Category: Poetry

Requiescat, Oscar Wilde’s tribute to his sister Isola

An envelope containing strands of Isola Wilde's hair, found among Oscar Wilde's possessions when he died
An envelope containing strands of Isola Wilde’s hair, found among Oscar Wilde’s possessions when he died – Photograph: Merlin Holland Picture Archive

Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde was born on October 16, 1854 in Dublin, the second son of William Robert Wills Wilde, a famous otolaryngologist and ophthalmologist, and Jane Francesca Agnes Elgee, a poet and supporter of the Irish nationalist movement. His mother wanted a daughter, and as a toddler, Oscar was raised and clothed as a little girl. The feminine and intellectual way in which she educated him must have contributed to his sensitive and aesthetic temperament, quite opposed to that of his father. CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…

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Annie, by Aleister Crowley

Léon Perrault - Petite fille au bouquet de fleurs
Léon Jean Bazile Perrault – Petite fille au bouquet de fleurs (1896)

Rosa Mundi, and other love-songs is a collection of 28 numbered poems, first published in 1905. It starts with a very long poem, itself called “Rosa Mundi.” Poems numbered 4 to 13 are titled by names of girls. The most charming is the fourth, where a boy secretly offers three flowers to a girl, but in return she has only one secret flower to offer him. CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…

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L’influençable, par Minou Drouet

Roger-Viollet - Minou Drouet
Roger-Viollet – Minou Drouet (1957) – provient de Paris en Images

Dans ce poème dédié à Lucette Descaves, son professeur de piano qu’elle appelait « mon Amour », Minou Drouet lui retourne avec beaucoup d’humour le reproche que cette dernière lui avait fait d’être influençable. En fait, dit-elle, toute la nature est influençable, comme la mer qui porte le reflet du soleil. CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…

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The two Nude Virgins, by Alfred Edgar Coppard

Today I present a mysterious poem from Hips & haws. The poet does not dare to go into the moonlight, fearing some unspecified “infinite thing” that could “enwrap” him. The title mentions two virgins, but the text tells only about one, Diana, the virgin goddess of the hunt, the moon, and nature in Roman mythology. There seem to be hidden things or people, Diana “cannot hear them though she stands whitely among them,” and “she has no fear.” CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…

Posted on by Christian 2