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Cottage Poems

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Chapter: 12 | Listen: 2

Patrick Brontë (father of the famous Brontë sisters, Charlotte, Emily and Anna) is mainly remembered as a father, reverend and teacher, but he also was a poet and a novelist. Cottage Poems, his first published work, he gives gentle spiritual advice and guidance to the community, colleagues and members of his congregation in the form of lyrical letters. Even if one is simply interested in his daughters’ works, it is still interesting to see where the sisters’ inspiration to write may have come from. (Summary by Mary Kay) [chương_files]

Lancashire Dialogues

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Chapter: 3 | Listen: 1

A scion of the Byroms of Byrom Hall in Lowton, Lancashire, John Byrom was born and lived in Manchester and Salford for much of his life. Educated at Cambridge, Byrom become a member of the Royal Society and a leading poet of his day. In addition to his poetical works, he invented a system of shorthand, composed the Christmas carol “Christians awake! Salute the happy morn”, and coined the phrase “Tweedledum and Tweedledee”. Byrom’s work included three early poems in the Lancashire dialect, for which he was well remembered by the Lancashire dialect writers of the 19th century, in the form of satirical dialogues on topics of current political interest. – Summary by Phil Benson [chương_files]

Ebony and Crystal

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Chapter: 116 | Listen:

As stated in L’Alouette: A Magazine of Verse, “Ebony and Crystal is an artist’s intrepid repudiation of the world of trolleys and cash-registers, Freudian complexes and Binet-Simon tests, for realms of exalted and iridescent strangeness beyond space and time yet real as any reality because dreams have made them so. Mr. Smith has escaped the fetish of life and the world, and glimpsed the perverse, titanic beauty of death and the universe; taking infinity as his canvas and recording in awe the vagaries of suns and planets, gods, and daemons, and blind amorphous horrors that haunt gardens of polychrome fungi more remote than Algol and Achernar. It is a cosmos of vivid flame and glacial abysses that he celebrates, and the colorful luxuriance with which he peoples it could be born from nothing less than sheer genius. The summation of Mr. Smith’s exotic vision is perhaps attained in the long phantasmal procession of blank verse pentameters entitled, “The Hashish-Eater; or, the Apocalypse of Evil.” In this frenzied plunge through nameless gulfs of interstellar terror the Californian presents a narcotic pageant of poisonous vermilious and paralysing shadows whose content is equalled only by its verbal medium; a medium involving one of the most opulent and fastidiously choice vocabularies ever commanded by a writer of English.” Clark Ashton Smith, referred to as one of the big three of Weird Tales, was a romantic-style poet, a Lovecraftian-style writer and a literary friend of H.P Lovecraft. As a poet, he was considered one of […]

Leda

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Chapter: 30 | Listen:

Though he gained recognition for his later essays and novels, Aldous Huxley started his writing career as a poet. Published in 1920, Leda is his fourth compilation of poetry. It begins with the passionate and slightly erotic poem “Leda”, which recalls the love affair between Queen Leda, the mother of Helen of Troy, and her swan, Zeus in disguise. Some short poems follow. The book ends with two long sections. The first, “Beauty,” is a short collection of vignettes where the author reflects on the concept of beauty through an ideal model of physical desire, Helen of Troy. The second, “Soles Occidere et Redire Possunt,” or “Suns Can Set, and Suns Can Rise Again,” is another long poem which reflects a day in the life of John Ridley, a deceased friend of Huxley’s, who was mentally challenged throughout his entire life.. – Summary by Mary Kay [chương_files]

Poems of Jonathan Swift, Volume Two

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Chapter: 136 | Listen: 1

He lived simply, loved his walks and craved the company of fellow poetical wits as they craved his company in return. With his pal Dr. Sheridan, for one, Jonathan Swift delighted in the 18th century equivalent of a rap off – going back and forth in dueling verse repartee. This second volume is a cornucopia of biting, iconoclastic humor and earnest criticism of injustice. Poems herein concerning Wood’s Halfpence are the companion to his famous Drapier’s Letters and trumpet his achievement in stirring up sufficient outcry to spare Ireland from damaging monetary debasement. He knew what real money was: “For in all the leases that ever we hold We must pay our rent in good silver and gold, And not in brass tokens of such a base mould.” And he didn’t think much of monetary debasement’s evil twin, fractional reserve banking, either: “We want our money on the nail The Banker’s ruin’d if he pays”. There’s a healthy smattering here of bums and urination references too – just so you know these are genuine Swift poems — and all manner of other topics too. In Death and Daphne, written for a favorite grisette, we learn of Death’s sagging libido due to the skinniness of his human bride. And the last poem excoriating Sheridan for comparing base women to noble clouds is a heavenly coup de grâce for any challenger who would dare to top his politically incorrect and thunderous wit: Some critic may object, perhaps, That clouds are blamed for […]

Star-Treader and Other Poems

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Chapter: 46 | Listen: 1

Clark Ashton Smith, referred to as one of the big three of Weird Tales, was a romantic-style poet, a Lovecraftian-style writer and a literary friend of H.P Lovecraft. As a poet, he was considered one of the last great West Coast Romantics. The Star-Treader and Other Poems, published at the age of 19, was his first volume of poetry and his breakout hit. Summary by Mary Kay. Cast List for The Masque of the Forsaken Gods: Narrator and Aphrodite: Mary Kay The Poet: Lucretia B. The Philosopher, Apollo and Another Nymph: Rosslyn Carlyle Jove and Pan: Jamie Artemis: Jennifer Dallman A Nymph: Greg Giordano Ate and The Gods Together: Shakira Searle Edited by: Mary Kay [chương_files]

Recluse

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In the prefatory advertisement to the First Edition of the Prelude, 1850, it is stated that that poem was designed to be introductory to the Recluse, and that the Recluse, if completed, would have consisted of three parts. The second part is the Excursion. The third part was only planned. The first book of the first part was left in manuscript by Wordsworth. It is now (1888) published for the first time in extenso. (Summary from the Preface) [chương_files]

Stray Pebbles From The Shores Of Thought

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Chapter: 96 | Listen:

A collection of poetry by the Boston poetess. Sections are nature, love, miscellaneous, sonnets and ‘for my nieces and nephews’. – Summary by Lynne Thompson [chương_files]

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Collection Vol. 001

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A collection to celebrate Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s 200th birthday, on 27th February, 2007. [chương_files]

Works of Edgar Allan Poe, Raven Edition, Volume 5

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This, the last of 5 volumes containing Poe’s works, contains a collection of both prose and poetry. (Summary by TriciaG) Cast List for Section 42: Narrator / Stage Directions: Ellen Preckel Alessandra: Amanda Friday Castiglione: Phil Schempf DiBroglio: Algy Pug Lalage: Pam Castille Jacinta: Availle Monk, Benito: Larry Wilson Baldazzar: TriciaG Politian: Alan Rose Voice: Frances Brown [chương_files]