Satire, indeed. Juvenal's words seem as relevant now as they were waaaaay back in the 1st century, when he was around. Although instead of seeing it now in famous works of poetry, we see satire more commonly in tv shows like The Simpsons and Royal Canadian Air Farce. Satire is a wonderful, wonderful thing because it provides a highly comical way of ( Read more... )

One of the great things about playwrights such as Shakespeare is their ability to bring poetry to life by putting it on the stage. Poetry has gone through many phases through the ages, from being read orally, to becoming a more solitary reading activity, and to a great degree simply becoming less and less common because of the effort required to ( Read more... )

Bittersweet.

This term first came up in regards to Sappho's love poetry, and it seems it only grows more appropriate when applied to the Romantic poetry of the likes of Dante, Petrarch, and Sir Philip Sidney. To quote loosely last week's lecture, "most love poetry is produced through the frustration of unattainable love; very little love poetry ( Read more... )

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Last night I read 'Tuesdays With Morrie', which had been on my mental reading list for many months, since I started working at the store. It had passed through my hands many dozens of times already, selling it to other people or stocking shelves with new copies. I hope those people felt as much from reading it as I did - the girl I was working with ( Read more... )

Today was a weird day. Already in a weird mood from spending the past week immersed in drug-related media; watched Trainspotting last week, been reading the book of the same name the past week, which I'm midway through (more than that as of today, actually), and last night watched Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas when I got home from work. God I love ( Read more... )

Trying to find examples of Sappho's poetry, or even just discussing it, is a very complicated matter. Even just trying to find the poems we read in lecture this week hasn't been easy. After all, the woman was around several thousand years ago, and wrote in Greek, so even if you find the right poem you might not know it, because the translation can ( Read more... )

My prime of youth is but a frost of cares, My feast of joy is but a dish of pain, My crop of corn is but a field of tares, And all my good is but vain hope of gain. The day is past, and yet I saw no sun, And now I live, and now my life is done.

My tale was heard and yet it was not told, My fruit is fallen and yet my leaves are ( Read more... )

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Maybe when you first think about a text written about the proper way to create poetry, it stops you short. It seems restrictive, uncalled for. Well, this is the idea that passed through my head when I thought about it - but only for a minute. Horace's Ans Poetica, while it does offer insights and suggestions as to what will lead to the best poetry ( Read more... )