( Read more... )

That's right. I'm embarking on a media blitz. Kinda. Maybe.

My short poem, "A Hanukkah Game," is going to be in the December 2007 issue of Highlights magazine. And the lovely folks at Highlights (and I'm being serious here, they are truly kindly, nice people there) have sent me a request for information so they can release my information to ( Read more... )

Today I thought I'd take a look at a 17th century English poet named Robert Herrick. If you've ever studied poetry in school, you've probably heard of him, even though you may not remember.

Whenas in silks my Julia goes
by Robert Herrick

Whenas in silks my Julia goes ( Read more... )

Well. Crap. I tried to set this up to post yesterday, and it so didn't. I can't find it on anyone's friends lists, etc. Grr. So here's a replay, if you've seen it, or a little something new if you haven't.

For this week's post, a sonnet by Wordsworth. In the past, I've posted part of his Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of ( Read more... )

Today's poem is about (what else?) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I found this beauty in yesterday's issue of Shelf Awareness, Thursday, July 19, 2007, Vol. 1, Issue 478. It's by Jennifer Brown, who contributes children's book reviews to Shelf Awareness on a weekly basis, with occasional, additional children's news stories. Jenny Brown's ( Read more... )

As a Jewish American, Emma Lazarus was particularly concerned with the plight of Jewish refugees who were entering the U.S. at the time in order to escape pogroms in Russia and eastern Europe; beginning in 1882, she began providing technical education to allow immigrants in New York City to become self-sufficient ( Read more... )

It seemed fitting to mark the 4th of July with a patriotic sort of poem, and so I've chosen one from Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman. Even though he was maligned during life, and despite economic challenges, Whitman believed in the ideas set forth in the U.S. Constitution, and in the notion that people can come to this country and make their way ( Read more... )

Today, an excerpt from Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, A Romaunt by George Gordon,
Lord Byron. Byron was born in 1788 and died in 1824. He was one of the finest poets in
Regency England, and known as one of the High Romantics despite his avowed dislike of
Romanticism.

( a short, if racy, biography of Byron )

Today, a poem by Ella Wheeler Wilcox. "Who?" you ask. Why, one of the most popular poets of the late 19th and early 20th century. Most of you are familiar with some of her lines, for she wrote a poem called "Solitude", which begins as follows: "Laugh and the world laughs with you;/ weep and you weep alone." Wilcox earned a comfortable living in ( Read more... )

Wednesday was William Butler Yeats's birthday. To mark the occasion, I've decided to go with one of his most famous poems, "The Second Coming," which is widely referenced by other poets.

Brief introduction to YeatsMany people assume, based on the title, that this poem is about the Second Coming of Christ, as foretold in Revelations or the ( Read more... )