Tag Archives: Poetry

Shakespeare & Company: Poets Richard Barnett & Luke Kennard (Podcast)

Poetic Views: Museum at Wordsworth Grasmere

The Museum at Wordsworth Grasmere, the second phase of work at the former Lake District home of the great English Romantic poet William Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy, has opened to the public, with all gallery, exhibition design and interpretative overviews by Nissen Richards Studio.

The first phase of work by Nissen Richards Studio encompassed the conservation and reinterpretation of Dove Cottage itself, where William and Dorothy once lived, plus the new identity for Wordsworth Grasmere and the scheme’s signage and wayfinding.

The new visitor journey, designed by Nissen Richards Studio in close collaboration with the Wordsworth Grasmere team, includes a series of threshold moments, such as a totem sign and the setting of words into the walkways, featuring fragments of poems going off in two directions, so that visitors see them clearly on arrival and departure.

The Museum includes a shop and ticketing area, before visitors enter a new, double-height orientation space, where quotations by Wordsworth are set within a dramatic, full-height light wall. Visitors then make their way to a former stable space that houses an immersive introductory film, before stepping over the threshold into Dove Cottage. Visitors return to The Museum via Dove Cottage’s Garden-Orchard, entering an expanded first floor space, loosely arranged into four new galleries. Galleries One and Four are set to one side and Galleries Two and Three to the other, whilst a pause space in between offers views onto the gardens and surrounding landscape.

Poetry Readings: “I Am!” – By John Clare (1793 – 1864)

Read by John Davies

John Clare was an English poet who lived most of his life in abject poverty. His life was marred by bouts of mania and depression, and for the final 23 years of his life, Clare was locked in an insane asylum. It was here he began to write poetry; ‘I Am’ was Clare’s final elegy before his passing.

I Am!

BY JOHN CLARE

I am—yet what I am none cares or knows;
My friends forsake me like a memory lost:
I am the self-consumer of my woes—
They rise and vanish in oblivious host,
Like shadows in love’s frenzied stifled throes
And yet I am, and live—like vapours tossed

Into the nothingness of scorn and noise,
Into the living sea of waking dreams,
Where there is neither sense of life or joys,
But the vast shipwreck of my life’s esteems;
Even the dearest that I loved the best
Are strange—nay, rather, stranger than the rest.

I long for scenes where man hath never trod
A place where woman never smiled or wept
There to abide with my Creator, God,
And sleep as I in childhood sweetly slept,
Untroubling and untroubled where I lie
The grass below—above the vaulted sky.

Reviews: ‘The Collected Works Of Jim Morrison – Poetry, Journals & Lyrics’

When the lead singer of The Doors, Jim Morrison, died in 1971 at age 27, he left behind boxes filled with poetry, journals, and handwritten lyrics of what would become some of the era’s most memorable songs. His sister, Anne Morrison Chewning, has now compiled material from his archive into a new book, “The Collected Works of Jim Morrison.” Correspondent John Blackstone talked with Chewning, and with the two surviving members of The Doors – drummer John Densmore and guitarist Robby Krieger – about Morrison’s impact as a writer and performer.

Poems: Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken” As Drawn By Sergio Garcia Sanchez

Sergio García Sánchez is a cartoonist, illustrator and professor at the University of Granada, as well as co-author of the graphic novel “Lost in NYC: A Subway Adventure.”

Visualizing Robert Frost’s Seminal Poem
The illustrator Sergio Garcia Sanchez embarks on the road not taken.

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Poetry: ‘When I Have Fears’ – John Keats (1795-1821)

Read by James Smillie – John Keats was a revered English poet who devoted his short life to the perfection of poetry.

John Keats was an English Romantic poet. He was one of the main figures of the second generation of Romantic poets, along with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley, despite his works having been in publication for only four years before his death from tuberculosis at the age of 25. 

Greatest Poetry: ‘Ithaka’ By C.P. Cavafy (1863-1933)

Constantine Peter Cavafy was an Egyptiot Greek poet, journalist and civil servant. His consciously individual style earned him a place among the most important figures not only in Greek poetry, but in Western poetry as well. Cavafy wrote 155 poems, while dozens more remained incomplete or in sketch form. 

Ithaka

BY C. P. CAVAFYTRANSLATED BY EDMUND KEELEY

As you set out for Ithaka
hope your road is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
angry Poseidon—don’t be afraid of them:
you’ll never find things like that on your way
as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,
as long as a rare excitement
stirs your spirit and your body.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
wild Poseidon—you won’t encounter them
unless you bring them along inside your soul,
unless your soul sets them up in front of you.

Hope your road is a long one.
May there be many summer mornings when,
with what pleasure, what joy,
you enter harbors you’re seeing for the first time;
may you stop at Phoenician trading stations
to buy fine things,
mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
sensual perfume of every kind—
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
and may you visit many Egyptian cities
to learn and go on learning from their scholars.

Keep Ithaka always in your mind.
Arriving there is what you’re destined for.
But don’t hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years,
so you’re old by the time you reach the island,
wealthy with all you’ve gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.

Ithaka gave you the marvelous journey.
Without her you wouldn’t have set out.
She has nothing left to give you now.

And if you find her poor, Ithaka won’t have fooled you.
Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,
you’ll have understood by then what these Ithakas mean.

Animated Short Films: ‘Ozymandias’ – A Poem By Percy Bysshe Shelley

Directed and animated by Alvaro Lamarche-Toloza

“OZYMANDIAS” is the animated 3D adaptation of a poem written by English poet Percy Bysshe Shelley in December 1817. It was created with a series of wash paintings animated with the Unreal Engine and EbSynth to test an experimental 3D animation pipeline.

Additional info:
Using EbSynth, a texture synthesis / transfer tool created by Secret Weapon, we applied wash paintings to 3D scenes created in real-time with the Unreal Engine. The result is a unique look and a promising experimental pipeline which dramatically speeds up the production of 3D animation stylized with traditional 2D art.

About the poem:
Written in 1817 by Percy Shelley, “Ozymandias” refers to pharaoh Ramesses II and was perhaps inspired by the acquisition of a large Ramesses statue by the British Museum the same year. References to this poem have often appeared in pop culture, though Shelley himself might not have considered it to be one of his major works.

It was first published in the 11 January 1818 issue of The Examiner of London. 

Credits:
Directed and animated by Alvaro Lamarche-Toloza
Wash paintings by Estelle Chauvard
Voice by Bryan Cranston, taken from the Breaking Bad Teaser Trailer
“Menkaure colossal statue base” model by Zhejiang University
“Ramses II” model by Taoetsia
“Horse Skeleton” model by Diego Luján García

‘OZYMANDIAS’ By Percy Bysshe Shelley

I met a traveller from an antique land,
Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.”

New Periodical: “Liberties” A Journal Of Culture And Politics (Autumn 2020)

Each issue of Liberties, the Foundation’s decidedly analog quarterly publication, will feature a combination of essays from prominent writers and introduce new talent. Contributors already signed include leading voices from this country and abroad in the worlds of culture, business, entertainment, government, politics, and technology. Each edition of Liberties will also publish new poetry from both highly awarded and up-and-coming poets.   

LISTEN TO INTERVIEW WITH PUBLISHER BILL REICHBLUM:

FROM “THE STACK” (MONOCLE 24 PODCAST)

To advance independent thinking and propel new ideas, well-known figures from the worlds of arts, business, government, higher education and philanthropy today announced the formation of the Liberties Journal Foundation. Based in Washington, D.C., the Foundation is a non-partisan, not-for-profit organization that seeks to inform today’s cultural and political leaders, deepen the understanding of citizens, and inspire the next generation to participate in the democratic process and public service. The Foundation’s first initiative is a new quarterly journal, Liberties – A Journal of Culture and Politics, slated for October 2020 debut.

Founding members of the Foundation include the well-known Washington attorney, philanthropist, and former diplomat, Alfred H. Moses; chairman and CEO of cross-border trade company Quberu, Peter Bass; and, respected arts, education, and business leader, Bill Reichblum. 

A book for the coat pocket, Liberties’ diverse voices celebrate one commonality: freedom of inquiry and thought.

Liberties’ editorial team reflects the mission of the Journal pairing acclaimed literary critic Leon Wieseltier as editor with Celeste Marcus, a new talent, as managing editor. Bill Reichblum is the publisher. The book will be available as a soft-cover edition, by subscription or single copy, in bookstores and online.

“The Foundation exists to meet the thirst in our country for ideas and serious thinking at a time when the daily news dominates the media and overwhelms our lives,” says Moses. “The Foundation will provide an outlet for world-renowned writers on culture and politics to reach a readership that is looking for stimulation and inspiration at a time when our lives are increasingly assailed by ephemeral trivia.” 

“We believe there is a genuine need to take time to listen, to actively absorb in-depth thinking of both those with accomplished experience and the inventive new generation at the beginning of their careers,” says Reichblum. “Their creativity, insights, and perceptions can individually and collectively inspire culture and impact politics.”

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