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 · 4h ago
What’s a gift link?
b0a04gl · 14h ago
thankyou
b0a04gl · 14h 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 · 5h ago
Aaaagh nooo, why have you converted this lovely poem into a feeble fable about a "winning mindset"?
jihadjihad · 8h ago
Poem itself is from 1994. If you'd like to read the text by itself, you can do so here:
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 · 14h 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 · 6h ago
> until i slowed down
Maybe the poem has a message
IncreasePosts · 6h ago
A gift link was posted in this thread
mcphage · 12h ago
> It is not about the particular poem.
The particular poem itself is also quite nice.
p3rls · 10h ago
Some things are best left to a youtube production team.
js2 · 18h ago
Why not?
> 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 · 18h ago
No good reason! I'm genuinely curious.
goldfeld · 6h 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 · 8h ago
I thought it was answered by the article and the line I quoted. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
svat · 5h 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...
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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