It’s that subject no one wants to study in English class. It’s that aisle in the bookstore that’s always empty. It’s that stuff that star-crossed lovers spout at each other through open windows. Explains the author of this Tumblr, called SpeakCelebrity. Offering that poetry isn’t scary, “it’s exciting, and comforting, and new, and old, and …
Tag Archives: poem
6 dark and scary illustrations of Edgar Allen Poe short stories from 1919
When Poe’s 1908 collection of short stories, Tales of Mystery and Imagination, was reprinted in 1919, a copy of the “deluxe” edition would cost you 5 guineas (in today’s money, that’s about 300 USA Fun Tickets). The book was printed on handmade paper, bound in vellum, and lettered in gold. But its cost was mainly …
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Grading Obama’s love letters: women swoon, men see through them
What kind of grade would he (Barack Obama) have gotten for such T.S. Eliot analysis…a reading that was admittedly done without perusing the footnotes? We checked in with some current members of the Columbia English department. Matthew Hart, who specializes in 20th- and 21st-century Anglophone culture with an emphasis on modernist poetry, was not terribly blown away, as …
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Favorite Commercials: Robert Frost, poem, Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening
Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening Whose woods these are I think I know. His house is in the village though; He will not see me stopping here To watch his woods fill up with snow. My little horse must think it queer To stop without a farmhouse near Between the woods and frozen …
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Account of a Visit From St. Nicholas
from The Troy Sentinel, December 23, 1823, p. 3 We know not to whom we are indebted for the following description of that unwearied patron of children–that homely, but delightful personification of parental kindness–SANTE CLAUS, his costume and his equipage, as he goes about visiting the fire-sides of this happy land, laden with Christmas bounties; …
Family History Day: a new American holiday
Would you like to celebrate a new holiday with me? I call it Family History Day, or Ancestors Day. Let’s celebrate it right before Halloween with a variety of fun and somber rituals, pulled from the most popular festivals around the world: Qingming festival from East Asia Día de los Muertos from Mexico The rituals of Shinto …
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Do not go gentle into that good night
[testimonial company=”” author=”Dylan Thomas, 1951″ image=””] Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Though wise men at their end know dark is right, Because their words had forked no lightning they Do not go gentle into …
A Poem: Signs the economy is picking up
Last week the bells were sounding alarm The jobs report was down Housing is still in a depression The pundits are starting to talk double dip But what about my report Pennies on the ground 15x more pennies on the streets I’m hauling in the copper Strength in the economy? Bums are now only taking …
The Weavers
No one saw the weavers
The makers of the golden shrouds
The Northeasterly
A subtle wind teased, northeast it came down behind around me, reticent and righteous, rife with egalitarian flair, withdrawing at its leisure as if playing with the air. My senses took a notice, of its continuous resurgence as northeasterlies often do, for the subtle winds that blow with ease repeat their acts elusively until you’re …