Other books that might interest you

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  Be Feared

  Jane Burn

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  Jane Burn's new poetry collection Be Feared is a captivating reclamation of self, sisterhood, and love, encountering everything from the Snow Queen to monsters, plagues and infernos. Acknowledging fear, this book embraces discovery, a process of translation and transformation, of finding a voice radiant with both curses and psalms.
  Rebellious, bloody, and encroached upon by violence, Burn's poetry examines survival, abuse and healing. Intensely imaginative, these incantatory poems rework fairy-tale and folklore and hold up enchanted mirrors to the everyday truths of being a working-class autistic woman, daring to become, claiming her own magnificent, unstoppable fluency and spell-making power.

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  Dryden vs Shadwell - a Poetic Duel

  John Dryden

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  Throughout history there have been many creative artists whose fame depends largely on their association with a much greater artist. Such the case of Thomas Shadwell, poet and prolific writer of low brow comedies, who is today most famous as the butt of satire by one of greatest and most influential English poets, John Dryden. Shadwell and Dryden were at first colleagues and collaborators, but later fell out over some sharp divergences of opinion. In particular, Dryden disagreed with Shadwell's high estimation of Ben Jonson, and even more of the latter's claim to be be Jonson's artistic heir. The most celebrated product of this controversy was Dryden's satirical poem, Mac Flecknoe, in which he presents Shadwell as the apostle of dullness. This elegant satire was first circulated unpublished in pamphlet form and then published in 1682. Shadwell responded with "The Medal of John Bayes" which has as a preface a mocking "Epistle to the Tories." Dryden's reply was a further poem "The Medal" which likewise had a preface: "Epistle to the Whigs." Shadwell is also the subject of harsh reference in Dryden's Absolom and Achitophel (1681). In his lifetime, Shadwell emerged the victor from this dispute. In 1688, James II was deposed, and Dryden, as a Tory and a staunch Catholic, lost both favour at court and the position of Poet Laureate. His successor was Shadwell, a Whig and a convenient rather than a devout Protestant. Forced into retirement, Dryden concentrated on the translations from Greek and Latin classics, which have added further to his stature as poet and dramatist. Shadwell died in 1692, leaving a large body of comedies, which are today considered his best work, but which are rarely performed today. (Summary by Algy Pug)

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  Outside Looking In

  Claire Smith

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  “A characteristic of autism can be a difficulty using speech to express thoughts, feelings, and experiences. However, there is often an eloquence in self-expression using the arts, including poetry. Clare’s sensitive and engaging poems provide an insight into her mind and her autism.” 
  Professor Tony Attwood, author of The Complete Guide to Asperger’s Syndrome. 
  What if you were given a life-altering diagnosis at 57? One that meant you aren’t who you thought you were? But one that explained everything? 
  These poems vibrate with intensity and curiosity about life, and because she came to this knowledge so late in life, many of Clare Smith’s poems focus not so much on what it means to be autistic, but on what it means to be human. 
  Throughout her life, as she struggled to fit into a world that to her was utterly strange, she poured her hopes, her joys and at times her despair into words. 
  She trained as a journalist, taught to cut out all emotion from her reporting, but her private writing is different – she created poetry that spoke to her deepest needs. There, exposed in her writing, is her yearning to belong, her astonishment at the physical world, her knowledge – decades before the doctors confirmed it – that she is different. 
  She’s spent a lifetime trying to make sense of her life – a journey that many of us, whether autistic or neurotypical, are on, and one in which we all face the same questions.

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  A Whistling of Birds

  Isobel Dixon

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  Elizabeth Bishop's hawkweed, John Berryman's hummingbirds, Ted Hughes's burnt fox – the birds, beasts and flowers of Isobel Dixon's new collection are at times kin to D.H. Lawrence, whose essay 'Whistling of Birds' lends this book its name, though each poem here is its own vivid testament to the natural world, and our often troubled and troubling place in it. Lyrical, vigorous, inventive, A Whistling of Birds is at times in conversation with Lawrence's iconic collection, Birds, Beasts and Flowers, but also ranges widely through the worlds of other writers and makers – from the Venerable Bede to Emily Dickinson, Georgia O'Keeffe to Glenn Gould, and a wealth of other connections closely examined and delicately drawn. With its resonant elegies and notes of celebration, this is a collection that flexes, hums and brims with energy, yet surely draws you in to its quiet, reflective heart.

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  The Poetry Of William Cowper

  William Cowper

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  William Cowper was born 26th November 1731 in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire. Traumatically he and his brother, John, were the only survivors, out of seven, to survive infancy. His mother died when he was six. 
  His education, after several temporary schools, was stabilised at Westminster school. Here he established several life-long friendships and a dedication to Latin. Upon leaving he was articled to a solicitor in London and spent almost a decade training in Law.  In 1763 he was offered a Clerkship of Journals in the House of Lords. With the examinations approaching Cowper had a mental breakdown. He tried to commit suicide three times and a period of depression and insanity seemed to settle on him. The end of this unhappy period saw him find refuge in evangelical Christianity, becoming the inspiration behind his much-loved hymns. 
  This led to a collaboration with John Newton in writing ‘Olney Hymns’. 
  However dark forces were about to overwhelm Cowper. In 1773, he experienced a devastating attack of insanity, believing that he was eternally condemned to hell, and that God was instructing him to make a sacrifice of his own life. With great care and devotion his friend, Mary Unwin, nursed him back to health. 
  In 1781 Cowper had the good fortune to meet a widow, Lady Austen, who inspired a new bout of poetry writing including what some have considered his most substantial work, ‘The Task’. 
  In 1786 he began his translations from the Greek into blank verse of Homer's ‘The Iliad’ and ‘The Odyssey’. These translations, published in 1791, were the most significant since those of Alexander Pope earlier in the century. 
  Mary Unwin died in 1796, plunging Cowper into a gloom from which he never fully recovered though he did continue to write. 
  William Cowper was seized with dropsy and died on 25th April 1800.

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  All's Well That Ends Well

  William Shakespeare

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  A Shakespeare Society Production. The complete play in five acts. 
  Desperately in love with Bertram, the son of a Spanish countess, Helena schemes with the virginal Diana to fulfill Bertram’s stipulations and win his love. As Bertram’s infidelity and Helena’s deceits are revealed, the estranged lovers reunite, but the audience is left to wonder if, in love, the end justifies the means.

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