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My parents kept all my books from when I was a kid, including this copy of Doctor Dolittle that one of my brothers gave me over 40 years ago. My wife and I have been reading it to the boys, and I should finish the last two chapters tonight. To say that it underwhelms me, […]
Confession–the most I have seen of Stanley Kubrick’s film Spartacus is the clip that is shown in the movie Clueless (“Christian had a thing for Tony Curtis so he brought over Some Like it Hot and Sporadicus“). So while I’m clueless on the myth, I’m also woefully ignorant on the history behind Spartacus’ uprising. After […]
I love it when many things come together unexpectedly and in ways you could never imagine. After posting on Merrill Moore and his poem “No Envy, John Carter” last week, what do I come across today? The recently released James Agee: Selected Poems (American Poets Project), within it the incomplete satire John Carter. But to make […]
Windmill in Mikhailovskoe, Russia (where Pushkin was exiled 1824 – 1826) Picture source With womankind, the less we love them, the easier they become to charm, the tighter we can stretch above them enticing nets to do them harm. – 4, vii ‘I’ve dreams and years past resurrection; a soul that nothing can renew… I […]
For AE with highest admiration and esteem, always Merrill Moore October, 1929Last week I was thumbing through the books at a used bookstore and something drew me to The Noise that Time Makes by Merrill Moore. Upon opening the cover, I was surprised to see the above inscription (I’m not sure why the photos turned […]
Half hero and half ignoramous, What’s more, half scoundrel, don’t forget. But on this score, the man gives promise That he will make a whole one yet. (More on Vorontsov’s monument can be found here)
Your cause of sorrowMust not be measured by his worth, for thenIt hath no end. (Macbeth Act V, Scene 8) Things that could not be known on that wedding day: Franklin Delano Roosevelt would complain of a headache the next day, passing away in nearby Warm Springs, Georgia Victory in Europe was less than a […]
Feodor Chaliapin as Salieri (1898) Picture source Thou shalt not, poet, prize the people’s love. The noise of their applause will quickly die; Then shalt thou hear the judgment of the fool And chilling laughter from the multitude. But stand thou firm, untroubled and austere; Thou art a king and kings must live alone. Thine […]
Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage by J.M.W. TurnerPicture source I had written a long post on Lord Byron’s influence on Pushkin, as well as Pushkin creating something beyond Byron. As I was re-reading it, I realized only people working on graduate degrees related to this would care. Hell, even I didn’t care by the time I reached […]
Ilya Repin’s painting “Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin recites his poem before Gavrila Derzhavin during the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum exam on January 8th, 1815” Picture sourceAlexander Pushkin was a member of the first Imperial Lyceum founded by Alexander I. (Several of his classmates would lead the Decembrist uprising.) The painting above is by Ilya Efimovich Repin. A […]