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Showing posts from February, 2019

'Thoughts' by Alexander S. Pushkin Alexander Turner

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Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin (1799-1837)  Александр Сергеевич Пушкин 'Thoughts' by Alexander Pushkin (1829) 'M ысли'*  от Александр Пушкин (1829) If I walk the noisy streets, O r enter a many thronged  church, Or sit among the wild young  generation, I give way to my thoughts I say to myself: the years are  fleeting, And however many there seem to  be, We must all go under the eternal v ault, And someone's hour is already at hand. When I look at the solitary oak I think: the patriarch of the woods. It will outlive my forgotten age As it outlived that of my grandfather's. If I caress a young child Immediately I think: farewell! I will yield my place to you, For I must fade while your flower blooms. Each day, every hour I habitually follow my thoughts, Trying to guess from their number The year which brings my death. And where will fate send death to me? In battle, in my travels, or on the seas? Or will the neighboring valley Rece

Alexia Gonzalez

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Já, Marfiza cruel, me não maltrata Saber que usas comigo de cautelas, Qu'inda te espero ver, por causa d'elas, Arrependida de ter sido ingrata. Com o tempo, que tudo desbarata, Teus olhos deixarão de ser estrelas; Verás murchar no rosto as faces belas, E as tranças d'oiro converter-se em prata. Pois se sabes que a tua formosura Por força há de sofrer da idade os danos, Por que me negas hoje esta ventura? Guarda para seu tempo os desenganos, Gozemo-nos agora, enquanto dura, Já que dura tão pouco a flor dos anos https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-uma-senhora/    The symbol of the broken heart represents how the poet feels towards a person. It shows how he was left. File:Broken heart.svg - Wikimedia Commons The poet was born in the colony of Brazil. He studied at a Jesuit college His order was expelled from Brazil and all of Portuguese possessions, so he left to Rome. His fathers death was a hard time during his life.  He was also arrested for being clai

Ali Smith

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  To Spend the Afternoon by Eugenio Montale To spend the afternoon, absorbed and pale, beside a burning garden wall; to hear, among the stubble and the thorns, the blackbirds cackling and the rustling snakes. On the cracked earth or in the vetch to spy on co lumns of red ants now crossing, now dispersing, atop their miniature heaps. To ponder, peering through the leaves, the heaving of the scaly sea while the cicadas' wavering screech goes up from balding peaks. And walking out into the sunlight's glare to feel with melancholy wonder how all of life and its travail is in this following a wall topped with the shards of broken bottles https://www.poemhunter.com/eugenio-montale/ BIOGRAPHY: Eugenio Montale was Born in Genoa, Italy in 1896 into a family of chemical products traders. He worked as an accountant but left to pursue literature. Mostly self- taught, he found his inspiration from other writers and landscapes. In 1975, he won the Nobel Prize in L

Henry Lilly

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Kim Van Kieu  What tragedies take place within each circling space of years! ‘Rich in good looks’ appears to mean poor luck and tears of woe; which may sound strange, I know, but is not really so, I swear, since Heaven everywhere seems jealous of the fair of face. The first 4 stanzas of this poem are representing the main character Kim Van Kieu, who was made out to be very beautiful except she had ''poor luck and tears of woe". Nguyen Du then explains this by saying that it was because heaven seemed jealous of her good looks. Nguyen Du wrote about morals and humanism and his own suffering which could explain his interest in this story of Kim Van Kieu. He got the story after translating it from Chinese to Vietnamese during one of his military delegation missions. In the poem Nguyen Du describes Heaven with personification by saying "Heaven everywhere seems jealous of the fair of face. Using jealous to describe heaven personifies heaven to highlight how beautiful

victoria wheaton

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Rail not at Mammon, helots of to-day, Nor curse Bellona, goddess of the sword, Nor Tyranny, of Toil meet overlord: This is your covenant — “You must obey!” Under its ban your helot-mothers lay; Your sires, slave-born to slave-born mothers, poured The gluttons’ wine, or cringed for bed and board: Why murmur then? And whence your blank dismay? Not with red rite of sword on Strife’s wan hill, ’Mid clash of arms and pomp of war’s estate, Was Freedom slain, and her strong sons laid low, But in some wild red dawning long ago, When Man, the savage, took his savage mate, And beat, and bent, and broke her to his will. Marie Elizabeth Josephine Pitt was an Australian poet and socialist activist, also journalist and Unitarian. Pitt wrote very highly colored nature poetry, once much anthologized; and also wrote poetry in support of the socialist and labor movements.    The first part of the poem is about  how slavery was just a thing and people had to do with it without say

Anna Rojas-Castillo

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Portrait Cecilia Meireles I did not have this face of today So calm So sad So thin. Nor these eyes so empty Nor this bitter mouth. I did not have these strength less hands So still And cold And dead. I did not realize this change So simple So certain So easy. In what mirror did I lose my face? http://www.antoniomiranda.com.br/poesia_ingles/cecilia_meireles.html  This image of a clock relates to the poem because in the poem Cecilia talks about not being able to recognize herself especially her face anymore. Cecilia also talks about how these changes happened out of no where and how she didn't even know they had occurred. A clock has a face and time is constantly changing which shows what Cecilia was saying. Cecilia Meireles was born   November 7th, 1901  and died on November 9 1964. At the age of three she was orphaned and then raised by her grandmother. Cecilia's style of writing  was mostly  neosymbolist  and her themes included ephemeral time and the contempl

Christian Brown

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Summer Night By Gottfried Keller (1819–1890) THE GRAIN is waving far around, And like a sea it stretches out; And yet upon the silent ground No horrid sea-brood lies about. But here of wreaths the flowers dream,         5 As they drink in the star-shine blest. Oh, golden sea, thy peaceful beam My longing soul absorbs with zest! There is a custom fair and old In my own home in valleys green:         10 When bright the summer starlight’s gold, When through the bushes fireflies sheen— Ah, then a whisp’ring, waving gay, Draws near the ripened field by night, And through the golden crops there sway         15 The sickles, gleaming silver-bright. For, flocking to the field in throngs, The young and sturdy lads draw near. The crop they’re seeking that belongs To widow or to orphan drear         20 Who kindly help can never know Of father, brother, servant boy.— For her the youths her harvest mow; Their work is graced by purest joy. Already all the sheave

Kate Humphreys

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    I am mad with love  And no one understands my plight.  Only the wounded  Understand the agonies of the wounded,  When the fire rages in the heart.  Only the jeweller knows the value of the jewel,  Not the one who lets it go.  In pain I wander from door to door,  But could not find a doctor.  Says Mira: Harken, my Master,  Mira's pain will subside  When Shyam comes as the doctor. Picture :  This explains the author's "fire" that "rages in the heart" because she is "mad with love."   Mirabai Biographical Information: Mirabai lived from 1498 to 1546 and was a princess of a royal family. She was unwillingly married Boj Raj, the prince of Merwar.   In the Wars of Delhi Sultanate, her husband died of battle wounds in 1518. Shortly after, her father and father in law passed away in Hindu-Muslim wars.  Mirabai was extremely devoted to the Lord. She often mentioned him as "The Husband of her soul."  She was a central poet during t

Elijah Leak

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 For My Mother in Her Mid-90s by Ama Ata Aidoo (read on poetyfoundation.org) (acquired through google images) About the Author       According to Wikipedia, Ama Ata Aidoo was born in Salt pond, Ghana in the year 1942, and would go on to become a poet, playwright, and academic. In addition to her literary works, Aidoo acted as an educator--teaching in countries like the U.S, Britain, Germany, and Zimbabwe. Reasoning for using the chosen picture        The poem's subject is related to maternity, so I thought the best picture to accompany the analysis would be a depiction of a black mother over her child. The poem talks about the appreciation the author has for the presence of her mother. Poem analysis          Aidoo acts as the speaker of the poem, spending it's entirety expressing her love for her mother despite the direct biological connection( the maternal figure is her aunt). The poem lacks any real rhyme scheme, and primarily makes use of

Andrew Prichard

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Erlkönig by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Who rides so late through the night and wind? It is the father with his child. He has the boy in his arms; he holds him safely, he keeps him warm. ‘My son, why do you hide your face in fear? ’‘Father, can you not see the Erlking? The Erlking with his crown and tail?’ ‘My son, it is a streak of mist.’ ‘Sweet child, come with me. I’ll play wonderful games with you. Many a pretty flower grows on the shore; my mother has many a golden robe.’ ‘Father, father, do you not hear what the Erlking softly promises me?’ ‘Calm, be calm, my child: the wind is rustling in the withered leaves.’ ‘Won’t you come with me, my fine lad? My daughters shall wait upon you; my daughters lead the nightly dance, and will rock you, and dance, and sing you to sleep.’ ‘Father, father, can you not see Erlking’s daughters there in the darkness?’ ‘My son, my son, I can see clearly: it is the old grey willows gleaming.’ ‘I love you,