carver.
Shall I Compare Thee to a Backfill Pile?
An archaeology slam from Archaeology magazine.
Travel
This archaeological poem from Robert Louis Stevenson's A Child's Garden of Verses was suggested by faithful reader Diana M.
The Destruction Of Sennacherib (Byron 1815)
Lord Byron's 1815 poem about the Assyrians and Nineveh.
An Apology for Poetry
Sir Philip Sidney on why poets are better than historians.
Archeological Notes
David Wagoner's poem Archeological Notes first appeared in Light (volume 52/53), 2006.
Chaco 1054 AD
Poetry about an Anasazi rock painting celebrating the 1054 supernova, from Paul Young.
Chaco
In 1054 AD, a supernova fired off in the Crab Nebula; it is recorded on a piece of rock art in the famous Chaco Canyon. Poet Paul Young was inspired to write this poem after seeing the image at Chaco.
On the Coliseum (Lord Byron)
From "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage," Byron reports his feelings on seeing the Roman Coliseum.
Ozymandias
As a rabid feminist and ex-English major, I normally think of Percy Shelley as "Mary Shelley's husband," but as gentle reader Sonja W points out, this is far too terrific a poem to ignore for our collection.
Remains
Poet David Mason ruminates on the reading of bones.
The Coliseum (Edgar Allan Poe)
The master of the dark short story muses on the Roman Coliseum.
The Sphinx (Ralph Waldo Emerson)
During the 19th century, many of the planet's great writers and poets wandered into the ruins of the ancient world. Ralph Waldo Emerson was one of them; The Sphinx is his poetical impression of the Old Kingdom Egyptian statue.
Unnamed Lands (Walt Whitman)
Walt Whitman muses on humanity's past; a snippet from "Leaves of Grass".
William Wordsworth's The Thorn
In this essay entitled "From Relics to Remains", Boston University literature professor Charles J. Rzepka discusses the influences of Stonehenge and 17th century archaeologist William Stukeley on the poet William Wordsworth, and how SStukeley's ideas are found in the poem The Thorn.
Winners of the Taung Baby Limerick Contest
The Annals of Improbable Research recently printed several limericks based on the latest Taung child theory. Here are the winning entries, reprinted with permission; with, of course, a belated contribution from your guide who simply can't help herself.