Crowley’s collection of verses Rodin in Rime was published in 1907. After an author’s note “Auguste Rodin and the Nomenclature of his Works,” subtitled “A Study in Spite,” which looks like an incomprehensible polemic against unnamed persons, the first poem “Rodin” is presented as “Frontispice.” Then follow two groups of poems, of variable length in “Various Measures,” then with 14 lines each in “Sonnets and Quatorzains.” Most of them have a French title. CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…
Jacqueline Taïeb est une chanteuse française née le 9 novembre 1948 à Tunis. En janvier 1967, elle sortit son premier disque avec lequel elle obtint un bon succès, grâce au titre « 7 heures du matin » ; celui-ci a depuis été repris dans des publicités pour différentes marques. CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…
I have chosen the following love poem from Stenbock’s second collection Myrtle, Rue and Cypress. The Latin subtitle is inspired by the starting verse of the Canticle of Canticles of Solomon in the Bible: “Osculetur me osculo oris sui quia meliora sunt ubera tua vino,” which translates as “Let her kiss me with the kiss of her mouth; for thy breasts are better than wine.” The first two verses indeed follow it, replacing “breasts” by “love” (since the beloved was probably a boy). CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…
I present today my last selection from the collection Rosa Mundi, and other love-songs, the ninth poem in it. The poet remembers courting a young peasant girl, “too happy to be loved,” who kissed him “frank and straight.”
Here ‘Rossett Ghyll’ designates a pass in Cumberland (according to the editor). 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…
Buvons l’amour, sans modération, dans une coupe en forme de fleur. Enivrons-nous à sa fontaine, douce offrande de la demoiselle. 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…
A beautiful love poem, the eleventh from the collection Rosa Mundi, and other love-songs. Here ‘darkmans’ means ‘night’ and is an old English canting word (according to the editor). 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…
My second choice from Myrtle, Rue and Cypress (1883), Stenbock’s second collection of verses, is a poem in the spirit of carpe diem, honouring love, youth and wine. Here he joins Baudelaire, who also extolled wine and drunkenness, and indeed both authors experienced the pleasures of alcohol and drugs. As in many of Stenbock’s poems, the gender of the beloved young person is left unknown, but it was most probably a boy. CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…
