Poésies d’une Enfant, par Antonine Coullet

L’OCÉAN

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Le murmure des mers est plus triste la nuit.
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Antonine Coullet est née à La Roche-sur-Yon le 10 janvier 1892. À 9 ans elle commença à écrire de petits poèmes. Des adultes fascinés par ce don — pourtant pas si exceptionnel à cet âge — décidèrent en 1902 de publier ses vers. Ainsi parut début 1903 (mais achevé d’imprimer le 17 novembre 1902) son recueil Poésies d’une Enfant (71 pages), publié par Alphonse Lemerre à Paris. CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…

Posted on 2019-11-072019-10-19 by Christian 0

Eulalie, by Edgar Allan Poe

Ewa Ludwiczak - Edgar Allan Poe — Ewa Ludwiczak – Edgar Allan Poe – from ewaludwi.com

I present today a poem that celebrates the love of a young girl; it tells how the poet emerged from “a world of moan” and found happiness when he encountered his bride, the “young Eulalie”, a “radiant girl” who brightened his life. CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…

Posted on 2019-11-042019-10-13 by Christian 0

Yokohama Garland, by Alfred Edgar Coppard

John Singer Sargent - Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose — John Singer Sargent – Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose (1885-6) – Tate Britain N01615

Alfred Edgar Coppard (1878–1957) was an English author, best known for his short stories, but who also wrote poetry. After a youth spent in poverty, around 1920 he joined a literary group in Oxford, then published his first book in 1921; he continued writing and publishing throughout his life. CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…

Posted on 2019-10-292019-10-09 by Christian 0

Sapphics, by Eric Stenbock

Count Eric Stenbock (1860–1895) is a lesser-known ‘Decadent’ writer. In his short lifetime, he published three short collections of poetry, Love, Sleep & Dreams (1881), Myrtle, Rue and Cypress (1883) and The Shadow of Death (1893), a collection of short stories, Studies of Death (1894), and a separate short story, “The Other Side: A Breton Legend,” in The Spirit Lamp (Vol. IV, No. 2 June 1893). CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…

Posted on 2019-10-262019-09-29 by Christian 0

After, by Aleister Crowley

Kazuki Takamatsu - Narcissist — Kazuki Takamatsu – Narcissist

I give here the last poem in the collection Alice: An Adultery, inspired by Crowley’s passionate affair with Mary Alice Rogers, a married woman. Upon parting, the lovers solemnly vow to love each other all their life, till they die … and after death. CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…

Posted on 2019-10-232019-10-24 by Christian 0

Navarana’s death and burial

Navarana's grave — Navarana’s grave – from nunatsiaqonline.ca

In a previous post I narrated how in 1911 the Danish explorer and ethnologist Peter Freuchen, then aged 25, married a 13-year-old Inuit girl, Navarana. They had a son, Mequsaq, and a daughter, Pipaluk, born in 1916 and 1918 respectively. CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…

Posted on 2019-10-172019-09-16 by Christian 2

Fleurs secrètes

Les chemins de la bien-aimée

Jules Pascin – Flora aux fleurs (1928) – The Athenaeum

Le long d’un sentier qui ondule comme une caresse, je découvre les fleurs les plus belles, celles que je n’avais jamais pu approcher. Doucement, tendrement, je m’approche et je m’incline pour respirer leur parfum puis déposer un baiser sur leurs frêles corolles.
Sous les fleurs se cache la poésie qui n’ose dire son nom, celle des sentiments suprêmement niés. CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…

Posted on 2019-10-142019-09-12 by Christian 0

The Pillar-Box’s Song, by Minou Drouet

Fernand Le Quesne - The Pillar Box — Fernand Le Quesne – The Pillar Box, A Letter to Daddy (1917) – from toproschool.blogspot.fr

Readers who do not understand French may feel frustrated by the great number of posts about Minou Drouet, all written in that language, and looking quite informative. I have written in Pigtails in Paint a long article on Minou’s life, which contains many details unknown to the general public. CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…

Posted on 2019-10-112019-09-13 by Christian 2

Un poème de jeunesse de Pierre Louÿs

Graham Ovenden - Kneeling Girl — Graham Ovenden – Kneeling Girl (1986)

Né à Gand le 10 décembre 1870 et mort à Paris le 4 juin 1925, l’écrivain français Pierre Louÿs s’illustra par des romans, contes, poèmes en vers et en prose. Il pratiqua aussi le canular, d’ailleurs son œuvre la plus connue, Les Chansons de Bilitis, un recueil de poèmes érotiques en prose, en fut un : il la fit passer pour une traduction d’une poétesse grecque contemporaine de Sappho. CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…

Posted on 2019-10-082019-09-06 by Christian 0

The Poe Cottage, by Nathalia Crane

The Edgar Allan Poe Cottage, The Bronx, New York City

Around May 1846, Edgar Allan Poe moved in a small and humble cottage in The Bronx, New York City, with his wife Virginia Eliza Clemm and her mother Maria. It would be the last home of the couple. Virginia died of tuberculosis in the cottage’s first floor bedroom on January 30, 1847; then Edgar died in mysterious circumstances in Baltimore on October 7, 1849, while he was travelling back home from Richmond. Upon hearing the news of his death, his mother-in-law Maria moved out of the cottage. CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…

Posted on 2019-09-292019-09-05 by Christian 0

Poets and Lovers

Beauty arises when the mind frees itself from fetters, when passion burns without end, when younger girls awaken hearts and illuminate lives