Pretend It's the Last Day of April...

I wanted to get in one more poetry post in April for National Poetry Month but alas, I had no time! But nothing says I can't do it now. It's not like there's a RULE or anything right? Right!

So I got this great idea (or stole this great idea, same difference) from Laurie over at What She Read to do a poetry post on Stephen Sondheim. What? Isn't he a songwriter? That's not poetry! Oh but contraire! That totally is poetry! And Stephen Sondheim was a master!

My all-time favorite musical of his was West Side Story. It's a more modern telling of Romeo & Juliet by the one and only Bard himself, so how could it NOT be totally awesome! And put to music no less? Awesome sauce indeed!

Another reason I love West Side Story, despite the music being altogether wonderful (yes, I know all the words to all the songs), is the choreography is breathtaking. For those that didn't know, I was a dancer for much of my life so West Side Story is a show that captivated me right away.

So for my last Internationl Poetry Month post I'm posting 2 clips from the Academy Award winning movie West Side Story. Please watch them. I guarantee you will NOT be disappointed!

Fantastic Five Friday! (on Saturday)

Since yesterday I was busy getting my 100 Follower Giveaway off the ground and running I didn't have time to post my Fantastic Five Friday like normal. So here it is on Saturday, for the second week in a row. Let's see if this time Blogger actually cooperates! But if you have not entered my Giveaway, please to yesterday's post and do so because I'm super excited about it. You have until April 20 to enter.

And back to FFF! I figured I'd continue with our Bronte theme from the Giveaway AND incorporate National Poetry Month at the same time (clever, eh?). So for this FFF I'm featuring the poetry of Anne Bronte. Did you know that she was actually more known for her poetry than for her novels? In fact, I hadn't even realized she had written two books until it was pointed out to me by a friend about 6 months ago!

So here are some of her poems that I enjoy, and I hope you all will too :) *Most of her poems are all quite long so I'm only going to include 3 here but a full list can be found HERE*

A Prisoner in a Dungeon Deep
A prisoner in a dungeon deep
Sat musing silently;
His head was rested on his hand,
His elbow on his knee.
Turned he his thoughts to future times
Or are they backward cast?
For freedom is he pining now
Or mourning for the past?

No, he has lived so long enthralled
Alone in dungeon gloom
That he has lost regret and hope,
Has ceased to mourn his doom.

He pines not for the light of day
Nor sighs for freedom now;
Such weary thoughts have ceased at length
To rack his burning brow.

Lost in a maze of wandering thoughts
He sits unmoving there;
That posture and that look proclaim
The stupor of despair.

Yet not for ever did that mood
Of sullen calm prevail;
There was a something in his eye
That told another tale.

It did not speak of reason gone,
It was not madness quite;
It was a fitful flickering fire,
A strange uncertain light.

And sooth to say, these latter years
Strange fancies now and then
Had filled his cell with scenes of life
And forms of living men.

A mind that cannot cease to think
Why needs he cherish there?
Torpor may bring relief to pain
And madness to despair.

Such wildering scenes, such flitting shapes
As feverish dreams display:
What if those fancies still increase
And reason quite decay?

But hark, what sounds have struck his ear;
Voices of men they seem;
And two have entered now his cell;
Can this too be a dream?

'Orlando, hear our joyful news:
Revenge and liberty!
Your foes are dead, and we are come
At last to set you free.'

So spoke the elder of the two,
And in the captive's eyes
He looked for gleaming ecstasy
But only found surprise.

'My foes are dead! It must be then
That all mankind are gone.
For they were all my deadly foes
And friends I had not one.'

The Captive Dove
Poor restless dove, I pity thee;
And when I hear thy plaintive moan,
I mourn for thy captivity,
And in thy woes forget mine own.

To see thee stand prepared to fly,
And flap those useless wings of thine,
And gaze into the distant sky,
Would melt a harder heart than mine.

In vain-in vain! Thou canst not rise:
Thy prison roof confines thee there;
Its slender wires delude thine eyes,
And quench thy longings with despair.

Oh, thou wert made to wander free
In sunny mead and shady grove,
And, far beyond the rolling sea,
In distant climes, at will to rove!

Yet, hadst thou but one gentle mate
Thy little drooping heart to cheer,
And share with thee thy captive state,
Thou couldst be happy even there.

Yes, even there, if, listening by,
One faithful dear companion stood,
While gazing on her full bright eye,
Thou mightst forget thy native wood.

But thou, poor solitary dove,
Must make, unheard, thy joyless moan;
The heart, that Nature formed to love,
Must pine, neglected, and alone.

Confidence
Oppressed with sin and woe,
A burdened heart I bear,
Opposed by many a mighty foe:
But I will not despair.
With this polluted heart
I dare to come to Thee,
Holy and mighty as Thou art;
For Thou wilt pardon me.

I feel that I am weak,
And prone to every sin:
But Thou who giv'st to those who seek,
Wilt give me strength within.

Far as this earth may be
From yonder starry skies;
Remoter still am I from Thee:
Yet Thou wilt not despise.

I need not fear my foes,
I need not yield to care,
I need not sink beneath my woes:
For Thou wilt answer prayer.

In my Redeemer's name,
I give myself to Thee;
And all unworthy as I am
My God will cherish me.

O make me wholly Thine!
Thy love to me impart,
And let Thy holy spirit shine
For ever on my heart!

So there you are. I hope you go to that website and look at more of her stuff. I'm not religious and I know a lot of it, like that last poem, is about God, but I take it my own way and as such I read it as very pro-woman and even feminist. My favorite is The Captive Dove.

And don't forget to enter my Giveaway! I won't stop harping on you all until you do ;)

Fantastic Five Friday! (on Saturday)

BLOGGER SUCKS TODAY! Oh my goodness I'm really pissed off. I had a whole post ready to go for my FFF on Saturday, a day late but whatever and it will not post correctly. I had a whole poetry theme because it's National Poetry Month but I can't do it! Sentences are getting misplaced everywhere and pictures fucking up. Son of b!$#h! And you know me. I don't curse on this blog but I am beyond frustrated. I've been sitting at my computer for over an hour trying to get this done.

 

So here. I was going to post all these lovely children's poems for me Fantastic Five Friday (on Saturday) post but that's not going to happen. Instead I'd like to turn your attention to this website: http://www.poetry.com/greatest-childrens-poems/ where I was going to copy and paste a couple poems from like Robert Louis Stevenson's The Land of Nod and Sarah Josepha Hale's Mary's Lamb. Also I was going to post some Shel Silverstein and Jack Prelustky because who doesn't love them. But when I type out a poem it gets all kinds of messed up so SCREW IT!

 

Hope everyone else is having a better day!

World Poetry Day!

Did you know (before you read the title of my post) that it's World Poetry Day? I didn't either until I signed onto Twitter this morning. But it is! It is! So I figured I'd take this time to talk about the lovely Edna St. Vincent Millay. Who's heard of her?

My candle burns at both ends;

It will not last the night;

But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends ­

It gives a lovely light! 

                                  -Edna St. Vincent Millay "First Fig"

Well, she as a pretty amazing poet, the third woman to ever receive the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry and also...a feminist. That's right, so of course that makes her even cooler.

Edna St. Vincent Millay was born on February 22, 1892. She first came into the spotlight when she entered a poetry contest called The Lyric Year. She came in forth but apparently the poets that placed ahead of her were so blown away by her talent that they disagreed with the decision! The first place winner called his award "as much an embarrassment to me as a triumph" and thought Millay's poem was the best submitted. The second place winner even gave Millay his $250 prize money. Soon afterwards Millay was heard reciting her poetry in Maine and was offered a scholarship to Vassar. She took it.


Millay wrote many poems over her lifetime and was also an advocate for women's rights and other causes, such as passivism (which can clearly be seen in her works). With Millay came controversy as many of her poems dealt with female sexuality and she was bisexual herself as well which caused quite the stir. The volume which received much of this criticism was A Few Figs from Thistles. She also wrote poems crying out against the execution of Sacco and Vanzetti, the most famous being "Justice Denied in Massachusetts."


I could literally keep talking about her for paragraphs and paragraphs...but I won't. I'll just leave you with this poem:

Oh, come, my lad, or go, my lad,
And love me if you like.
I shall not hear the door shut
Nor the knocker strike.

Oh, bring me gifts or beg me gifts,
And wed me if you will.
I'd make a man a good wife,
Sensible and still.

And why should I be cold, my lad,
And why should you repine,
Because I love a dark head
That never will be mine?

I might as well be easing you
As lie alone in bed
And waste the night in wanting
A cruel dark head.

You might as well be calling yours
What never will be his,
And one of us be happy.
There's few enough as is.

                          -Edna St. Vincent Millay "The Betrothal"

For more World Poetry Day posting visit Books, Personally. Have a very poetic day :)

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone! I hope everyone has had as lovely a day as possible, be it with friends or significant others…or pets! My kitty is my Valentine (aw shucks!).

And how fitting was it that on this Hallmark Holiday I finished up the very un-romantic Shakespearean play, Othello, where the main character is driven insane with jealousy planted in his head by the evil Iago and therefore decides to murder the innocent Desdemona. Not a very feminist play, eh? Especially seeing as how Othello thinks he did absolutely nothing wrong by committing that horrid act of domestic violence UNTIL he finds out that his wife was in fact true and faithful the whole time. Because otherwise it’s perfectly acceptable to go around killing your wife! Strumpets all of them! But my full review is to come later. I promise.

But, since I don’t want to seem totally unromantic, I will leave you with a beautiful Shakespearean sonnet to lighten the mood. I’m sure many of you know it already. It’s one of his most famous:

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature's changing course, untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest;
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

-William Shakespeare