E.Y. Harburg, in full Edgar Yipsel Harburg, was born in New York on 8 April 1896 and died in 1981.He was a song lyricist and librettist, most famous for his lyrics for “The Wizard of Oz” (see here), including those of “Over the Rainbow”. “Inscription On A Lipstick” To let a fool kiss you is… Read More Kiss
“War is to be ranked among the most dreadful calamities which fall on a guilty world; and, what deserves consideration, it tends to multiply and perpetuate itself without end. It feeds and grows on the blood which it sheds. The passions, from which it springs, gain strength and fury from indulgence.” William Ellery Channing (born… Read More War
🄰 🄿 🅁 🄸 🄻 🄴 Questa settimana Eletta Senso ha suggerito un acrostico sulla parola Aprile .Ecco la mia proposta, poco poetica, ma realistica: AncoraPrevedoRincariInLuceElettrica Se volete giocare, aggiungete i vostri testi nei commenti: saranno riportati qui⤵️ Nonna Pitilla – Cucinando poesie ne ha creati due: A moriP ossessiviR itornanoI nsistentementeL ogorandoE sistenza A… Read More Acrostico 🔤
In the previous post (see here) I wrote I that the first word of T. S. Eliot‘s “The Waste Land” is ‘April’ but I have to rectify: April is preceded by an epigraph and a dedication that show some of the languages that the author will use in the poem: Latin, Greek, English and Italian.… Read More T.S. Eliot & the Sibyl
Both Geoffrey Chaucer (see here) and American poet Thomas Stearns Eliot (1888 –1965) start their most famous works by mentioning “April” in the first line but with completely different connotations.If in Chaucer’s work, “sweet” April has a positive connotation, it means a vigorous, fertile rebirth of nature, animals and men which pushes people to embark… Read More T.S. Eliot & April /2
Whan that Aprill, with his shoures soote The droghte of March hath perced to the roote And bathed every veyne in swich licour, Of which vertu engendred is the flour; Whan Zephirus eek with his sweete breeth Inspired hath in every holt and heeth The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne Hath in the Ram… Read More Chaucer & April /1
Émile Zola – French writer and journalist, born on 2 April 1840 🐾 “Why are animals all of my family, like men, as much as men?”🐾 “The highest task of a man is to free animals from cruelty.”🐾 “The cause of animals comes before the concern to ridicule me; it is indissolubly linked to the… Read More Zola et “L’ amour des bêtes” (Le Figaro, 1896)
In 1708 satirist Jonathan Swift (author of “Gulliver’s Travels) decided to play a very elaborate All Fools’ Day prank on John Partridge, an astrologer who sold his bogus predictions to the public in almanacs.Almanacs were an important part of eighteenth-century life. They contained a daily calendar, a list of scheduled events and holidays, maxims and… Read More When Swift Made the Astrologer Die
Eletta Senso questa settimana ho proposto un tautogramma in Ⓟ in onore della Primavera. Come sapete, è un gioco linguistico in cui tutte le parole iniziano con la stessa lettera, tranne articoli e preposizioni e poco altro (in questo caso la consonante Ⓟ ) Penso ai prodigi che porteràla primavera percorrendocome paziente pittorepaesaggi piacevolmentepervasi di… Read More Tautogramma in Ⓟ
Anna Sewell (born on 30 March 1820, in Norfolk, England) is a famous English novelist renowned for her best-selling novel ‘Black Beauty’ , considered as a children’s classic. Her concern with horses began early in life. At fourteen, she slipped in the rain on her way home from school and broke both her ankles. Unfortunately,… Read More Anna Sewell & Black Beauty
words and music and stories 