Audience Figures

Sitemeter, the gadget that measures the volume of visitors to this website, has been reporting a significant upswing in readers over the last couple of weeks. We will soon have enough for a cricket team.
At first there was more than the usual level of interest when the review of Seamus Heaney appeared, proof if it were needed of his overwhelming popularity among living poets in the English language. Derek Mahon has gathered a consistent and ongoing number of visitors but it was nothing like the Heaney-mania that broke all records on this site until I posted some desultory notes on the Monteverdi Vespers Prom, which at one stage was accounting for three-quarters of the latest 100 visits.
This is a bit of a shame, really, as it didn't constitute much of a review and my few picky criticisms were at least partly modified by watching the performance on i-player the following evening. It was, of course, more stately and grand on television than on radio, but the first impressions were begun before the performance even finished and posted with up-to-the-minute topicality on the night.
But it is interesting to see this market research and what internet users are actually in search of. I will be holding onto my hat in a few days' time after reviewing Stephen Fry but it is not the intention to become populist and, once we've gone past ITV4 and Talksport in the ratings, it will be back to the poetry features and the minority appeal that one trusts is more satisfyingly under the radar.
In the meantime it is nice to see googlebot of Mountain View, California returning regularly to read the latest updates. The machine clearly has a keen interest in these aesthetic subjects and we must not underestimate the computer's capacity to think and feel on an emotional and artistic level.