I remember being absolutely terrified by this poem when I was a child. The poem is ‘The Goblin Market‘ and it was written 1859 by Christina Rossetti, sister to Pre Raphaelite Dante Gabriel Rossetti who illustrated it for her. The descriptions of these Goblin men still give me the creeps to this day! The poem is a long one and the warning is a wise one – beware of Goblin men :-0
Thanks to AudiobooksMP3 for this video, beautifully read by David Shaw Parker
Allen Ginsberg was one of the original Beat poets who were in prominence in the 1950s. I am celebrating 3 years of not smoking with one of his poems. I shall be writing about Ginsberg and his contribution to poetry in a future post. Meanwhile, please enjoy this (and don’t have nightmares). If you want to know how I managed to stop smoking 40 cigarettes a day, please read the post I wrote on echostains when I had given up for one year.
Today is the birthday of the Irish poet and playwright William Butler Yeats (b. 1865 – 1939). He was the brother of the artist Jack Butler Yeats (see my post on him over at echostains) Dublin born and educated, the poet spent his childhood in Sligo. Yeats was to become a real driving force behind the Irish Literacy revival.
William Butler Yeats
Yeats interest in Irish folk law and the occult resonate throughout his earlier poetry which is tends to be slow-paced and shows the influences of Percy Byshe Shelley, the Pre Raphaelite poets and Spencer. His later poetry tends to be more physical but I feel that although the poetry it is perhaps more earthed, the poet still ponders the question of mortality and seeks to reach fundamental truths.
Yeats has the honour of being the first Irishman to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. He was one of the original founders of the Abby Theatre and at one time, also served as its chief.
Yeats own family
Yeats came from a very artistic family. His brother Jack was a highly regarded painter and his two sisters, Elizabeth and Susan Mary became involved with the Arts and Crafts movement.
Jack Butler Yeats
Much has been written about this fascinating poet and his interesting life, but his poems speak for themselves. They still stand today as some of the most lyrical, imaginative poetry ever written, in my opinion.
Here is a short film of four short poems by William Butler Yates;-
The Converstaion
Never give all the Heart
The Lake Isle of Innisfree
The Irish Airman Forsees his Death
All four are read very movingly in the rich accent of Quincy Dubois and accompanied by the beautiful music of Colin Reid (who I have just discovered). I was transported by the unique combination of poem, voice, music and images in this video. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
More about the life o f William Butler Yeats here
Poems by William Butler Yeats here
Video by quincydubois – with thanks!
The National Library Of Ireland which features an interactive online exhibition of the poet and where you can hear his poems read is brilliant! Here
This poetry challenge is based upon the very famous painting by Gustave Klimt – ‘The Kiss. This iconic painting with its rich layers of gold and stylish sensuous lines emits opulence.
“The woman is especially depicted by turn as emotional joy bringer, temptress and child bearer. The bodies fused together as one emphasis their unity.
Klimt loves hands and uses them expressively in his paintings. Also his use of gold, entwined couples and …..”(read the rest of my post on echostains about this painting)
The challenge is to write a poem or Haiku about this painting using he/she/. It can be as short or as long as you like BUT it must be written for this particular challenge and linked to this challenge only. You may use the image as a link if you like, but the challenge must be linked to Bookstains.
That’s all there is to it. I will add your poem to this challenge page, plug your blog and give it a tweet. I will also update my echostains blog when a new poem arrives. Good luck with this one – it should be very interesting indeed!
Happy birthday Gustave Klimt (read my post about Klimt and his paintings on echostains)
Image from here
The first poem is a Haiku and comes from the darkly Gothic Wendy Woo who has a wonderfully mysterious blog – please look! http://wendydark.wordpress.com/
Kiss
A kiss of dear death
Sweet black lips caressing
Withdrawing last breath
© Wendy Woo 2011
