I teach a lot of poems about (mainly unrequited) love and I always tell my students that human beings are fragile and unhygienic and it's really better to have a poem than a person. I know that secretly they want a person though.

I love this concrete wall that is part of a new building on campus. Of course I read the ledges as lines of poetry. It's a beautiful wall.

Some personal news. I've been looking at my research plans and my upcoming talks and I see that I'm going to have to buy a new notebook. Please hold me in your thoughts.

My search for a notebook continues, but at least I've chosen the perfume I'll wear to write this book.

oh no I'm happily writing my book but I just had an idea for an article on Milton when will it end

For the first time ever I have quoted a tweet in my scholarly writing & I'm very happy that it is this gem by 兔兒神

It's my birthday! I'm 64 and 6'4", which has a pleasing sound. Instead of a selfie, please enjoy this picture of the wines we'll have with dinner & cake tonight.

Yesterday I was teaching the amazing description of God's chariot in Paradise Lost and I told the students that "Sparkles Dire" would be an excellent drag name. #praxis

Please vote in this important poll. I'm writing an essay on simile. Which is a better title: "A Metaphor is Like a Simile" or "The Motive for Simile"?

I have now spent 10 years with you guys and what a decade it has been. Thank you. #MyTwitterAnniversary

Sending so much neighbourly love to my dear friends in the US today. 💙

Yesterday I was teaching the really bizarre ending of Gray's "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" & I told the students that the important question is whether you die in real life if you die in the poem. #pedagogy

I had so many great essays in my Paradise Lost course. Perhaps my favourite sentence (quoted with permission) is this: "The creative power of human language is to create language." It's just perfect.

Jingle Bells is one of the worst songs ever. A good version of it cannot exi youtube.com/watch?v=et8Seg…

Congratulations to the AHA for voting to condemn the scholasticide in Gaza. I hope the MLA, my professional organization, will do the same, but they're still refusing to permit a vote on the resolution. It's shameful.

oh no I've just realized I have to reread Aristotle's Poetics why is this happening to me

19th-Century specialists! Please consider doing a book for this new series.

For Valentine's Day, you may have this piece of graffiti I saw on the Berlin Wall in 1990: Doris ist das Eichhörnchen, das auf den Zweigen meines Herzens tanzt. Doris is the squirrel who dances on the branches of my heart.

I've bought three shirts from Adam and they're all wonderful. You should order some. You'd like them too.

Casa de los Azulejos, Mexico City. #TilesOnTuesday