Nothing Gold Can Stay Nature’s first green is gold,Her hardest hue to hold.Her early leaf’s a flower;But only so an hour.Then leaf subsides to leaf.So Eden sank to grief,So dawn goes down to day.Nothing gold can stay. “Nothing Gold Can Stay” was written by the American poet Robert Frost in 1923 and published in the… Read More Nothing Gold Can Stay
“People One Ought To Know” was the first book Christopher Isherwood (see here) ever wrote, in 1928, a collection of nonsense verses about animals, in the tradition of Edward Lear. It was done in collaboration with a child he was tutoring. At the time he was living with prominent musician André Mangeot, and working as… Read More The Common Cormorant
Sara Teasdale was an American lyric poet born in St. Louis, Missouri on 8 August 1884 In 1918, she won the Columbia University Poetry Society Prize for her collection Love Songs.The prize was later officially renamed the Pulitzer Prize. after newspaper publisher Joseph PulitzerWeakened after a difficult bout with pneumonia, she died by suicide in… Read More Wisdom
William S. Burroughs, a central member of the Beat Generation and an avant-garde author, died on 2 August 1997.In this short film was shot in 1990 by Gus Van Sant (best known as the director of films like Good Will Hunting) the author recites his poem “Thanksgiving Prayer”.The poem had been published the previous year… Read More Burroughs
Tears, Idle Tears Tears, idle tears, I know not what they mean,Tears from the depth of some divine despairRise in the heart, and gather to the eyes,In looking on the happy autumn-fields,And thinking of the days that are no more. Fresh as the first beam glittering on a sail,That brings our friends up from the… Read More Lord Tennyson’s Tears
Welsh singer Sir Thomas John Woodward (known professionally as Tom Jones) is 81 today! 🍕 In December 1967 he recorded “Delilah” (lyrics by Barry Mason and music by Les Reed) and, singing it in his dramatic fashion, he managed to make it a top hit all over the world. This song is about a crime… Read More Tom Jones
I Travel as a Phantom Now I travel as a phantom now,For people do not wish to seeIn flesh and blood so bare a boughAs Nature makes of me. And thus I visit bodilessStrange gloomy households often at odds,And wonder if Man’s consciousnessWas a mistake of God’s. And next I meet you, and I pause,And… Read More I Travel as a Phantom Now
HAPIf but some vengeful god would call to meFrom up the sky, and laugh: ” Thou suffering thing,Know that thy sorrow is my ecstasy,That thy love’s loss is my hate’s profiting!” Then would I bear it, clench myself, and die,Steeled by the sense of ire unmerited;Half-eased in that a Powerfuller than IHad willed and meted… Read More Hap
Thomas Hardy and his first wife Emma had long been estranged when she died in 1912: her death prompted a series of poems which are viewed as being among his best work. In “The Voice”, which deals with love, death, grief, and memories, the poet aments over the loss of his beloved, whose presence is… Read More The Voice
On 5 May 1967 the Kinks released “Waterloo Sunset”, a single which was also their first single available in true stereo.The song was originally entitled “Liverpool Sunset”, because songwriter and singer Ray Davies loved the city and its music.But when The Beatles released “Penny Lane”, the title changed because another song about Liverpool may have… Read More Waterloo Sunset 🎶
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