Publisher: e-artnow
"Quality Street" is a comedy set in Napoleonic times. The story is about two sisters who start a school "for genteel children". The show was produced first on Broadway, and then in London, where it was a hit, running for 459 performances. It was frequently revived until World War II.
The Shangri LaTitudes of the title are not some imaginary abodes in the clouds, above and beyond ordinary reality. These latitudes are the ones which lie where the paths of Truth and Beauty cross, forming quadrants where each sub-subject comingles to form fresh ruminations, not unlike those from Rumi, not unlike Four Quartets by Eliot, though using forms unfamiliar to either poet. There are four rooms in the human heart, each one its own experiential zone where passions move around, up down and around within the stream of consciousness, as well as stirring the subconsciousness. Perhaps the latter ruminations form the greater portion of the poems in this selection. This is a book of brief poems deliberately constructed for easy reading, brief pieces that can be picked up and put down within a few moments. One or two poems may take longer to digest, but hopefully the same intensity of feeling will be there, like a bonsai arriving at your coffee table, all trim, newly in flower.Show book
This series of poems, based in post war Edinburgh, tell the story of Linda, fleeing with her 11 year old daughter from England and an abusive relationship. In hiding as a lady's companion in one of the city's suburbs, mother and daughter settle into their new life in Elsie's rackety house, and encounter a variety of characters who will change their lives forever. More Patina than Gleam celebrates outsiders getting by in hard times – the day to day grind of cleaning a house, periods, prejudice, ageing, sexuality and falling in and out of love. The poems are not autobiographical, but Jane Aldous, whose own mother used to say that she could have run away with Jane when she was a baby, has gently torn scraps from her own life to add to the collage.Show book
The NHB Drama Classics series presents the world's greatest plays in affordable, highly readable editions for students, actors and theatregoers. The hallmarks of the series are accessible introductions (focussing on the play's theatrical and historical background, together with an author biography, key dates and suggestions for further reading) and the complete text, uncluttered with footnotes. The translations, by leading experts in the field, are accurate and above all actable. The editions of English-language plays include a glossary of unusual words and phrases to aid understanding. Lawrence's second play, written in 1910 but unpublished until 1914, is an intense and powerful drama in the naturalist tradition, set in a Nottinghamshire mining town. This edition includes an introduction by Colin Counsell, a glossary of difficult words, a chronology and suggestions for further reading.Show book
LibriVox volunteers bring you 17 recordings of To the Old Pagan Religion by H. P. Lovecraft. This was the fortnightly poetry project for February 8th, 2009.Show book
Footprints are a collection of poems that were either written or revised recently or recalled from work begun and lost fifty years before. Some recall pleasant memories of my beloved Veronica and some of her later struggles with ill health. She was born and grew up in Dublin and Ireland remained a special place for both of us. The DART from Howth to Greystones "tunnels under Queen V's crown and pops out for the view above Killiney Bay" where "the magic face of Ireland is found." We met and married in Syracuse. Events and places from that time are featured in some of the poems. Newtown Plus Five was written shortly after news coverage of the fifth anniversary of the Sandy Hook school massacre. An Elegy for One and Many commemorates the life of a friend of the victims of the Pittsburgh synagogue rampage who died during the same period of time. Many of the poems are written in traditional verse forms and rhyme schemes. A number of poems reflect concerns about America: the face it presents to the world and the state of its democracy. Ode from a Colonial Bowl recounts a family history of its founding. Flint where "once-upon-a-time America coursed through (its) leaden arteries to nurse its middle class." In Vietnam "we've grown old, some fifty years removed from when our universe was rolled into a white-hot ball," to find the common threads we shared in youth to pursue our common legacy. American Graffiti asks, "Can Cicero and Caesar coexist within republican constraint?" Let Freedom Ring calls upon us to answer "the distant bells of freedom pealing " in Ukraine. The challenge is to understand how both poems can be compatible in our logic.Show book
Written a thousand years ago, this long poem is the very first surviving piece of English literature. Join Beowulf, a young warrior, as he achieves glory by fighting and killing three fantastic monsters. This new translation, by the Nobel laureate poet Seamus Heaney, offers modern readers an accessible, intensely dramatic text. It amply demonstrates why this epic has spread its influence over more than a millennium of literature.Show book
