Category: English

Alabama Song

Jim Morrison with a little girl
Jim Morrison with a little girl

The poem “Alabama Song” (also known as “Moon of Alabama,” “Moon over Alabama,” or “Whisky Bar”) was first written in German by Bertolt Brecht, then translated into English by Elisabeth Hauptmann in 1925. Kurt Weill set it to music for the 1927 musical play Mahagonny-Songspiel. The song was finally included in their 1930 opera Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny (Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny). It is sung in Act I by alcoholic prostitutes, they are craving first for a ‘whiskey bar,’ then for a ‘little boy’ (in the 1930’s, this designated a bottle format), and finally for a ‘little dollar:’ CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…

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Marvellous freedom

Dick Whittington - Children being taught at Ryan dancing academy, Southern California
Dick Whittington – Children being taught at Ryan dancing academy, Southern California (1933) – from historyinphotos.blogspot.com

After two years and a half, Poets and Lovers is alive and going on, surrounded by hostile forces. It survived the persecution of its first website provider by the UK police, which finally led to closing down the websites that he hosted. We have now a new provider, aiming to host several art websites suffering from censorship, starting with those suppressed in the UK: Poets and Lovers, Pigtails in Paint, and the sites of Graham Ovenden and of Garage Press. CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…

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Little Girl, by Little Girl

Little Girl poster
Little Girl poster

MoonCCat is the pen name of Luc-Santiago Rodriguez, a poet, musician and photographer who finds his inspiration in the 19th century. He puts into music poems by 19th century French and English poets, defends the classical French alexandrine against contemporary “free verse,” and practices argentic photography instead of digital one. He is also a specialist in absinthe, the beverage celebrated by 19th century poets and artists, which was banned during most of the 20th century; at one time he managed an absinthe shop in Paris, Vert d’Absinthe. CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…

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Sonnets of a Little Girl, VIII, by Ernest Dowson

Dowson's vandalised grave
Dowson’s vandalised grave (from Find A Grave)

I present now the last of the 8 “Sonnets of a Little Girl.” This 8th one is not about childhood, there is no little girl in it; it rather tells about disappointment and death. A modified version of it, with the title “Epilogue,” appeared in The Savoy, No. 7, November 1896, page 87. With the title “A Last Word,” it was included as the last poem in verse in Dowson’s final collection Decorations: in Verse and Prose, published in December 1899, two months before his death. CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…

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Drifting Down, by Joseph Ashby-Sterry

Harry Furniss - Joseph Ashy-Sterry
Harry Furniss – Joseph Ashy-Sterry (c.1910) – National Portrait Gallery, NPG 6251

The poems from Boudoir Ballads that we presented have shown the persistent love of Ashby-Sterry for young girls. But the poet had another passion: rivers, boats and rowing. In 1913 he published The River Rhymer, a collection of verse on this topic.

Some of his poems combine both passions, for instance a few ones in Boudoir Ballads told about a young girl loved on a river. I have thus selected three love poems from The River Rhymer, here is my first one: CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…

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