Horace & friends

Horace & friends

Middle-distance death

Victoria's avatar
Victoria
Sep 25, 2025
∙ Paid

Last week Jeremy Wikeley (

Jem
) wrote an excellent, thought-provoking piece on the near-disappearance of what he calls the ‘middle-distance poem’ — the sort of thing exemplified by Larkin’s ‘Whitsun Weddings’ and Yeats’ ‘Among School Children’. These are fairly long poems — often of around 100 lines — which, according to Jeremy’s piece, have a consistent, o…

Keep reading with a 7-day free trial

Subscribe to Horace & friends to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.

Already a paid subscriber? Sign in
© 2025 Victoria
Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Start your SubstackGet the app
Substack is the home for great culture