First Meeting of Petrarch and Laura in the Church of Santa Chiara at Avignon (1889, Marie Spartali Stillman)
Often identified as the father of humanism, Francesco Petrarca (1304-1374) is considered one of the greatest love poets. For a period of time, his light outshone that of Dante. His Canzoniere or Rime sparse (”scattered rhymes”), chronicles […]
Archive for the 'Poetry' Category
Poetry Corner: Edgar Allan Poe
Published by January 28th, 2007 in Edgar Allan Poe, Poetry and Sellsius Real Estate Blog. 2 CommentsEvery January 19th, since 1949, a visitor has come to Edgar Allan Poe’s grave to leave cognac and red roses in memory of the poet’s birthday. The ritual has been carried on by at least 2 Poe “toasters“. Poe was born in Boston in 1809 but grew up in Virginia. He died […]
John Donne (1572-1631) was a sensual poet, an ordained minister and an attorney. Go figure. What I love most about Donne is his clever use of the conceit, an elaborate metaphor using imagery which extends the length of his poems. His subjects are often love, death and religion, which he writes of with […]
Poetry Corner: John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester
Published by December 3rd, 2006 in Jon Wilmot and Poetry. 3 CommentsJohn Wilmot was a Restoration poet and libertine, born in 1647. He made his reputation while Charles II was king. The Earl was a satirist with a sharp sting, admired by Defoe, Tennyson & Voltaire, among others. No one was immune from his verbal thrashing, including the King (it’s a good thing the Earl and […]
Walt Whitman (1819-1892) was born on Long Island, NY. He lived in Brooklyn and attended public school there. His self-promotion contributed to his success. His most famous work Leaves of Grass was self-published in 1855. It went unnoticed despite Whitman’s anonymous recommendations. One A-list poet, however, did take notice—Ralph Waldo Emerson, who praised […]
The Persian poet Omar Khyyam’s Rubaiyat, translated by Englishman Edward Fitzgerald, is one of my favorites. Although the 19th century translation is supposedly a stretch of the original quatrains, it is wonderful. Here are some verses.
A book of Verses beneath the Bough
A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread–and Thou
Beside me singing in […]
Japanese poetry has the extraordinary ability to convey emotion with a minimum of words. The following are translations by Kenneth Rexroth from his book 100 Japanese Poems. Most are from the Man’yoshu (Collection of Ten Thousand Leaves), the oldest existing, and most highly revered, collection of Japanese poetry.
I wish I were close
to you as […]
Dante Alighieri, generally regarded as Italy’s finest poet, was born in Florence in 1265. He is best known for his Commedia (Divine Comedy) an epic poem in three parts describing his travels through other worldly real estate, namely the Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso. While Dante’s Inferno is the best known of the Commedia, it […]
This is the first edition of Poetry Corner. Anyone is free to contribute a poem or verse. The theme is simplicity.
“The Red Wheelbarrow” by Ann Altman*
so much depends
upon
a red wheel
barrow
glazed with rain
water
beside the white
chickens.
(William Carlos Williams, 1883-1963) via christopher.batchelder @ thirty seven fifty.
* See more of Ann Altman’s work here. Reminds […]
