Tag: literature

… to sleep, / To Sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub! (‘Hamlet’, Act 3, Scene 1, lines 72 – 73) – and a prompt question!

November 15, 2024

What part of your routine do you always try to skip if you can? … to sleep, / To Sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub! Hamlet Act 3, Scene 1, lines 72 – 73). [1] Iris Murdoch had long before written her wonderful novel based on the model of Hamlet, The Black Prince, … More … to sleep, / To Sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub! (‘Hamlet’, Act 3, Scene 1, lines 72 – 73) – and a prompt question!

Bridging Gaps in Personal Learning: This blog is an attempt to understand my own process of  learning. It is based on a highly situated reading of Émile Zola’s ‘The Sin of Abbé Mouret’, translated by Valerie Minogue

November 2, 2024

Bridging Gaps in Personal Learning: This blog is an attempt to understand my own process of  learning. It is based on a highly situated and contextualised reading of Émile Zola’s The Sin of Abbé Mouret (La faute de l’abbé Mouret) translated by Valerie Minogue (Oxford World Classics ed.) Oxford, Oxford University Press, an edition recommended … More Bridging Gaps in Personal Learning: This blog is an attempt to understand my own process of  learning. It is based on a highly situated reading of Émile Zola’s ‘The Sin of Abbé Mouret’, translated by Valerie Minogue

A whimsical response from Old Father William to being asked his ‘favourite form of physical exercise’, implicitly at least, by his son.

October 20, 2024

My lovely husband who is 83 is ill of the lurgy-thing I seemed to be sloughing off, as I approach 70 next Friday. I  am in the guest bed trying to let him rest and not able to sleep. I hope using a nonsense poem he loves from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland  to answer this … More A whimsical response from Old Father William to being asked his ‘favourite form of physical exercise’, implicitly at least, by his son.

And, as for our destination; ‘there ‘is a place’ but that’s ‘my own / somewhere far from your knowing’. This is a blog concerning Danez Smith (2024) ‘Bluff’.

October 19, 2024

In Danez’s Smith’s latest collection, Bluff, one way of reading the course of history lies in the poem made from footnotes within a longer poem, rondo:‘freedom was a door into a bigger cage & when they couldn’t shackle the necks anymore, their metal met the mind, they chained time, chained the money, chained the dreams … More And, as for our destination; ‘there ‘is a place’ but that’s ‘my own / somewhere far from your knowing’. This is a blog concerning Danez Smith (2024) ‘Bluff’.

Forward Poetry Prize fills the stage with meaning, truth, beauty and not a little fun.

October 11, 2024

The Forward Poetry Prize is probably the most prodigious of prizes for a working poet and I have followed the short list for best collection with joy , mounting interest and some intense feeling generated by superb works of which I could not predict the winner (see my blog at this link) for I enjoyed … More Forward Poetry Prize fills the stage with meaning, truth, beauty and not a little fun.

“… and when I love thee not, chaos is come again.” it takes ‘Othello’ to be played on a shoestring to see it as a drama of predictable personal breakdown of a man who lives only in his self-image. This is a blog on seeing Elysium Theatre play ‘Othello’ at Bishop Auckland Town Hall on Friday September at 7.30 p.m.

October 5, 2024

“,,. and when I love thee not, chaos is come again.” it takes ‘Othello’ to be played on a shoestring to see it as a drama of predictable personal breakdown of a man who lives only in his self-image. This is a blog on seeing Elysium Theatre play ‘Othello’ at Bishop Auckland Town Hall on … More “… and when I love thee not, chaos is come again.” it takes ‘Othello’ to be played on a shoestring to see it as a drama of predictable personal breakdown of a man who lives only in his self-image. This is a blog on seeing Elysium Theatre play ‘Othello’ at Bishop Auckland Town Hall on Friday September at 7.30 p.m.

A blog stating a case for a ‘queer’ reading of the classic play by Samuel Beckett ‘Waiting for Godot: A tragicomedy in two Acts’. Seeing Ben Whishaw at the Haymarket 25th October 2024

October 3, 2024

‘[The moon rises at back, mounts in the sky, stands still, shedding a pale light on the scene.] …. ESTRAGON: “Pale for weariness” VLADIMIR: “Eh?” ESTRAGON: Of climbing heaven and gazing on the likes of us.” A blog about feeling not worthy of ‘its constancy’, and a case for a ‘queer’ reading of a classic … More A blog stating a case for a ‘queer’ reading of the classic play by Samuel Beckett ‘Waiting for Godot: A tragicomedy in two Acts’. Seeing Ben Whishaw at the Haymarket 25th October 2024

Get used to feelings, including our fears, that occur in time and embrace them whilst within the flow of time itself – in the varying heartbeat of a poet’s verse.

September 25, 2024

In my blog on Victoria Chang, I spoke of her use of largely regular iambic pentameter lines of verse in Section II of her new volume With My Back To The World, in an elegy or obit called Today, and based on the Date Paintings of On Kawara. Do schools teach metre and basic metrical … More Get used to feelings, including our fears, that occur in time and embrace them whilst within the flow of time itself – in the varying heartbeat of a poet’s verse.