The importance of poetry

Poetry has a reputation for needing special training to appreciate it. In the classroom, poems were often taught as if they were riddles. We were taught that poetry is inherently "difficult" and that it makes meaning by hiding meaning.

Real progress begins when we ...

Classical vocal music is either loved or really hated.

• If you've heard Beethoven's Ninth or Orff's "Carmina Burana" and liked them, look at Mahler's "Das Lied von der Erde", which is a symphony of six songs based on Chinese poetry.
• Two gems are Richard Strauss's "Four Last ...

The differences in how people have loved throughout history suggest that our style of loving is to a significant extent determined by what the prevailing environment dictates.

It is through novels, poems, songs and, latterly, films that we have acquired our misleading ideas about love.