Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Gene Derwood "With God Conversing"


Heres a virtual movie of the very talented American poetess and artist Gene Derwood (1909 -1954) reading "With God Conversing" she tragically died young from stomach cancer at the age of 44 leaving behind a collection of approximately 40 poems several of which were outstanding. Her style has been compared to that of the WW1;poet Wilfred owen,,Sylvia Plath also comes to mind. She was recorded reading this and a selection of some of her best poems. by the Library of Congress.

Gene Derwood (1909--1954) was an American poet, painter and wife of the poet and anthologist Oscar Williams.

Monday, April 23, 2012

Rudyard Kipling "Gunga Din"

Heres a virtual movie of the great Rudyard Kipling reading his much loved poem "Gunga Din" a rhyming narrative from the point of view of a British soldier, about a native water-bearer (a "Bhishti") who saves the soldier's life but dies himself. The last line suggests a deep-down unease of conscience about the prevailing views of natural hierarchies, both in the depicted soldier and in Kipling himself.[neutrality is disputed][citation needed] The poem was published in 1892 as one of the set of martial poems called the Barrack-Room Ballads.

In stark contrast to Kipling's later poem "The White Man's Burden," Gunga Din is named after the native, and portrays the native Indian as the hero while the British soldiers are portrayed as callous and shallow, and ultimately inferior to Gunga Din.

Thursday, April 19, 2012

William Blake "The Sick Rose"


While the rose exists as a beautiful natural object that has become infected by a worm, it also exists as a literary rose, the conventional symbol of love. The image of the worm resonates with the Biblical serpent and also suggests a phallus. Worms are quintessentially earthbound, and symbolize death and decay. The "bed" into which the worm creeps denotes both the natural flowerbed and also the lovers' bed. The rose is sick, and the poem implies that love is sick as well. Yet the rose is unaware of its sickness. Of course, an actual rose could not know anything about its own condition, and so the emphasis falls on the allegorical suggestion that it is love that does not recognize its own ailing state. This results partly from the insidious secrecy with which the "worm" performs its work of corruption—not only is it invisible, it enters the bed at night.