To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time, by Robert Herrick

Robert Herrick
Robert Herrick – from Halleck’s New English Literature (1913), via Wikimedia Commons

Robert Herrick (1591–1674) was an English poet and cleric who lived through the Stuart dynasty, then the civil war and finally the Restoration. In 1648 he published Hesperides: Or, The Works Both Humane & Divine, a huge collection of poetry, to which he appended a shorter collection of religious poems, His Noble Numbers: Or, His Pious Pieces, apparently dated 1647; together, they make over 1400 poems. CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…

Flavia, by Aleister Crowley

Noctivagant - brabikate.blogspot.fr
Noctivagant – brabikate.blogspot.fr

The eighth poem of Rosa Mundi, and other love-songs tells us that the beauty, the kisses and caresses of the loved Italian girl will not last, in the same way as night must soon end with sunrise. There is no salvation in an afterlife, so we must enjoy the pleasures of earthly life without delay, thus live the bliss of the short love night. CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…

Le château de sable, par Minou Drouet

Roger Hauert - Minou Drouet
Roger Hauert – Minou Drouet – dans Poèmes (1956)

Dans un précédent article, j’ai décrit comment Minou Drouet fit la connaissance d’un garçon de quinze ans, Philippe, amoureux d’elle, qu’elle finit par aimer. Dans ce poème de son deuxième recueil, Le Pêcheur de lune, publié en 1959, elle parle de la relation tendre qu’elle noua à huit ans avec un garçon de douze ans, avec qui elle jouait sur la plage. CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…

Maid of Athens, ere we part, by George Gordon Byron

A.E. Chalon, H. T. Ryall, C. R. Cockerell - The Maid of Athens
Painted by A.E. Chalon, engraved by H. T. Ryall, from the picture taken at Athens in 1813 by C. R. Cockerell – The Maid of Athens (1848) – From The Poetical Works of Lord Byron

In 1809–10, the poet George Gordon Byron briefly resided in Athens. He fell in love with the 12 years old Teresa Makri (Τερέζα Μακρή), in whose mother’s house he lodged. In a letter to Henry Drury he said to be “dying for love of three Greek Girls at Athens,” “Teresa, Mariana, and Kattinka.” Before departing for Istanbul, he wrote for Teresa the poem “Maid of Athens, ere we part.” It was first published in Childe Harold in 1812. CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…

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…