Culture
NHL playoff tiers: Where each team sits and what’s at stake down the stretch this season
The trade deadline is behind us and there are only 26 days until the end of the 2024-25 NHL regular season.
With each team having 15 or fewer games left, attention has shifted to the final stretch of the season. Whether a team is vying for a division title, in a tight playoff chase or looking to finish the season with momentum, the stretch run has a lot to offer for all 32 clubs.
This week, The Athletic asked its NHL staff to put teams into five playoff tiers — “not happening,” “long shot,” “bubble team,” “looks like a good bet” and “it’s a lock” — and highlight what’s at stake for each team down the stretch. Teams are listed alphabetically in their respective tiers.
Not happening
Boston Bruins
What’s at stake: Who will be the next captain?
The Bruins are sinking. They traded five players off their roster. It’s unlikely interim coach Joe Sacco will assume a permanent title behind the bench. Morale is low. So this is a good time for the organization to determine who will replace Brad Marchand as captain. David Pastrnak is currently wearing the only “A” with Charlie McAvoy injured. Pastrnak is known for his positivity and friendliness with his teammates. If Pastrnak can help the team hold its head high, he could be the next captain. — Fluto Shinzawa
Buffalo Sabres
What’s at stake: The direction of the rebuild
The Sabres will miss the playoffs for a 14th straight season and are going to be a lottery team in Kevyn Adams’ fifth season as general manager. But he’s still been speaking and operating like someone who will stay employed beyond this season. Buffalo still has a lot of questions to answer this offseason beyond Adams’ job security. Will Lindy Ruff stay on as coach? Will he bring in new assistants? Which players will be part of the future? The stretch run could help determine some answers to those questions. — Matthew Fairburn
Chicago Blackhawks
What’s at stake: Anders Sörensen’s audition for permanent coach
Time is running out for Blackhawks interim coach Anders Sörensen to prove he deserves a shot at being the permanent coach. The Blackhawks have had some highs and lows since he was promoted. Some consistency down the stretch would likely be helpful for his case. — Scott Powers
Nashville Predators
What’s at stake: Andrew Brunette’s future as coach
Predators general manager Barry Trotz has made public comments recently that suggest he expects Brunette back next season, but he then tried to walk back those comments and made clear there is no final evaluation at this point. The Preds are better off losing to increase their lottery odds, and the lineup reflects that at times, but Brunette still must try to get the best he can out of these guys each night. Especially if Trotz is truly undecided. — Joe Rexrode
Philadelphia Flyers
What’s at stake: Spots for the future
After dealing useful and young-ish players Morgan Frost and Joel Farabee to Calgary in late January, Flyers general manager Daniel Briere offered an unspoken reminder to the young guys still on the team that the bar is high to stick for the long term. Management will be keeping a close eye on the players who are still developing to determine whether to keep them or perhaps try and deal them in a trade this offseason. — Kevin Kurz
Sidney Crosby has 76 points in 69 games this season. (Steph Chambers / Getty Images)
Pittsburgh Penguins
What’s at stake: Sidney Crosby’s point-per-game streak
Sidney Crosby needs four points over the Penguins’ last 11 games to complete his 20th point-per-game season in a row, which would break Wayne Gretzky’s record of 19. Other than hoping to show off a new and improved Tristan Jarry to potential summer buyers, there isn’t a ton for the Penguins to play for at this point. Crosby missed two games earlier this season, so his magic number is 80 points. He currently sits at 76 points in 69 games played. — Josh Yohe
San Jose Sharks
What’s at stake: Winning the draft lottery — again?
The only goals the Sharks had entering the season were playing a more competitive brand of hockey in Ryan Warsofsky’s first year as coach and ushering Macklin Celebrini into the NHL. If success is seeing Celebrini already becoming their best player, Will Smith starting to blossom in the second half and William Eklund showing to be a core playmaking forward, then call it success for San Jose. The wins will come later, the future is now and that means seeing youngsters Shakir Mukhamadullin, Collin Graf and Luca Cagnoni progress down the stretch. Otherwise, why not try to land the No. 1 pick and think about adding Matthew Schaefer to a promising blue line? — Eric Stephens
Seattle Kraken
What’s at stake: The team’s lottery odds
Two years out from a fairy tale run to within a game of the Conference Final, the Kraken have been a massive disappointment, and nothing that occurs down the stretch can really change that. At least Shane Wright has taken a major step, and Kaapo Kakko has flashed some major potential. The Kraken made some serious moves to begin to rebuild, and given their lack of progress after both a coaching change and a pair of expensive win-now moves this offseason, are probably best served by improving their lottery odds down the stretch. The internal pressure to make real progress next season has to be significant. — Thomas Drance
Long shot
Anaheim Ducks
What’s at stake: Momentum for 2025-26 with a strong finish
The Ducks will fall short of a wild-card berth, but they’ve reached the step of playing games of some importance in March for the first time in several years. They’ve got 13 games left to make a statement that they intend to be a playoff team next season. Their last playoff appearance came in 2018, which is also the last time they finished above .500. Great goaltending by Lukas Dostal and John Gibson has powered them all season but now they’re seeing Jackson LaCombe become a force on defense and Mason McTavish having a big second half. Trevor Zegras is starting to recapture his mojo as a point producer. Now is the time to play spoiler and then build on the roster in the offseason. — Eric Stephens
New York Islanders
What’s at stake: Less than you’d think
Lou Lamoriello, who’ll be 83 in October, doesn’t seem to be in danger of being asked to leave by ownership. Patrick Roy is locked in behind the bench. The Islanders traded Brock Nelson for a good return at the deadline but would have some work to do to make other changes in the offseason. The playoffs would be nice, but we’ve known what this team is for a while now, and missing out won’t alter that perception. — Arthur Staple
Utah Hockey Club
What’s at stake: Building goodwill in a new market
The Utahns are only 4 points back of the final wild-card spot in the West, but they need to jump a couple of teams and don’t hold the tiebreaker. Their chances are down to 9 percent and an absolute pounding by the Oilers (7-1 loss) on Tuesday and recent losses to Chicago and Seattle haven’t helped. Keeping things close will be the goal, as no one’s job is likely on the line, with the real test coming in the offseason for this front office. They’ll have tons of cap space, a new name, rising young stars and a chance to make some noise in 2025-26. Year 2 in Salt Lake City will be the first with real pressure. — James Mirtle
Bubble team
Calgary Flames
What’s at stake: Their own first-round pick
Calgary is playing with house money by being in contention thanks in part to their team MVP Dustin Wolf. One big question now is: Which first-round pick are they giving up to Montreal after this season thanks to that Sean Monahan trade? Where they finish in the standings will dictate which of their first-rounders they’ll have to give up (not including the New Jersey pick). — Julian McKenzie
Columbus Blue Jackets
What’s at stake: A truly inspirational story
The Blue Jackets aren’t supposed to be here. They were expected to be among the dregs of the NHL, down there at the bottom of the standings with San Jose, Chicago, Anaheim, etc. Truth be told, in losing eight of their last nine, including six straight, the Jackets are probably closer to a long shot than a bubble team. They’re three points behind Montreal for the final spot, but that murky middle of the Eastern Conference is quite the traffic jam. They’ve already overachieved, but this season won’t be viewed through quite the same lens if they don’t make the playoffs. — Aaron Portzline
Detroit Red Wings
What’s at stake: A summer of discontent
Detroit has been much better since head coach Todd McLellan arrived at Christmas, getting back into the playoff race despite long odds. But even so, Red Wings fans’ patience has slowly evaporated after eight long years without playoff hockey. Steve Yzerman is safe as general manager, but missing the postseason for a ninth straight year certainly won’t make it a comfortable summer in Hockeytown, where the pressure to win is now really ramping up. There aren’t many obvious solutions in free agency, especially given Detroit’s so-so track record there the last few seasons, but the Red Wings can’t just keep waiting forever — especially with Montreal seemingly already having caught up to them. — Max Bultman
The Canadiens are making a late push for the playoffs. (Eric Bolte / Imagn Images)
Montreal Canadiens
What’s at stake: A great development opportunity
The Canadiens have already achieved their goal of playing meaningful games in March; the fact they largely have their playoff destiny in their own hands this late into the season is a bonus. But for the young core of this rebuild, to have an opportunity to experience the intensity of the playoffs would be an invaluable development moment. The Canadiens are far from a finished product, there are several pieces left to add and develop in this rebuild, but a playoff appearance would serve as an accelerator in many ways, and proof to their fans that brighter days are around the corner and their patience will be rewarded. — Arpon Basu
New York Rangers
What’s at stake: Respectability
The Rangers have been a mess most of this season. Their defense is among the worst in the league, and Chris Drury has tried to remake to roster on the fly. They’ve dug themselves a hole in the standings, and the odds are stacked against them to make the playoffs. The rest of this season should be about committing to winning habits and seeing if results follow. If they don’t (and perhaps even if they do) this offseason could feature plenty more changes to the roster, and maybe even the staff. — Peter Baugh
St. Louis Blues
What’s at stake: How much of the core is kept
This will be Doug Armstrong’s final offseason as Blues general manager. The organization announced last June that Alexander Steen will replace him after the 2025-26 season and Armstrong’s sole title will be president of hockey operations. As his clock winds down, Armstrong indicated that he’d explore making changes to the Blues’ core group of players if the results didn’t improve. Well, those core players have responded well, and the results have been better. If the club can complete its late-season surge and end a two-year playoff drought, perhaps he’ll consider keeping a couple of those players who he may have planned to move this summer. — Jeremy Rutherford
Vancouver Canucks
What’s at stake: Pretty much everything
The club’s overtime loss on Thursday in St. Louis will ding its odds, but the Canucks are in the mix for the second wild-card spot despite a season that’s been defined by inconsistency, injury and off-ice dysfunction to this point. From a playoff berth to the team’s overall direction, just about everything feels like it’s on the line for the Canucks. — Thomas Drance
Looks like a good bet
Minnesota Wild
What’s at stake: Making the playoffs
The Wild have a little cushion in their wild-card spot but it’s getting tighter with a bunch of teams pushing. And Minnesota has a tough week ahead with a Dallas/Vegas back-to-back and then hosting the Capitals. Injuries have been a huge factor all season with Kirill Kaprizov and Joel Eriksson Ek still out for a while. There won’t be a regime change or coaching change if they miss the playoffs. But it’s still very important, especially with the Wild having traded their first-round pick for David Jiricek. They could get a boost down the stretch or for the playoffs if top prospect Zeev Buium does indeed sign after the University of Denver season. — Joe Smith
New Jersey Devils
What’s at stake: Setting a standard for the future
With Jack Hughes out, the Devils are hard to take seriously as a Stanley Cup contender. In many ways, the rest of this season is about laying the groundwork for the future. New Jersey needs to show it’s a legitimate playoff team, even without Hughes, Dougie Hamilton and Jonas Siegenthaler. Making the postseason still matters. And who knows, if the Devils get in maybe they can push a team (Carolina is their likely opponent) in the first round and maybe steal a series. That would build good momentum heading into 2025-26, when the team hopes to be healthy enough for a more legitimate Stanley Cup push. — Peter Baugh
Ottawa Senators
What’s at stake: The team’s core
The Senators have a 93 percent chance of making the playoffs according to Dom Luszczyszyn’s model. They caught fire at the right time and made essential moves at the deadline to improve their team. That includes trading away Josh Norris from their core to acquire Dylan Cozens. It’s a move many might’ve expected in the offseason, but the Sens did it sooner. If they somehow miss now, it’ll be a catastrophic end to their season and might necessitate further changes to their core. — Julian McKenzie
It’s a lock
Carolina Hurricanes
What’s at stake: Solidifying the lineup
The Hurricanes have new faces, injured players poised to return and prospects all vying for ice time. Coach Rod Brind’Amour will need to fit together all the pieces, determine if young defensemen Scott Morrow and Alexander Nikishin factor into Carolina’s postseason plans and decide which goalie will lead the way in the playoffs. — Cory Lavalette
Colorado Avalanche
What’s at stake: Home ice in the opening round
There are plenty of (justified) complaints about the current playoff format. It’s unfortunate that two of the league’s best in Colorado and Dallas are set to meet in the first round, but it’s a reality. In all likelihood, we are heading for that heavyweight brawl, and in a series that could easily go seven games, home ice could be crucial. Winning Sunday’s meeting in overtime was a good start, but the Avalanche still have some work to do to catch the Stars in the standings. — Jesse Granger
Mikko Rantanen has had a decent enough start to his Stars career. (Jerome Miron / Imagn Images)
Dallas Stars
What’s at stake: Mikko Rantanen’s comfort level
Miro Heiskanen’s uncertain availability for the first round hangs over everything, but in the regular season, all that really matters is home ice against Colorado (meh, whatever) and making sure Rantanen is firing on all cylinders come the playoffs. He’s had a decent enough start to his Stars career, but he needs to be fully comfortable with the Stars’ system, his linemates (Roope Hintz and Jason Robertson) and his off-ice life if Dallas is going to live up to its full potential and win the Stanley Cup. These last few weeks should be all about putting Rantanen in a good headspace entering the postseason. — Mark Lazerus
Edmonton Oilers
What’s at stake: A Pacific Division crown
The Oilers will make their sixth straight playoff appearance dating to the 2020 bubble. The only thing to be determined is where they’ll be slotted in the Western Conference bracket. Veteran defenceman Mattias Ekholm lamented in training camp that the Oilers had home ice in only one of their four playoff series last spring. To ensure at least two, they’ll have to fend off Los Angeles and surpass Vegas to claim their first division title since 1986-87. — Daniel Nugent-Bowman
Florida Panthers
What’s at stake: Trying to avoid the 2-3 matchup in Round 1
With another win over Columbus on Thursday night, the defending champs moved one step closer to clinching a playoff spot. Florida is playing without four key players right now — Matthew Tkachuk, Aaron Ekblad, Brad Marchand and Dmitry Kulikov — and it’s been a bit of a bumpy stretch. The Panthers have a tough schedule left and really mainly want to try and enter the postseason without losing anyone else. But winning the Atlantic — and avoiding the Leafs or Lightning — matters, too, even if the top wild-card team figures to be coming into the playoffs red hot. — James Mirtle
Los Angeles Kings
What’s at stake: Home-ice advantage in the first round
The Kings are too good defensively and too phenomenal at home to fall out of playoff contention, so they’re a lock. The carrot that’s in front of them is being able to start a series at home, which hasn’t happened in three straight playoff defeats to Edmonton. With 11 of their final 15 at home, they’ve got a shot to overtake the Oilers for second place in the Pacific Division. Tracking down Vegas for the division title is probably out of reach but they need more offense throughout their lineup to support Darcy Kuemper, who’s having a terrific comeback season. — Eric Stephens
Tampa Bay Lightning
What’s at stake: Home-ice advantage
The Lightning’s playoff standing is essentially locked up at this point. The only question is where they finish in the division. Jumping up (and maintaining) the second seed would ensure Tampa Bay at least has home ice in Round 1. But if this team can sneak into first place, it would solidify that standing through at least two rounds. Having home ice isn’t everything, but having the ability to control the matchups to open a series can be a real advantage — whether Jon Cooper opts for a power-versus-power matchup with his top players or sends Anthony Cirelli and Ryan McDonagh out to shut down the opponents’ best. — Shayna Goldman
Toronto Maple Leafs
What’s at stake: The Atlantic Division title
The Leafs have never won the Atlantic. A win this spring would equal a lighter first-round matchup, which would equal a lighter path, theoretically, to the franchise’s first Stanley Cup since 1967. Winning it will mean beating out Florida and Tampa Bay. The Leafs have dropped both games to the Panthers so far, but still play them twice in April. They’ve won, on the other hand, both meetings with the Lightning with one more meeting still to go. Those games may well determine 1-2-3. — Jonas Siegel
Vegas Golden Knights
What’s at stake: Fourth Pacific Division title in eight years
The Golden Knights have built a small lead over Edmonton and Los Angeles in chase of their fourth division title in eight seasons. Getting to the finish line would guarantee Vegas home ice for the first two rounds of the playoffs, and more importantly, avoid the Oilers and Kings — who have both played them well — in the opening round. The Golden Knights are 25-7-3 at T-Mobile Arena this season, the second-most home wins in the NHL. — Jesse Granger
Washington Capitals
What’s at stake: A starting role in the playoffs
The easy answer here is Alex Ovechkin’s goal chase. That is a major focus for both Washington and the entire league. But there is one other storyline to watch — the goalie rotation. The Capitals have had an even rotation all season, with Charlie Lindgren and Logan Thompson playing every other game until this week when Thompson started two straight. Teams tend to lean on one goalie in the playoffs, so it will be interesting to see if Thompson starts playing consecutive games more regularly to prepare, or if Lindgren can push for a look as the 1A. — Shayna Goldman
Winnipeg Jets
What’s at stake: Multiple end-of-season awards and, more importantly: Cup-contending confidence
The Jets could win their first Presidents’ Trophy. They’re well on their way to their second straight William M. Jennings Trophy. Connor Hellebuyck has a great case to repeat as the Vezina winner, while a strong end-of-season push could get him on more people’s radar for the Hart. Josh Morrissey will earn Norris votes, Adam Lowry will get consideration for the Selke, Scott Arniel should be considered for the Jack Adams and yet: the most important thing on the line for Winnipeg is its own self-confidence. The Jets haven’t been out of the first round since 2021, so every game between today and the playoffs is about proving Winnipeg is ready to overcome recent playoff demons. This is meant to be the year. — Murat Ates
(Top photos of Victor Hedman and Auston Matthews: Ray Seebeck and Sergei Belski / Imagn Images)
Let’s memorize a poem! Not because it’s good for us or because we think we should, but because it’s fun, a mental challenge with a solid aesthetic reward. You can amuse yourself, impress your friends and maybe discover that your way of thinking about the world — or even, as you’ll see, the universe — has shifted a bit.
Over the next five days, we’ll look closely at a great poem by one of our favorite poets, and we’ll have games, readings and lots of encouragement to help you learn it by heart. Some of you know how this works: Last year more Times readers than we could count memorized a jaunty 18-line recap of an all-night ferry ride. (If you missed that adventure, it’s not too late to embark. The ticket is still valid.)
This time, we’re training our telescopes on W.H. Auden’s “The More Loving One” — a clever, compact meditation on love, disappointment and the night sky.
Here’s the first of its four stanzas, read for us by Matthew McConaughey:
The More Loving One
Looking up at the stars, I know quite well
That, for all they care, I can go to hell,
But on earth indifference is the least
We have to dread from man or beast.
Matthew McConaughey, actor and poet
In four short lines we get a brisk, cynical tour of the universe: hell and the heavens, people and animals, coldness and cruelty. Commonplace observations — that the stars are distant; that life can be dangerous — are wound into a charming, provocative insight. The tone is conversational, mixing decorum and mild profanity in a manner that makes it a pleasure to keep reading.
Here’s Tracy K. Smith, a former U.S. poet laureate, with the second stanza:
How should we like it were stars to burn
With a passion for us we could not return?
If equal affection cannot be,
Let the more loving one be me.
Tracy K. Smith, poet
These lines abruptly shift the focus from astronomy to love, from the universal to the personal. Imagine how it would feel if the stars had massive, unrequited crushes on us! The speaker, couching his skepticism in a coy, hypothetical question, seems certain that we wouldn’t like this at all.
This certainty leads him to a remarkable confession, a moment of startling vulnerability. The poem’s title, “The More Loving One,” is restated with sweet, disarming frankness. Our friend is wearing his heart on his well-tailored sleeve.
The poem could end right there: two stanzas, point and counterpoint, about how we appreciate the stars in spite of their indifference because we would rather love than be loved.
But the third stanza takes it all back. Here’s Alison Bechdel reading it:
Admirer as I think I am
Of stars that do not give a damn,
I cannot, now I see them, say
I missed one terribly all day.
Alison Bechdel, graphic novelist
The speaker downgrades his foolish devotion to qualified admiration. No sooner has he established himself as “the more loving one” than he gives us — and perhaps himself — reason to doubt his ardor. He likes the stars fine, he guesses, but not so much as to think about them when they aren’t around.
The fourth and final stanza, read by Yiyun Li, takes this disenchantment even further:
Were all stars to disappear or die,
I should learn to look at an empty sky
And feel its total dark sublime,
Though this might take me a little time.
Yiyun Li, author
Wounded defiance gives way to a more rueful, resigned state of mind. If the universe were to snuff out its lights entirely, the speaker reckons he would find beauty in the void. A starless sky would make him just as happy.
Though perhaps, like so many spurned lovers before and after, he protests a little too much. Every fan of popular music knows that a song about how you don’t care that your baby left you is usually saying the opposite.
The last line puts a brave face on heartbreak.
So there you have it. In just 16 lines, this poem manages to be somber and funny, transparent and elusive. But there’s more to it than that. There is, for one thing, a voice — a thinking, feeling person behind those lines.
When he wrote “The More Loving One,” in the 1950s, Wystan Hugh Auden was among the most beloved writers in the English-speaking world. Before this week is over there will be more to say about Auden, but like most poets he would have preferred that we give our primary attention to the poem.
Its structure is straightforward and ingenious. Each of the four stanzas is virtually a poem unto itself — a complete thought expressed in one or two sentences tied up in a neat pair of couplets. Every quatrain is a concise, witty observation: what literary scholars call an epigram.
This makes the work of memorization seem less daunting. We can take “The More Loving One” one epigram at a time, marvelling at how the four add up to something stranger, deeper and more complex than might first appear.
So let’s go back to the beginning and try to memorize that insouciant, knowing first stanza. Below you’ll find a game we made to get you started. Give it a shot, and come back tomorrow for more!
Play a game to learn it by heart. Need more practice? Listen to Ada Limón, Matthew McConaughey, W.H. Auden and others recite our poem.
Question 1/6
Looking up at the stars, I know quite well That, for all they care, I can go to hell,
Tap a word above to fill in the highlighted blank.
Your first task: Learn the first four lines!
Let’s start with the first couplet. Fill in the rhyming words.
Monday
Love, the cosmos and everything in between, all in 16 lines.
Tuesday (Available tomorrow)
What’s love got to do with it?
Wednesday (Available April 22)
How to write about love? Be a little heartsick (and the best poet of your time).
Thursday (Available April 23)
Are we alone in the universe? Does it matter?
Friday (Available April 24)
You did it! You’re a star.
Ready for another round? Try your hand at the 2025 Poetry Challenge.
Edited by Gregory Cowles, Alicia DeSantis and Nick Donofrio. Additional editing by Emily Eakin,
Joumana Khatib, Emma Lumeij and Miguel Salazar. Design and development by Umi Syam. Additional
game design by Eden Weingart. Video editing by Meg Felling. Photo editing by Erica Ackerberg.
Illustration art direction by Tala Safie.
Illustrations by Daniel Barreto.
Text and audio recording of “The More Loving One,” by W.H. Auden, copyright © by the Estate of
W.H. Auden. Reprinted by permission of Curtis Brown, Ltd. Photograph accompanying Auden recording
from Imagno/Getty Images.
Literature
‘Romola’ (1863) by George Eliot
Who knew that there’s a major George Eliot novel that neither I nor any of my friends had ever heard of?
“Romola” was Eliot’s fourth novel, published between “The Mill on the Floss” (1860) and “Middlemarch” (1870-71). If my friends and I didn’t get this particular memo, and “Romola” is familiar to every Eliot fan but us, please skip the following.
“Romola” isn’t some fluky misfire better left unmentioned in light of Eliot’s greater work. It’s her only historical novel, set in Florence during the Italian Renaissance. It embraces big subjects like power, religion, art and social upheaval, but it’s not dry or overly intellectual. Its central character is a gifted, freethinking young woman named Romola, who enters a marriage so disastrous as to make Anna Karenina’s look relatively good.
It probably matters that many of Eliot’s other books have been adapted into movies or TV series, with actors like Hugh Dancy, Ben Kingsley, Emily Watson and Rufus Sewell. The BBC may be doing even more than we thought to keep classic literature alive. (In 1924, “Romola” was made into a silent movie starring Lillian Gish. It doesn’t seem to have made much difference.)
Anthony Trollope, among others, loved “Romola.” He did, however, warn Eliot against aiming over her readers’ heads, which may help explain its obscurity.
All I can say, really, is that it’s a mystery why some great books stay with us and others don’t.
‘Quiet Dell’ (2013) by Jayne Anne Phillips
This was an Oprah Book of the Week, which probably disqualifies it from B-side status, but it’s not nearly as well known as Phillips’s debut story collection, “Black Tickets” (1979), or her most recent novel, “Night Watch” (2023), which won her a long-overdue Pulitzer Prize.
Phillips has no parallel in her use of potent, stylized language to shine a light into the darkest of corners. In “Quiet Dell,” her only true-crime novel, she’s at the height of her powers, which are particularly apparent when she aims her language laser at horrific events that actually occurred. Her gift for transforming skeevy little lives into what I can only call “Blade Runner” mythology is consistently stunning.
Consider this passage from the opening chapter of “Quiet Dell”:
“Up high the bells are ringing for everyone alive. There are silver and gold and glass bells you can see through, and sleigh bells a hundred years old. My grandmother said there was a whisper for each one dead that year, and a feather drifting for each one waiting to be born.”
The book is full of language like that — and of complex, often chillingly perverse characters. It’s a dark, underrecognized beauty.
‘Solaris’ (1961) by Stanislaw Lem
You could argue that, in America, at least, the Polish writer Stanislaw Lem didn’t produce any A-side novels. You could just as easily argue that that makes all his novels both A-side and B-side.
It’s science fiction. All right?
I love science and speculative fiction, but I know a lot of literary types who take pride in their utter lack of interest in it. I always urge those people to read “Solaris,” which might change their opinions about a vast number of popular books they dismiss as trivial. As far as I know, no one has yet taken me up on that.
“Solaris” involves the crew of a space station continuing the study of an aquatic planet that has long defied analysis by the astrophysicists of Earth. Part of what sets the book apart from a lot of other science-fiction novels is Lem’s respect for enigma. He doesn’t offer contrived explanations in an attempt to seduce readers into suspending disbelief. The crew members start to experience … manifestations? … drawn from their lives and memories. If the planet has any intentions, however, they remain mysterious. All anyone can tell is that their desires and their fears, some of which are summoned from their subconsciousness, are being received and reflected back to them so vividly that it becomes difficult to tell the real from the projected. “Solaris” has the peculiar distinction of having been made into not one but two bad movies. Read the book instead.
‘Fox 8’ (2013) by George Saunders
If one of the most significant living American writers had become hypervisible with his 2017 novel, “Lincoln in the Bardo,” we’d go back and read his earlier work, wouldn’t we? Yes, and we may very well have already done so with the story collections “Tenth of December” (2013) and “Pastoralia” (2000). But what if we hadn’t yet read Saunders’s 2013 novella, “Fox 8,” about an unusually intelligent fox who, by listening to a family from outside their windows at night, has learned to understand, and write, in fox-English?: “One day, walking neer one of your Yuman houses, smelling all the interest with snout, I herd, from inside, the most amazing sound. Turns out, what that sound is, was: the Yuman voice, making werds. They sounded grate! They sounded like prety music! I listened to those music werds until the sun went down.”
Once Saunders became more visible to more of us, we’d want to read a book that ventures into the consciousness of a different species (novels tend to be about human beings), that maps the differences and the overlaps in human and animal consciousness, explores the effects of language on consciousness and is great fun.
We’d all have read it by now — right?
‘Between the Acts’ (1941) by Virginia Woolf
You could argue that Woolf didn’t have any B-sides, and yet it’s hard to deny that more people have read “Mrs. Dalloway” (1925) and “To the Lighthouse” (1927) than have read “The Voyage Out” (1915) or “Monday or Tuesday” (1921). Those, along with “Orlando” (1928) and “The Waves” (1931), are Woolf’s most prominent novels.
Four momentous novels is a considerable number for any writer, even a great one. That said, “Between the Acts,” her last novel, really should be considered the fifth of her significant books. The phrase “embarrassment of riches” comes to mind.
Five great novels by the same author is a lot for any reader to take on. Our reading time is finite. We won’t live long enough to read all the important books, no matter how old we get to be. I don’t expect many readers to be as devoted to Woolf as are the cohort of us who consider her to have been some sort of dark saint of literature and will snatch up any relic we can find. Fanatics like me will have read “Between the Acts” as well as “The Voyage Out,” “Monday or Tuesday” and “Flush” (1933), the story of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s cocker spaniel. Speaking for myself, I don’t blame anyone who hasn’t gotten to those.
I merely want to add “Between the Acts” to the A-side, lest anyone who’s either new to Woolf or a tourist in Woolf-landia fail to rank it along with the other four contenders.
As briefly as possible: It focuses on an annual village pageant that attempts to convey all of English history in a single evening. The pageant itself interweaves subtly, brilliantly, with the lives of the villagers playing the parts.
It’s one of Woolf’s most lusciously lyrical novels. And it’s a crash course, of sorts, in her genius for conjuring worlds in which the molehill matters as much as the mountain, never mind their differences in size.
It’s also the most accessible of her greatest books. It could work for some as an entry point, in more or less the way William Faulkner’s “As I Lay Dying” (1930) can be the starter book before you go on to “The Sound and the Fury” (1929) or “Absalom, Absalom!” (1936).
As noted, there’s too much for us to read. We do the best we can.
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Literature
‘Prayer’ (1985) by Galway Kinnell
Whatever happens. Whatever
what is is is what
I want. Only that. But that.
“I typically say Kinnell’s words at the start of my day, as I’m pedaling a traffic-laden path to my office,” says Major Jackson, 57, the author of six books of poetry, including “Razzle Dazzle” (2023). “The poem encourages a calm acceptance of the day’s events but also wants us to embrace the misapprehension and oblivion of life, to avoid probing too deeply for answers to inscrutable questions. I admire what Kinnell does with only 14 words; the repetition of ‘what,’ ‘that’ and ‘is’ would seem to limit the poem’s sentiment but, paradoxically, the poem opens widely to contain all manner of human experience. The three ‘is’es in the middle line give it a symmetry that makes its message feel part of a natural order, and even more convincing. Thanks to the skillful punctuation, pauses and staccato rhythm, a tonal quality of interior reflection emerges. Much like a haiku, it continues after its last words, lingering like the last note played on a piano that slowly fades.”
“Just as I was entering young adulthood, probably slow to claim romantic feelings, a girlfriend copied out a poem by Pablo Neruda and slipped it into an envelope with red lipstick kisses all over it. In turn, I recited this poem. It took me the remainder of that winter to memorize its lines,” says Jackson. “The poem captures the pitch of longing that defines love at its most intense. The speaker in Shakespeare’s most famous sonnet believes the poem creates the beloved, ‘So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, / So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.’ (Sonnet 18). In Rilke’s expressive declarations of yearning, the beloved remains elusive. Wherever the speaker looks or travels, she marks his world by her absence. I find this deeply moving.”
“Clifton faced many obstacles, including cancer, a kidney transplant and the loss of her husband and two of her children. Through it all, she crafted a long career as a pre-eminent American poet,” says Jackson. “Her poem ‘won’t you celebrate with me’ is a war cry, an invitation to share in her victories against life’s persistent challenges. The poem is meaningful to all who have had to stare down death in a hospital or had to bereave the passing of close relations. But, even for those who have yet to mourn life’s vicissitudes, the poem is instructive in cultivating resilience and a persevering attitude. I keep coming back to the image of the speaker’s hands and the spirit of steadying oneself in the face of unspeakable storms. She asks in a perfectly attuned gorgeously metrical line, ‘what did i see to be except myself?’”
‘Sonnet 94’ (1609) by William Shakespeare
They that have power to hurt and will do none,
That do not do the thing they most do show,
Who, moving others, are themselves as stone,
Unmovèd, cold, and to temptation slow,
They rightly do inherit heaven’s graces
And husband nature’s riches from expense;
They are the lords and owners of their faces,
Others but stewards of their excellence.
The summer’s flower is to the summer sweet,
Though to itself it only live and die;
But if that flower with base infection meet,
The basest weed outbraves his dignity.
For sweetest things turn sourest by their deeds;
Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds.
“It’s one of the moments of Western consciousness,” says Frederick Seidel, 90, the author of more than a dozen collections of poetry, including “So What” (2024). “Shakespeare knows and says what he knows.”
“It trombones magnificent, unbearable sorrow,” says Seidel.
“It’s smartass and bitter and bright,” says Seidel.
These interviews have been edited and condensed.
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