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“Let us read, and let us dance;
these two amusements will never do any harm to the world.”

Tuesday, 16 March 2010

Sabrina Fair - John Milton

I made this: Unknown at 4:07 pm 0 comments
Sabrina Fair

Sweet Echo, sweetest Nymph that livst unseen
Within thy airy shell
By slow Meander's margent green,
And in the violet imbroider'd vale
Where the love-lorn Nightingale
Nightly to thee her sad Song mourneth well.
Canst thou not tell me of a gentle Pair
That likest thy Narcissus are?
O if thou have
Hid them in som flowry Cave,
Tell me but where
Sweet Queen of Parly, Daughter of the Sphear,
So maist thou be translated to the skies,
And give resounding grace to all Heavns Harmonies

Sabrina fair

Listen where thou art sitting
Under the glassie, cool, translucent wave,
In twisted braids of Lillies knitting
The loose train of thy amber-dropping hair,
Listen for dear honour's sake,
Goddess of the silver lake,
Listen and save.

Listen and appear to us
In name of great Oceanus,
By the earth-shaking Neptune's mace,
And Tethys grave majestick pace,
By hoary Nereus wrincled look,
And the Carpathian wisards hook,
By scaly Tritons winding shell,
And old sooth-saying Glaucus spell,
By Leucothea's lovely hands,
And her son that rules the strands,
By Thetis tinsel-slipper'd feet,
And the Songs of Sirens sweet,
By dead Parthenope's dear tomb,
And fair Ligea's golden comb,
Wherwith she sits on diamond rocks
Sleeking her soft alluring locks,
By all the Nymphs that nightly dance
Upon thy streams with wily glance,
Rise, rise, and heave thy rosie head
From thy coral-pav'n bed,
And bridle in thy headlong wave,
Till thou our summons answered have.
Listen and save.

Sabrina rises, attended by water-Nymphes, and sings.

By the rushy-fringed bank,
Where grows the Willow and the Osier dank,
My sliding Chariot stayes,
Thick set with Agat, and the azurn sheen
Of Turkis blew, and Emrauld green
That in the channell strayes,
Whilst from off the waters fleet
Thus I set my printless feet
O're the Cowslips Velvet head,
That bends not as I tread,
Gentle swain at thy request

Friday, 12 March 2010

Funeral Blues - W.H. Auden

I made this: Unknown at 4:43 pm 0 comments
Funeral Blues

Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.

Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message He Is Dead,
Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.

He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last for ever: I was wrong.

The stars are not wanted now: put out every one;
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood.
For nothing now can ever come to any good.

Arguably, one of the most effective uses of a poem on the big screen ever. Hearing the dulcent tones of reciting John Hannah, this poem is the perfect mix of emotions in 4 Weddings and a Funeral

Tuesday, 9 March 2010

Alice in Wonderland

I made this: Unknown at 7:01 pm 1 comments
Tim Burton's 2010 3D extravagansa!!!



The three book-clubbers, and honoured guest - Lela - ventured into the 3D world in order to see this film in all its glory...and whatever our views about the film, the 3D does not disappoint. In fact, the Doctor Who trailer was terrifying!!!

I personally have always had a deep and abiding love for the world of Alice, and her friends. As a very teeney tiny little (but no less vocal) person, my parents undertook the task of ensuring that I would be a reader, and worked their way through many children's classics, revisiting Alice's adventures more than once.
(Interesting side note, my mother, hates this book. She re-read it with her book club, and she is no fonder of it now than she was when I was a wee one. Funny the way that sometimes happens, usually our tastes are more aligned!)

However, for me, Wonderland is no static place, fixed in time. Instead, it's like Narnia, or Oz. The sort of place that you are invited to visit and have your own adventures in, ever changing, but staying the same. While slightly dubious when I first heard of the project, I relaxed slightly when I realised that the child-like genius that is Tim Burton would be directing it.

From my first fall (see what I did there?!?!), I've been enthralled, and I love all the different incarnations that the book allows - from graphic novels, to films, to books, to music - Alice has influenced so much more than her author could have even imagined!

Some of my personal favourites - aside from the originals, which are obviously top of the heap - are 'The Looking Glass Wars' by Frank Beddor. This, a grown up retelling of the Alice story, is a darker, but respectful incarnation, and led to the marvellous 'Hatter M' graphic novels, in which a ninja style Hatter searches for Alice in our world.
The Disney film, which I watched with my first ever BFF, is drenched with those warm fuzzy memories that no amount of cynacism manages to overcome. Every time I watch it, I become 12 years old again, and the sun is shining, and the air smells of heat, and leaves. Despite not being the most faithful of adaptations, and so sweet it'll give you a toothache, I will never not be able to love that film!

Oooh, the scifi series Alice is also very watchable, though one of those more inspired by, than any sort of adaptation.

And the weirdly wonderful chapters in Heinlein's Lazarus Long series are also worth a mention!

Jeepes, even Lost makes frequent references to the stories!

Ahem, anyway, some pictures and songs below!


 Slide Show




Music


In Praise of the Quick Reads

I made this: BookElf at 12:03 pm 0 comments



The Quick Reads scheme is one well known in the inner sanctum of the world of libraries and reader organisations and groups...and I wish to share my love of them . Quick Reads were launched in 2006 and since then there has been over 50 titles published under the brand, the latest 10 being published last week on World Book Day.

What is so great about Quick Reads is the variety of stories available. The aim of the QRs is to be read by adults who are either not confident in their reading, coming to reading in English for the first time or maybe coming back to reading after a break. This could lead to a selection of patronisingly simple titles about going to the park or zoo and eating ice cream with my dog spot, or a long list of stories about yoof and dat. But every ones tastes (well, maybe not every one's taste! No erotica as of yet!) is catered for. The titles range from autobiographies of celebrity chefs and rugby stars, to chick lit romances, to thrillers (including the genuinely terrifying 'Lily, a Ghost Story' by Adele Geras, which is probably one of my favourites). This is owed entirely to a remarkable collaboration between publishers, with many popular authors frequently found in the top ten contributing to the scheme. Quick Reads also come from popular television programmes; both the Dragon's from Dragon's Den and Doctor Who are represented (and David Tennent looking lovely on the cover is NO REASON why they are pride of place in my display AT ALL:-)

The writing is simple, compared to 'big' books, but not in a patronising way. There is less punctuation than you would find in a 'big' novel, for example. This does not limit the plots in terms of their adult content; in the new Peter James' QR the main character visits brothels and discussing his sexual practices in them quite frankly. Gordan Ramsey's autobiography is full of expletives as you may expect, and other books discuss knife crime, teenage pregnancy and other popular hard hitting themes.

In my experience, Quick Reads are a great way to get someone to read a full book, by themselves, for pleasure, for the first time; often the hardest step in getting people to be readers. One girl in my last job was a real pain at the start of term, then she randomly decided to borrow a book, because she had nothing better to do that night, and ended up a massive Adele Parks fan through her QR 'Happy Families'. She told us it was literally the first night she had ever turned her phone off and just sat and read. The story of a mother ignored by her family and worried about new relationships really spoke out to her in a way that none of the classic literature she had been 'forced' to read at school had done. Now she borrow a book evry couple of weeks and just finished the last of the Marion Keyes...we'll get her on Austen yet!

The books are £1.99 each, or can be bought as sets from the Quick Reads website. Most bookshops seel them, and libraries will have them; if you are ever stuck for a nice train or bus read I highly recommend you check them out- just because they're short and 'easy' reads doesn't make them bad books!

My favourites


Lily A Ghost Story by Adele Geras
Maybe its because I was on a bus winding over the Yorkshire Dales late in the evening in the deep of mid-winter when I read it, but I was genuinely chilled by this story of a young woman recovering from a miscarriage who finds work in a house with a dark secret...echoes of Rebecca throughout...great fun.

Happy Families by Adele Parks
I really like Park's other chick-lit books, especially the Other Woman's Shoes, which I read on holiday a couple of years ago. This is a great example of how chick-lit can resonate with the reader to a profound effect, and you feel for Lisa in her struggles, I had a little leap of joy at the end!


Traitors in the Tower by Alison Weir
The only historical fiction one of the series so far, this is a collection of short stories surrounding the deaths of such historical figures as Anne Boleyn and Jane Grey. Of most interest to me was that of Jane Parker, Lady Rochford, who I remembered from Shardlake and The Otter Boleyn Girl- it was nice to read a story dedicated to her. You might think oh great, another one about the Tudors, but in my mind you can never have too many!!


East End Tales bu Gilda O'Neill
Just really lovely, its in the retelling of tales from childhood that the simple structure of the Quick Read comes into ts own. I bought this as a preset for my ex's dad who also grew up in the East End and he enjoyed it immensely.

The Book Boy by Joanna Trollope
Trollope is such a master, she can make any style work for her (guff much). I was really touched by this story of a illiterate woman and her relationship with her son's bully. This one is for all the literacy teachers out there- the bit where the woman grasps the concept of reading for pleasure not as a chore brought a little tear to my eye in recognition. Lovely bus read.


This month I have been plowing my way through Company of Liers (see Book Club the fourth) and also discover Andre Pepper...his Pyke mysteries set in late Georgian England are a little silly at times but well worth giving a go.


Happy Reading!
BookElf

Thursday, 4 March 2010

Sonnet VII - Hartley Coleridge

I made this: Unknown at 4:40 pm 0 comments
Sonnet VII



Is love a fancy, or a feeling?
No. It is immortal as immaculate Truth,
'Tis not a blossom shed as soon as youth,
Drops from the stem of life--for it will grow,
In barren regions, where no waters flow,
Nor rays of promise cheats the pensive gloom.
A darkling fire, faint hovering o'er a tomb,
That but itself and darkness nought doth show,
It is my love's being yet it cannot die,
Nor will it change, though all be changed beside;
Though fairest beauty be no longer fair,
Though vows be false, and faith itself deny,
Though sharp enjoyment be a suicide,
And hope a spectre in a ruin bare.

Table Of Contents - Poetry
 

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