This works a lot better than the archive link—they have the same text, but the archive link loses all of the JS, and so the page doesn’t make a lot of sense. Here you see it interactive, and—it’s a fun way to read a poem :-)
m3kw9 · 19h ago
What’s a gift link?
zem · 13h ago
a link shared by a subscriber that lets nonsubscribers access an otherwise paywalled article
b0a04gl · 1d ago
thankyou
b0a04gl · 1d ago
>She lives below luck-level, never imagining some lottery will change her load of pottery to wings.
nails the mindset where imagining change doesn’t even happen. it’s not about failing to win. it’s about never thinking you’re in the draw. that kind of mental floor sits deep.
dash2 · 20h ago
Aaaagh nooo, why have you converted this lovely poem into a feeble fable about a "winning mindset"?
b0a04gl · 11h ago
maybe my bad, but that's what i can infer at 0th minute after reading it. throw some light if I missed the whole point
jihadjihad · 23h ago
Poem itself is from 1994. If you'd like to read the text by itself, you can do so here:
At first I thought the page was frozen, but then I realized it was designed to make you read one line at a time. It felt a bit awkward at first, but after a while the rhythm started to feel right.
You don’t see many websites that ask you to slow down, but for a poem like this, it actually works. It’s not something that grabs you instantly, but if you give it a few quiet minutes, it kind of gets under your skin.
It is not about the particular poem.. It was about the innovative ux aporoach of showing the poem stanza in context of the review.. but unfortunately the archive link strips this javascript feature. Try opening the page in private or alternate browser and If you are able to bypass the paywall, you can enjoy it.
b0a04gl · 1d ago
yeah i got what it was going for eventually, but tbh it was annoying at first. the scroll interaction wasn’t clear and it broke the reading flow. felt more like a bug than a feature until i slowed down and figured it out. the context jumps were jarring too. didn’t really help with continuity.
goldfeld · 21h ago
> until i slowed down
Maybe the poem has a message
IncreasePosts · 21h ago
A gift link was posted in this thread
mcphage · 1d ago
> It is not about the particular poem.
The particular poem itself is also quite nice.
p3rls · 1d ago
Some things are best left to a youtube production team.
> Because even as this poem is about what it’s like to be a turtle, it’s also about what it’s like for a turtle to be a metaphor. And — you could say therefore — about how looking at (or as) a turtle illuminates what it’s like to be a person, a woman, a poet.
tptacek · 1d ago
No good reason! I'm genuinely curious.
goldfeld · 21h ago
I think maybe the reason is more arbitrary, as here look at this 90s author's symbolism, it's not just the old classics that are readable in-depth; contemporary style etc
js2 · 1d ago
I thought it was answered by the article and the line I quoted. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
svat · 20h ago
The "More from A.O. Scott" at the bottom of the article links to:
So it appears that this one is part of a series (previously called "Close Read" as in the last link above: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/arts/close-read.htm...): every few weeks / months, A. O. Scott writes about some poem he's liked, in this format (all of them say "Produced by Aliza Aufrichtig, Alicia DeSantis, Nick Donofrio and Emily Eakin").
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/06/12/books/kay-rya...
nails the mindset where imagining change doesn’t even happen. it’s not about failing to win. it’s about never thinking you’re in the draw. that kind of mental floor sits deep.
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/50611/turtle-56d22dd3...
You don’t see many websites that ask you to slow down, but for a poem like this, it actually works. It’s not something that grabs you instantly, but if you give it a few quiet minutes, it kind of gets under your skin.
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/57076/the-armadillo
There is a hint of war in there.
Maybe the poem has a message
The particular poem itself is also quite nice.
> Because even as this poem is about what it’s like to be a turtle, it’s also about what it’s like for a turtle to be a metaphor. And — you could say therefore — about how looking at (or as) a turtle illuminates what it’s like to be a person, a woman, a poet.
• "Life Isn’t Perfect. But This Poem Might Be." March 21, 2025 (“Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers,” by Adrienne Rich, 1951) https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/03/21/books/adrienn...
• "I Would Follow This Poem to Hell and Back" Feb. 21, 2025 (“my dreams, my works, must wait till after hell,” from SELECTED POEMS, copyright ©1963 by Gwendolyn Brooks) https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/02/21/books/gwendol...
• "I Swear This Poem Didn’t Make Me Cry" Jan. 23, 2025 (“From a Photograph,” from NEW COLLECTED POEMS, copyright ©1962 by George Oppen) https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/01/24/books/george-...
• "Will You Fall in Love With This Poem? I Did." Dec. 18, 2024 (“Romantic Poet,” by Diane Seuss, 2024) https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/12/18/books/romanti...
• "A Poem About Waiting, and Wishing You Had a Drink" Nov. 1, 2024 (“Party Politics,” from “The Complete Poems,” by Philip Larkin. originally 1984?) https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/11/01/books/philip-...
• "A Poem That’s Like a Perfect First Date" April 11, 2024 (“Having a Coke With You,” by Frank O’Hara, copyright © 1971) https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/04/11/books/frank-o...
So it appears that this one is part of a series (previously called "Close Read" as in the last link above: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/arts/close-read.htm...): every few weeks / months, A. O. Scott writes about some poem he's liked, in this format (all of them say "Produced by Aliza Aufrichtig, Alicia DeSantis, Nick Donofrio and Emily Eakin").
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