POETRY

STARS OVER THE DORDOGNE – Wan, dulled by much travelling

Born in 1932 to middle class parents in Massachusetts, Sylvia Plath published her first poem at the age of eight. She was a sensitive person, who tended to be a bit of a perfectionist. She was what many would consider a model daughter. She won a scholarship to Smith College in 1950 (even then she had an enviable list of …

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WHETHER YOU’RE SEARCHING FOR WORDS – Sharing poems

Anyone can come out of the darkness, to the light. Come out, don’t fight. Come out to the poetry landscapes. https://www.amazon.com/Great-American-Poems-Thrift-Editions/dp/0486401588 It’s your world to share. To show, you care for someone is to lend a helping hand. Share, whatever can help someone in need, you will be happier and a better person indeed. Whether you’re searching for words to …

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PROMPTED BY TANGIBLE EXTERNAL STIMULUS – Jónas Hallgrímsson

He is remembered for his poems describing Icelandic scenery. Jónas Hallgrímsson (1807/1845), was one of the most popular of Iceland’s Romantic poets. He was born at the farm Hraun in Oxen Valley, in north central Iceland. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4fPc0Gvepk He lost his father when he was nine. It was a great metropolis that fostered his poetic gift, although the roots of his …

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LITERARY LONDONERS SHADES – The colors of Amy Levy, George Eliot and William Blake

LONDON IN JULY – Amy Levy About Soho we went before the light. We went, unresting six, craving new fun, new scenes, new raptures, for the fevered night of rollicking laughter, drink and song, was done. The vault was void, but for the dawn’s great star that shed upon our path its silver flame, when La Paloma on a low …

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HE WAS LIKE A LEAF – Umberto Saba and autobiographical poems

He was Italian poet, noted for his simple autobiographical poems. Umberto Saba was raised by his Jewish mother, after his father deserted them, when he was an infant. From age 17, he developed his interest in poetry. In November 1910 was published his first collection of poems. https://www.amazon.com/Songbook-Selected-Umberto-Margellos-Republic/dp/0300181752 He established his reputation as a poet with the publication of “The …

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WHEN POEMS HAVE BEEN SET TO MUSIC – Eduard Mörike

Everything he wrote, always has its own distinctive flavour. Many his poems have been set to music. He was a German Romantic poet of the Swabian school, in Southern Germany. Eduard Moerike was born in Ludwigsburg and studied Theology at the Seminary of Tübingen (following the ecclesiastical career, becoming a Lutheran pastor). His poems are lyrics and are expressed in …

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LOVE FANTASY – Chinese contemporary poetry: Wang Jiming

Shi Zhi, was a modest writer during his adolescence, but the terrors of the Cultural Revolution transformed his poetry into something truly powerful. Those who had experienced the Cultural Revolution, were filled with uncertainty about the future of China. Poetry helped to feed them, becoming a source of hope. Two schools, shaped the landscape of Chinese contemporary poetry: poets coming …

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MODERN AUSTRALIAN POEMS / MISSING YOU

Modern Australian poetry tells Australian stories with a poetic significance. https://www.amazon.com/Bloodaxe-Book-Modern-Australian-Poetry/dp/1852243155 The aim for clarity is always central. Its essence today is seen cosmopolitan and lucid, like a landscape lost in its own thoughts, as you are in your. Urban and social issues have been explored with great lucidity using realism.   SCENE FROM A MARRIAGE – Richard James Allen …

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ICELANDIC SELECTED POEMS – Jónas Hallgrímsson

In the beginning of the 19th century, Romanticism arrived to Iceland and was dominant in the work of poets like Bjarni Thorarensen and Jónas Hallgrímsson (considered as one of the founding fathers of romanticism in Iceland). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4fPc0Gvepk The imagery in his poetry was influenced by the Icelandic landscape. Economic conditions were difficult in Iceland during the early years of his life …

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CONTEMPORARY INDIAN POETRY – Gieve Patel

He is a poet, whose vision eludes simplistic modernist labels and equations. His poetry works include Poems, How Do You Withstand, Body and Mirrored Mirroring. His plays include Princes, Savaksa and Mr Behram. A doctor by profession, Gieve Patel has also worked as a medical practitioner, in urban and rural India. He is a writer and painter, with three books …

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