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  Swansdown

  Donald Platt

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  In SWANSDOWN, the poet Donald Platt makes a study of lifeís inevitable transitions, from loveís astonishing evolutions, to aging and its attendant losses. With the poem "Cloud Study" Platt brings his own mortality into view. Returning to a painting by Constable, he considers his own perspective, sitting by the Liffey, tending an injured knee. Young mothers, lovers, and runners pass, reminding the poet of who he once was and how quickly life, like weather, shifts. "Two minutes later, // The clouds would have taken on a different cast of light and shape / just like the thunderheads / now piling up above the Liffey."Platt advises: "To approach old age, one needs a new harsher style." And yet these poems are proof of the softness that may follow life's harshest reckonings, like the wisps of hair on his beloved brother's head as he lies dying, "fine / as milkweed silk. / His head a split / dried pod whose seeds / wind will scatter." The poems of Swansdown point us to a "larger landscape," they are the clouds "that scud across the blue escutcheon of sky. . . Sun's blazon through rain rampant.""One of the finest American poets working today," writes poet and editor Adrian Matejka, "A writer of unparalleled lyric and formal integrity." It is indeed these qualities that gird Platt for this masterful eighth collection.

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  Henry VI: Part 1

  William Shakespeare

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  The authoritative edition Henry VI, Part 1 from The Folger Shakespeare Library, the trusted and widely used Shakespeare series for students and general readers.Henry VI, Part 1 is an uncompromising celebration of early English nationalism that contrasts the English with the French, portrayed here as effeminate and scheming.A boy king, Henry VI, is on the English throne, and the indomitable Talbot leads the English cause in France. Joan La Pucelle (Joan of Arc), who becomes captain of the French, claims to be chosen by the Virgin Mary to liberate France. The English, however, consider her a sensual witch.Many of the English nobility remain, quarreling, at home. Once in France, some seek permission to fight each other there. Talbot and his son cannot prevail; the English defeat themselves by preying on each other.This edition includes: -Freshly edited text based on the best early printed version of the play -Full explanatory notes conveniently placed on pages facing the text of the play -Scene-by-scene plot summaries -A key to the play’s famous lines and phrases -An introduction to reading Shakespeare’s language -An essay by a leading Shakespeare scholar providing a modern perspective on the play -Fresh images from the Folger Shakespeare Library’s vast holdings of rare books -An annotated guide to further readingEssay by Phyllis RackinThe Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC, is home to the world’s largest collection of Shakespeare’s printed works, and a magnet for Shakespeare scholars from around the globe. In addition to exhibitions open to the public throughout the year, the Folger offers a full calendar of performances and programs. For more information, visit Folger.edu.

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  Harm (NHB Modern Plays)

  Douglas Maxwell

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  A father and son wait in a new 'self-harming unit'. As the clock ticks by, the father begins to pour out his guilt, anger and concern to his son.
  This short play was first staged at the Tron Theatre, in 2006.

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  Wreck of the Hesperus

  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

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  LibriVox volunteers bring you ten recordings of "The Wreck of the Hesperus” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow,the Fortnightly Poem for August 31, 2014. May we each be spared from the wreck of pride on the reef of Norman's Woe. (Summary by MaryAnn).

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  White Lead (NHB Modern Plays)

  Jessica Siân

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  White Lead by Jessica Siân explores the expectations and responsibilities of being an artist and a woman.
  The play is taken from Women Centre Stage; a collection of eight short plays, commissioned and developed as part of the Women Centre Stage Festival, that together demonstrate the range, depth and richness of women's writing for the stage.
  Selected by Sue Parrish, Artistic Director of Sphinx Theatre, these plays offer a wide variety of rewarding roles for women, and are perfect for schools, youth groups and theatre companies to perform. Other writers included in the collection include Winsome Pinnock, Timberlake Wertenbaker and April De Angelis.

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  A Gay Century Volume 2 1973-2001...

  Peter Scott-Presland

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  ‘A Gay Century: Vol 2’ is a vivid portrait of gay life in recent history, using a series of seven playlets which are dramatic, angry, funny and heartbreaking in turn. 
    
  A camp old man collides with Gay Liberation and gets a new lease of life; a gay bandsman can’t grieve for his lover killed in an IRA bomb – until he’s thrown out of the army for being gay; a gay man and a lesbian decide to have a baby, but their partners plot to stop it; the bombing of the Admiral Duncan pub devastates not only the victims but their friends. Queen Victoria and Oscar Wilde – repression and liberation – battle for supremacy; there can only be one victor.

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