Curious Child, by Prince

Boris Groh - Christmas Wonders
Boris Groh – Christmas Wonders (2017) – from ArtStation

Prince Rogers Nelson (b. June 7, 1958; d. April 21, 2016), known as Prince, was an American artist with multiple talents: singer, songwriter, guitar virtuoso, record producer, dancer, actor, and filmmaker. In some way he represented a dark counterpart of Michael Jackson, and indeed these two contemporary musicians were often rivals.

His 14th studio album (released on October 13, 1992) was titled by a personal “Love Symbol,” and it became his identity, he used it as stage name from June 7, 1993 to May 13, 2000. CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…

Posted on by Christian 0

Dreams of a lonely lighthouse

Félicien Rops - Parallélisme
Félicien Rops – Parallélisme, heliogravure (c.1896) – The Art Institute of Chicago, via Wikimedia Commons

Under lockdown, many people lived through Internet, physically separated from the outer world, and regular readers of this blog were probably more assiduous in their visits, waiting eagerly for the next post scheduled three days after the preceding one. Accordingly, floating in a virtual world, I spent much time searching the Web and preparing new posts.

Meanwhile, for many, love, deprived from physical contact, living at distance, became an ideality, filling dreams and desires.

My Love and I took hands and swore,
Against the world, to be
Poets and lovers evermore,
To laugh and dream on Lethe’s shore.

— Michael Field (Katharine Bradley and Edith Cooper), “It was deep April, and the morn,” in Underneath the Bough (1893)

Poets and Lovers exists since one year and a half, it was born privately on March 17, 2019, becoming public on the 20th. This its 218th post. CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…

Posted on by Christian 0

Petite fille, petit amour, petite enfant, par Georges Chelon

Pochette du 45 tours "Petite fille, petit amour, petite enfant"
Pochette du 45 tours “Petite fille, petit amour, petite enfant” (1973) – provient de Discogs

Georges Chelon est un auteur, compositeur et chanteur français, né à Marseille le 4 janvier 1943. Sa chanson “Petite fille, petit amour, petite enfant” parut en septembre 1973 sur un simple 45 tours avec “Les grands ensembles” en face B (Disques Meys 10055 ou 128.21, voir ici la pochette). Elle figure également en position 5 de la face B de son LP 33 tours Ouvrez les portes de la vie, également paru en septembre 1973 (Disques Meys 30014 puis 528.202 en 1975, Disques Meys Barclay 45001 au Canada, voir ici la pochette). CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…

Posted on by Christian 0

No good work of love goes unrewarded with blood libel

Does our epoch love children? All children? Official opinion will answer “yes,” but we can look behind this façade. Rather than love for real children, it is rather a worship for an idealised image of childhood innocence. Behind it lurks a pornographic obsession with defilement and sadism. We can see this through the accusations raised by various authors against known men of the past who were known for loving children. CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…

Posted on by Christian 0

Toute grâce et toutes nuances, par Paul Verlaine

Alphonse Liébert - Mathilde Mauté de Fleurville
Alphonse Liébert – Mathilde Mauté de Fleurville (c.1870)

En 1869, Paul Verlaine rencontre Mathilde Mauté, alors âgée de 16 ans, dont il tombe amoureux. Elle lui inspire les 21 poèmes de sa collection La Bonne Chanson, dont la composition s’échelonne de l’hiver 1869 au printemps 1870, et publiée en 1870 à compte d’auteur chez Alphonse Lemerre. Ils se marient le 11 août 1870. Leur mariage se délitera rapidement, surtout après la liaison de Verlaine avec Arthur Rimbaud. Le couple se sépare en 1874, et Mathilde divorce en 1885, suite à la promulgation d’une loi le permettant. CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…

Posted on by Christian 0

Nous sommes sept, par Jean Aicard

Agnes Gardner King - Illustration for Wordsworth's We are Seven
Agnes Gardner King – Illustration pour We are Seven de Wordsworth – provient de iamachild.wordpress.com

Le poème « Nous sommes sept » par Jean Aicard fait partie du recueil La Chanson de l’Enfant. C’est une adaptation française du poème « We are Seven » de William Wordsworth.

Une petite fille y parle de sa famille, en particulier de son frère et de sa sœur tous deux morts et enterrés près de sa chaumière, mais qui font toujours partie de sa famille, au même titre que les vivants. CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…

Posted on by Christian 0

She came and went, by James Russell Lowell

Victorian post mortem photograph
Victorian post mortem photograph – from pixieandrotter.com

James Russell Lowell (1819–1891) was an American poet, critic, editor, and diplomat, who knew some fame through his literary criticism and satirical works. On December 26, 1844 he married Maria White, who wrote poetry and was active in the anti-slavery movement. She convinced him to join the abolitionist cause, and he devoted to it a large part of his writings. CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…

Posted on by Christian 0

Printemps et Été, par Paul Verlaine

Frank Dicksee - Startled
Frank Dicksee – Startled (1892) – Royal Academy of Arts

L’expression ‘poète maudit’ désigne un poète incompris, chez qui le génie se mêle à un comportement asocial, s’illustrant par la bizarrerie, la provocation, la consommation d’alcool et de drogues, voire la sexualité débridée ; aussi ce n’est généralement qu’après sa mort qu’il connaitra la notoriété. On doit ce qualificatif à Paul Verlaine, qui publia en 1884 l’essai Les Poètes maudits, présentant trois auteurs insuffisamment connus : Tristan Corbière, Arthur Rimbaud et Stéphane Mallarmé. La troisième édition de 1888 en rajouta trois autres : Marceline Desbordes-Valmore, Villiers de l’Isle-Adam et… lui-même, sous l’anagramme Pauvre Lelian. Il ne pouvait en effet se cacher qu’il représentait l’archétype du poète maudit. CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…

Posted on by Christian 0

We are Seven, by William Wordsworth

Agnes Gardner King - Illustration for Wordsworth's We are Seven
Agnes Gardner King – Illustration for Wordsworth’s We are Seven – from agnesgardnerking.wordpress.com

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…

Posted on by Christian 0