In this other well-known poem by Ransom, a little girl wakes up and finds that her hen has died, which causes her a great grief. The setting of this little childhood drama in a farm reflects the idyllic view of country life held by ‘Southern Agrarians’. CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…
John Crowe Ransom (April 30, 1888 — July 3, 1974) was an American teacher, writer and editor. He is renowned both as a poet and a literary critic. He wrote most of his poems between 1915 and 1927. Together with fifteen other academics and students at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, he founded the group called ‘the Fugitives’ after their magazine The Fugitive (1922–1925). They had a special interest in Modernist poetry, and they published works by Modernist poets, but mainly from the Southern part of the United States of America (the former Confederacy). In 1930, he joined a group of twelve writers who would be called ‘Southern Agrarians’. They denounced industrialism and urbanization, which they saw as an alienating force destroying traditional culture, and they counterposed to it the traditional values of an agarian economy, as it existed in the South before the Civil War. As writes the Poetry Foundation: CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…
In 1893, Stenbock published at The Leadenhell Press in London his third collection of verses, The Shadow of Death, subtitled A Collection of Poems, Songs, and Sonnets. The 1984 reprinting by Garland Publishing, New York, is available in digital form on Internet Archive. CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…
In a previous post I presented five epitaphs to children from Robert Herrick’s The Hesperides & Noble Numbers. Here I will give three more epitaphs by him, but this time devoted to young girls. The poems come from the Project Gutenberg EBook transcription of the 1898 edition in two volumes by Alfred Pollard of The Hesperides & Noble Numbers. CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…
Robert Herrick’s huge collection of poems The Hesperides & Noble Numbers deals with many subjects. In a previous post I presented his well-known poem “To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time,” telling that life is short and should be enjoyed without delay. I will give here five of his poems devoted to the death of children, in particular little girls. In a future post, I will present three more epitaphs, but this time on young girls. CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…
In 1796, Brooke Boothby published Sorrows. Sacred to the Memory of Penelope, a collection of poems in memory of his deceased daughter Penelope. The collection consists of 24 numbered sonnets, two longer poems both called Elegy, and a final 12-verse poem called Stanzas. In two previous posts I transcribed 7 of the 24 sonnets. Now I reproduce one of its two elegies. In this sad poem, Boothby longs to die and to have his body deposited by a friend into Penelope’s tomb, so that his ashes can mix with hers. Then, being rid of his body, he imagines his daughter greeting him in heaven, taking him by the hand and crowning him with a wreath of flowers. CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…
Voici un poème étrange et triste, évoquant l’inutilité de la vie, paru dans le deuxième recueil de Minou, Le Pêcheur de lune. CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…
In a previous post, I copied 3 sonnets from Sorrows. Sacred to the Memory of Penelope, the collection of poems written by Brooke Boothby in memory of his daughter Penelope, who died one month before her sixth birthday. Here I transcribe three more sonnets (and correct another). CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…
Sir Brooke Boothby (1743–1824), seventh Baronet, and his wife Susanna (1755–1822) had a daughter, Penelope, born on April 11, 1785, their only child. The little girl is renowned for her portrait made by Sir Joshua Reynolds in July 1788. As writes Estelle Hurll in her booklet about Sir Joshua Reynolds: CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…
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…
