William Wordsworth (b. 7 April 1770, d. 23 April 1850) and Samuel Taylor Coleridge (b. 21 October 1772, d. 25 July 1834) are major English Romantic poets. In 1798 they published together the collection Lyrical Ballads, With a Few Other Poems, which helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature. A well-known poem in that collection is the 10th, written by Wordsworth (except perhaps the first stanza written by Coleridge), titled “We are Seven.” CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…
In a previous post, I presented the three epigrams by the Latin poet Martial (Marcus Valerius Martialis) devoted to Erotion, a little slave girl who died six days before her sixth birthday, and whom he loved tenderly.
The Scottish writer Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894) is famous for his novels, such as Treasure Island and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, but also for his travel books. He wrote some poetry, part of which was published posthumously. In particular, he adapted the three epigrams by Martial into poems, of which he kept the manuscripts; they were published more than twenty years after his death. CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…
L’écrivain et poète Paul Verlaine, né à Metz le 30 mars 1844 et mort à Paris le 8 janvier 1896, est un archétype du ‘poète maudit,’ et le principal représentant en France de la tendance ‘décadente’ ou ‘fin de siècle.’ Sa vie fut émaillée par un mariage raté, la fréquentation de prostituées, des amours homosexuelles, dont une liaison tumultueuse avec Arthur Rimbaud, enfin l’excès d’alcool, qui le conduisait souvent à des comportements violents. Sa conversion au catholicisme ne freina pas sa débauche, il assumait cette contradiction, il avait sa foi, mais celle-ci ne pouvait pas l’empêcher de pécher. CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…
On June 9, 1978, the Rolling Stones released the album Some Girls, which reached number 1 on the Billboard 200 album chart. The band recorded the album songs, and many more, at EMI’s Pathé Marconi Studios in Paris. Some of these other songs were released later. Among them, the song “So Young” appeared in 1994 as the B-side of a Dutch single. CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…
Ma sixième et dernière sélection du livre Poèmes d’enfants publié par l’École Freinet (Casterman, 1975) présente trois poèmes écrits par une fille au cours d’une année, exprimant une sensibilité à fleur de peau. CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…
Romances between teachers and their adolescent pupils must be frequent, and indeed they are the topic of many popular songs.
The British rock band The Police released in September 1980 the song “Don’t Stand So Close To Me,” written by their lead singer Sting, as the lead single from their third album Zenyatta Mondatta. It won the 1982 Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal. It is about the temptation of a love affair between a schoolgirl and her teacher, “This girl is half his age” and the song alludes to “That book by Nabakov” (I keep the bad spelling). Before joining The Police, Sting had previously worked as an English teacher, and he had noticed 15-year-old girls fancying him. CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…
“L’Heure des enfants” est une adaptation française par Jean Aicard du poème “The Children’s Hour” de Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Il fait partie du recueil La Chanson de l’Enfant. Trois petites filles assaillent leur père, lui grimpent dessus pour le couvrir de baisers et de caresses. Il ne peut que capituler sans conditions. CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…
The popular song “Little Girl Blue,” with music by Richard Rodgers and lyrics by Lorenz Hart, was published in 1935 for the musical Jumbo, starring Gloria Grafton. In 1962 the musical was made into a musical film, Billy Rose’s Jumbo, starring Doris Day, who sang the song. I found two different versions of the lyrics, on the Lorenz Hart site, and on Genius. CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…
Love of men for young girls remains so universal that it finds its way in popular music, despite the immense stigma attached to it by current morality. In the freer atmosphere of the 1960’s, it could be more easily expressed, as in the song “Younger Girl” by John Sebastian. CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…
Voici mon cinquième choix dans livre Poèmes d’enfants publié par l’École Freinet chez Casterman en 1975. Dans ce poème écrit par une fille de 10 ans, on voit germer dans l’enfance la rébellion de la jeunesse face à la misère et à l’injustice. CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…
