John Gay, English poet and dramatist, was born on 30 June 1685.He owes his fame mainly to “The Beggar’s Opera”, a ballad opera with music arranged by Johann Christoph Pepusch, performed for the first time in London in 1728. It was produced by John Rich, an important theatre director and it was so successful that… Read More Black-Eyed Susan & Sweet William/1 (John Gay)
🅁 🄴 🄻 🄸 🅃 🅃 🄾 Vorrei proporre un acrostico che rifacendosi alla poesia di Adrienne Rich gioca con la parola Relitto: Riaffioro lentamente,Emergendo dallaLiquida distesaIn cui mi ero immersa perTentar di trovarTesori sommersi,Orgogliosa della mia conchiglia bianca. Se volete partecipare, aggiungete i vostri testi nei commenti: saranno riportati qui⤵️ Biagina D. – parole… Read More Acrostico 🔤
“L’homme est né libre, et partout il est dans les fers. Tel se croit le maître des autres, qui ne laisse pas d’être plus esclave qu’eux.” Du contrat social (1762) – Jean-Jacques Rousseau né le 28 juin 1712 et mort en 1778 “Man is born free; and everywhere he is in chains. Those who think… Read More J.J. Rousseau and Cats
➡️ Part 1 The poem “Diving into the Wreck” , written by Adrienne Rich in 1973 and first published in a collection of the same title, follows a woman preparing and diving into the depths of the ocean in search of a wreck. The first stanzas describe her as a warrior, wearing the black wetsuit,… Read More Diving into the Wreck/2
Readers can read a story, a poem and try to understand the symbols, even though Oscar Wilde warned us about those depths.“Those who read the symbol do so at their peril.”Will we like what we see down there?Will we be like the American poet Adrienne Rich (1929-2012) in her great poem ‘Diving Into the Wreck.’?… Read More Diving into the Wreck/1
George Orwell, pseudonym of Eric Arthur Blair, was born on 25 June 1903 in Motihari, Bengal (now Bihar), British India English novelist, essayist, and critic, his work is characterised by lucid prose, awareness of social injustice, and strong opposition to totalitarianism. His most famous novels are “Animal Farm” a satire which allegorically depicts Stalin’s betrayal of… Read More George Orwell: What’s in a Name?
➡️ Part 1➡️ Part 2 When Oscar Wilde enlarged the story for the novel-length version, he responded to his critics by further toning down its “immoral” elements, obscuring the homoeroticism of the plot and expanding the personal background of the characters. The amended version, extended from 13 to 20 chapters, was published in a single… Read More The Picture of Dorian Gray: Preface/3
➡️ Part 1 When J.M. Stoddart finally received Oscar Wilde’s novella “The Portrait of Dorian Gray” and began reading it, he was immediately impressed by the literary merits of the work . But there were some aspects that left him much less enthusiastic, indeed, decidedly perplexed. He told the publisher, George Lippincott, that the story… Read More The Picture of Dorian Gray: a novella/2
On 22 June 1535, the execution of Bishop John Fisher, advisor to Queen Katherine of Aragon, was carried out at the Tower of London only a few days before that of Sir Thomas More (see here), who was executed for the same reason. Both of them were Catholics and opposed the annulment of King Henry… Read More Executions at the Tower
Reinhold Niebuhr (born on 21 June 1892) was an American theologian famous for his studies on the possibility of relating the Christian faith to the realities of modern politics and diplomacy. In his “Letter from Birmingham Jail” Martin Luther King Jr., who claimed he had been more influenced by Niebuhr’s social and ethical ideals than… Read More Serenity Prayer
words and music and stories 