paulasimoesSo, so tired! Finally, putting my feet up! With tea & Trollope's The Small House at Allington. I'm at 60% of the book and I really don't know where he's going! And it's not like him, is it? I mean, he usually gives one some kind of assurance!
This companion has been invaluable during my reading of the Chronicles of Barsetshire
harriehqWhy is "Too Much: How Victorian Constraints Still Bind Women Today" by Rachel Vorona Cote spending a whole-ass chapter comparing & contrasting Anne Shirley and Emily Byrd Starr as if the distinction MATTERS in the grand scope of things instead of just making a self-indulgent case for the author's "specialness" in preferring the more "obscure" Emily and when, AS THE AUTHOR HERSELF POINTS OUT, THEY AREN'T EVEN VICTORIAN. THEY'RE EDWARDIAN.
#Rachel-Vorona-Cote #classic-literature #Victorian-literature #Edwardian-literature
Wim Van MierloDickens scholars:
Does anyone have a copy of Sanders, Dickens and the Spirit of the Age (OUP 1999) to hand? If so, could you help me checking a quotation for me?
grammaticusA poem for the New Year: “Ring Out, Wild Bells” by Lord Alfred Tennyson
Last time we had a poem by Lord Alfred Tennyson here on the blog, it was his lovely short piece “The Owl”. In this post I’d like to present “Ring Out, Wild Bells”: it’s a classic New Year’s Eve poem, filled with good wishes and hopeful pleas. First published in 1850, it addresses everything from wishes for good health to the rule of justice and the end of wars—things we can all wish for over century and a half later.
Lord Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892)The poem consists of eight stanzas of four lines each. If you read the poem aloud (which I always encourage), you’ll soon notice the ABBA rhyming pattern. You’ll also notice a steady and consistent rhythm: each line contains about eight syllables metrically organised into iambs, i.e. the poem has an iambic metre.
If I’ve lost you with this last bit, let me explain: an iamb is one of many metrical units used in poetry since the times of ancient Greece. Each iamb consists of two syllables: the first one is unstressed and/or short, while the second one is stressed and often long(er). When you read the lines of the poem below, you’ll easily be able to make out these syllables: try reading them out in this rhythm.
Two more technical words I’d like to introduce here are scansion and its corresponding verb to scan. When you scan a poem, you analyse its metrical pattern, so you’d actually know how to properly read it out. It was a huge deal in the poetry of classical Greece and Rome, as all poetry was recited in its metre. That’s very different from how contemporary, free-verse poetry is written and read out, which is pretty much like prose.
I know I’ve bored you enough, so let’s move on to Tennyson! As always in my poetry posts, there’s a vocabulary exercise for English language learners below the poem, don’t miss it.
Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,The flying cloud, the frosty light:The year is dying in the night;Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.Ring out the old, ring in the new,Ring, happy bells, across the snow:The year is going, let him go;Ring out the false, ring in the true.Ring out the grief that saps the mindFor those that here we see no more;Ring out the feud of rich and poor,Ring in redress to all mankind.Ring out a slowly dying cause,And ancient forms of party strife;Ring in the nobler modes of life,With sweeter manners, purer laws.Ring out the want, the care, the sin,The faithless coldness of the times;Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymesBut ring the fuller minstrel in.Ring out false pride in place and blood,The civic slander and the spite;Ring in the love of truth and right,Ring in the common love of good.Ring out old shapes of foul disease;Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;Ring out the thousand wars of old,Ring in the thousand years of peace.Ring in the valiant man and free,The larger heart, the kindlier hand;Ring out the darkness of the land,Ring in the Christ that is to be.VOCABULARY EXERCISE
Match the following words from the poem with the corresponding synonyms or definitions:
- frosty (adjective, stanza 1)
- sap (verb, stanza 3)
- feud (noun, stanza 3)
- redress (noun, stanza 3)
- strife (noun, stanza 4)
- mournful (adjective, stanza 5)
- minstrel (noun, stanza 5)
- slander (noun, stanza 6)
- spite (noun, stanza 6)
- foul (adjective, stanza 7)
- valiant (adjective, stanza 8)
To check your answers, click here for the answer key.
NOTE
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#English #EnglishLiterature #EnglishVocabulary #iamb #iambicMetre #learningEnglish #literature #NewYear #poetry #readingComprehension #readingSkills #scansion #Tennyson #VictorianEra #VictorianLiterature
FID Anglo-American Culture#Christmas is a time of tradition & #nostalgia for many. Embrace it with these 2 new studies on beloved #childrensclassics
1) Patrick C. Fleming's "Animating the Victorians", tracing the #GoldenAge #childrensliterature texts that inspired #WaltDisney & Co
Tales from the Penny BloodsOur latest post is out - poetry, pictures, and interesting details from Christina's life at home and elsewhere!
https://open.substack.com/pub/talesfromthepennybloods/p/the-poet-of-the-family?
#substack #christinarossetti #victorianliterature #preraphaelite #poetrycommunity #poetrylovers✒️
November GrauWorking on an e-commerce technology job at the moment and I just want to say that all these urban sophisticates out there bitching about "cart abandonment rates" have NO IDEA what it's like in the fields and lanes here. Some of these places are like the aftermath of a Thomas Hardy convention
Mmm, a Thomas Hardy convention. Stands teeming with furries cosplaying the "I Halp!" Sheepdog in Far From The Madding Crowd. Airless hotel rooms thronging with shorter adults dressed up as the "Because we are too many" kid from Jude The Obscure.
My imagination is taking me to some very dark places right now
#VictorianLiterature
#SendMoreAntipsychotics
Mmm, a Thomas Hardy convention. Stands teeming with furries cosplaying the "I Halp!" Sheepdog in Far From The Madding Crowd. Airless hotel rooms thronging with shorter adults dressed up as the "Because we are too many" kid from Jude The Obscure.
My imagination is taking me to some very dark places right now
#VictorianLiterature
#SendMoreAntipsychotics
Belated Happy Returns to Cristina Rossetti, whose birthday it was on the 5th of this month!
Check out our short podcasts on our Youtube channel about Rossetti, and her poem 'Goblin Market':
Cristina and Carroll: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcEiqNxmvSU
The Goblin Market:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hj_VMAfyEjY
#victorian #victorianliterature #audiodrama #podcast #entertainment #adaptation #victorianpoetry #rossetti #christinarossetti #poetry #poetrycommunity #poetrylovers
S. E. Wigget‘A girl of genius’: archives unsealed of Amy Levy, queer Jewish writer admired by Oscar Wilde
The University of Cambridge has announced it has acquired and for the first time unsealed Levy’s personal archive, including letters, draft manuscripts, photographs and diary entries. It is expected the material will inform a wealth of new scholarship on her life, work and mental health.
#AmyLevy #OscarWilde #VictorianLiterature #Jewishliterature #LGBTQIA #QueerLiterature
