POEM OF THE DAY : O TELL ME THE TRUTH ABOUT LOVE - W.H. AUDEN

O TELL ME THE TRUTH ABOUT LOVE BY W.H. AUDEN

(READ BY TOM O'BEDLAM)

133,077 views•Oct 12, 2008

SpokenVerse

98.1K subscribers

 

This is Auden being facetious about a serious subject.

 

Grateful thanks to TOM O'BEDLAM), SpokenVerse and YouTube and all the others who made this video possible

 

POEM OF THE DAY : MOTHER TO SON - LANGSTON HUGHES

"MOTHER TO SON" LANGSTON HUGHES

RECITES FAMOUS HARLEM RENAISSANCE POEM

38,117 views•Jun 12, 2016

TIM GRACYK

2.89K subscribers

 

Mother To Son

 

By Langston Hughes

 

Well, son, I'll tell you:

Life for me ain't been no crystal stair.

It's had tacks in it,

And splinters,

And boards torn up,

And places with no carpet on the floor—

Bare.

But all the time

I'se been a-climbin' on,

And reachin' landin's,

And turnin' corners,

And sometimes goin' in the dark

Where there ain't been no light.

So, boy, don't you turn back.

Don't you set down on the steps

'Cause you finds it's kinder hard.

Don't you fall now—

For I'se still goin', honey,

I'se still climbin',

And life for me ain't been no crystal stair.

 

__________________________________________

 

______________________

Background:

 

"Mother to Son" is a product of the Harlem Renaissance.

 

The Harlem Renaissance refers to an explosion among the arts--poems, paintings, music, novels--produced by African Americans.

 

It started around World War I and ended in the 1930s.  The 1920s was its heyday.

 

This is free verse.  It does not have a sonnet structure.  It does not rhyme.  It has no regular rhythm like iambic. 

 

I like the way “bare” stands alone in one line.  The word “bare” is bare--or the line is bare.

 

This poem is a great example of a dramatic monologue.  The poet created a character--it is not the poet speaking for himself. 

 

It is almost as if a boy had earlier said, "Life should be a crystal staircase," and this poem is the mother's response.  But is this realistic?  No boy would think to say life should be a crystal staircase!

 

Maybe the boy said, "Life is rough," and the mother is the one who made up the glass stair metaphor.

 

I marvel that the mother never promises that life will be better in the future.  She only says to keep going.  Don't expect rewards!

 

Grateful thanks to TIM GRACYK and YouTube and all the others who made this video possible 

POEM OF THE DAY : BECAUSE I COULD NOT STOP FOR DEATH - EMILY DICKINSON

BECAUSE I COULD NOT STOP FOR DEATH 

BY EMILY DICKINSON - POETRY READING

126,604 views•Mar 27, 2012

PEARLS OF WISDOM

65.6K subscribers

 

Because I Could Not Stop For Death -- A poem by Emily Dickinson. About the poet - Emily Elizabeth Dickinson (December 10, 1830 -- May 15, 1886) was a very prolific private American poet. She was born in Amherst, Massachusetts. Many of her poems deal with themes of death and immortality. For more videos log onto http://www.youtube.com/pearlsofwisdom  Also find us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/pearlsofwisd...

 

Grateful thanks to PEARLS OF WISDOM and YouTube and all the others who made this video possible 

POEM OF THE DAY : LEAP BEFORE YOU LOOK - W H AUDEN

"LEAP BEFORE YOU LOOK" BY W H AUDEN 

(READ BY TOM O'BEDLAM)

24,314 views•Sep 8, 2011

SpokenVerse

97.7K subscribers

 

There are many locations called "Lovers' Leap".  The one at the start is in  Chattanooga, the one at the end in La Jolla.

 

On searching for this poem I found it was read on the Colbert Report on 14th April last. 

 

The sense of danger must not disappear:

The way is certainly both short and steep,

However gradual it looks from here;

Look if you like, but you will have to leap.

 

Tough-minded men get mushy in their sleep

And break the by-laws any fool can keep;

It is not the convention but the fear

That has a tendency to disappear.

 

The worried efforts of the busy heap,

The dirt, the imprecision, and the beer

Produce a few smart wisecracks every year;

Laugh if you can, but you will have to leap.

 

The clothes that are considered right to wear

Will not be either sensible or cheap,

So long as we consent to live like sheep

And never mention those who disappear.

 

Much can be said for social savoir-faire,

But to rejoice when no one else is there

Is even harder than it is to weep;

No one is watching, but you have to leap.

 

A solitude ten thousand fathoms deep

Sustains the bed on which we lie, my dear;

Although I love you, you will have to leap;

Our dream of safety has to disappear.

 

Grateful thanks to SpokenVerse  and YouTube and all the others who made this video possible 

POEM OF THE DAY : SARDANAPALUS - LORD BYRON

In my native land a God,

And in my heart a feeling like a God's,

Exalted; yet I own 'tis only mortal;

For what I feel is humble, and yet happy—

There comes

For ever something between us and what

We deem our happiness: let me remove

 The barrier which that hesitating accent

Proclaims to thine, and mine is sealed.

Excerpted from SARDANAPALUS by Lord Byron

PREFACE TO LYRICAL BALLADS - AN OVERVIEW

PREFACE TO LYRICAL BALLADS - 

AN OVERVIEW

4,229 views•Nov 21, 2019

SG LURN

889 subscribers

 

Grateful thanks to SG LURN and YouTube and all the others who made this video possible 

SEVEN AGES OF MAN - SHAKESPEARE

SEVEN AGES OF MAN - SHAKESPEARE

(POWERFUL LIFE POETRY)

321,626 views•Mar 31, 2020

RedFrost Motivation

731K subscribers

In this drama of life, each one of us plays seven distinct roles. This, Shakespeare says, is the Seven Ages of Man.

 

MUSIC BY CHRIS COLEMAN

 

Grateful thanks to RedFrost Motivation, CHRIS COLEMAN and YouTube and all the others who made this video possible 

LYRICAL BALLADS: A REVOLUTION IN POETRY

LYRICAL BALLADS: A REVOLUTION IN POETRY (1798)

4,588 views•Feb 12, 2017

KASHYAP DEEPAK

3.55K subscribers

This lecture entitled "A Revolution in Poetry: Wordsworth and Coleridge, 1798" is delivered by JAMES CHANDLER of the University of Chicago.

The original link of this video runs thus:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTfiE...

 

Grateful thanks to KASHYAP DEEPAK, PROF.JAMES CHANDLER and YouTube and all the others who made this video possible 

WORDSWORTH, COLERIDGE AND THE POETIC REVOLUTION

WORDSWORTH, COLERIDGE AND 

THE POETIC REVOLUTION

19,230 views•Oct 22, 2018

GRESHAM COLLEGE

122K subscribers

 

JONATHAN BATE explains why Wordsworth's and Coleridge's Lyrical Ballads is one of the greatest and most influential volumes of poetry ever written.

 

A LECTURE BY PROFESSOR SIR JONATHAN BATE CBE FBA, PROFESSOR OF RHETORIC 16 OCTOBER 2018

 

https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-an...

 

'The sense of a new style and a new spirit in poetry came over me', wrote William Hazlitt, recalling the day in 1798 when he heard William Wordsworth reading aloud from Lyrical Ballads, 'It partakes of, and is carried along with, the revolutionary movement of our age'.

 

Jonathan Bate will explain what Hazlitt meant and why Lyrical Ballads, the product of Wordsworth's intimate friendship with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, is one of the greatest and most influential volumes of poetry ever written.

 

Gresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.

 

Website:  http://www.gresham.ac.uk

Twitter:  http://www.twitter.com/GreshamCollege

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GreshamCollege

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/greshamcoll...

 

Grateful thanks to GRESHAM COLLEGE, PROFESSOR SIR JONATHAN BATE and YouTube and all the others who made this video possible 

SHAKESPEARE'S SONNETS: CRASH COURSE LITERATURE 304

SHAKESPEARE'S SONNETS: 

CRASH COURSE LITERATURE 304

699,738 views•Jul 27, 2016

CrashCourse

11.6M subscribers

 

This week, we're learning about sonnets, and English Literature's best-known purveyor of those fourteen-line paeans, William Shakespeare. We'll look at a few of Willy Shakes's biggest hits, including Sonnet 18, "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day," Sonnet 116, "Let me not to the marriage of true minds admit impediment," and Sonnet 130, "My mistresses's eyes are nothing like the sun." We'll talk about what makes a sonnet, a little bit about their history, and even a little bit about how reading poetry helps us understand how to be human beings.

 

Consider supporting local book stores by purchasing your books through https://bookshop.org/ or at your local book seller.

 

Crash Course is on Patreon! You can support us directly by signing up at http://www.patreon.com/crashcourse

 

Grateful thanks to CrashCourse and YouTube and all the others who made this video possible

POEM OF THE DAY : DREAM DEFERRED (HARLEM) - LANGSTON HUGHES

"DREAM DEFERRED (HARLEM)" - LANGSTON HUGHES 

88,284 views•Jun 12, 2016

TIM GRACYK

2.88K subscribers

 

Dream Deferred (Harlem)

By Langston Hughes

 

What happens to a dream deferred?

 

Does it dry up

like a raisin in the sun?

Or fester like a sore--

And then run?

Does it stink like rotten meat?

Or crust and sugar over--

like a syrupy sweet?

 

Maybe it just sags

like a heavy load.

 

Or does it explode?

___________________________________

Scholars usually assume that Langston Hughes had racism in mind when he wrote this poem that guesses at the costs of postponing human dreams or aspirations. 

 

The short poem even implies it's dangerous if dreams are set aside or delayed due to racial discrimination--people might explode in anger (riots in cities?). 

 

But readers don't have to give it a racial interpretation.  It is about ANY dreams being put off.

 

Today's young people have dreams or goals or activities put off due to a pandemic, and they feel very frustrated.  The poem is about that.

 

The Harlem Renaissance is a name for an era that witnessed a flowering or blossoming of the arts among African Americans.  Its heyday was the 1920s and early 1930s.  Scholars disagree on when exactly it started and ended.

 

Grateful thanks to TIM GRACYK and YouTube and all the others who made this video possible 

POEM OF THE DAY: THE UNDERTAKER'S HORSE by RUDYARD KIPLING

         The Undertaker's Horse

              by Rudyard Kipling

"To-tschin-shu is condemned to death.

How can he drink tea with the Executioner?"

Japanese Proverb.

The eldest son bestrides him,

And the pretty daughter rides him,

And I meet him oft o' mornings on the Course;

And there kindles in my bosom

An emotion chill and gruesome

As I canter past the Undertaker's Horse.

Neither shies he nor is restive,

But a hideously suggestive

Trot, professional and placid, he affects;

And the cadence of his hoof-beats

To my mind this grim reproof beats:,

"Mend your pace, my friend, I'm coming. Who's the next?"

Ah! stud-bred of ill-omen,

I have watched the strongest go,    men

Of pith and might and muscle,    at your heels,

Down the plantain-bordered highway,

(Heaven send it ne'er be my way!)

In a lacquered box and jetty upon wheels.

Answer, sombre beast and dreary,

Where is Brown, the young, the cheery,

Smith, the pride of all his friends and half the Force?

You were at that last dread dak

We must cover at a walk,

Bring them back to me, O Undertaker's Horse!

With your mane unhogged and flowing,

And your curious way of going,

And that businesslike black crimping of your tail,

E'en with Beauty on your back, Sir,

Pacing as a lady's hack, Sir,

What wonder when I meet you I turn pale?

It may be you wait your time, Beast,

Till I write my last bad rhyme, Beast,

Quit the sunlight, cut the rhyming, drop the glass,

Follow after with the others,

Where some dusky heathen smothers

Us with marigolds in lieu of English grass.

Or, perchance, in years to follow,

I shall watch your plump sides hollow,

See Carnifex (gone lame) become a corse,

See old age at last o'erpower you,

And the Station Pack devour you,

I shall chuckle then, O Undertaker's Horse!

But to insult, jibe, and quest, I've

Still the hideously suggestive

Trot that hammers out the unrelenting text,

And I hear it hard behind me

In what place soe'er I find me:,

"'Sure to catch you sooner or later. Who's the next?"

FOR BIO OF RUDYARD KIPLING FROM WIKIPEDIA 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudyard_Kipling

POEM OF THE DAY : *A Green Cornfield by Christina Rossetti*

*A Green Cornfield by Christina Rossetti*

The earth was green, the sky was blue:

I saw and heard one sunny morn

A skylark hang between the two,

A singing speck above the corn;

A stage below, in gay accord,

White butterflies danced on the wing,

And still the singing skylark soared,

And silent sank and soared to sing.

The cornfield stretched a tender green

To right and left beside my walks;

I knew he had a nest unseen

Somewhere among the million stalks.

And as I paused to hear his song

While swift the sunny moments slid,

Perhaps his mate sat listening long,

And listened longer than I did.

FOR BIOGRAPHY OF CHRISTINA ROSETTI  FROM WIKIPEDIA :

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christina_Rossetti

POEM OF THE DAY : *The Knight's Tomb by Samuel Taylor Coleridge*

*The Knight's Tomb by Samuel Taylor Coleridge*

Where is the grave of Sir Arthur O’Kellyn?

Where may the grave of that good man be?—

By the side of a spring, on the breast of Helvellyn,

Under the twigs of a young birch tree!

The oak that in summer was sweet to hear,

And rustled its leaves in the fall of the year,

And whistled and roared in the winter alone,

Is gone,—and the birch in its stead is grown.—

The Knight’s bones are dust,

And his good sword rust;—

His soul is with the saints, I trust.

POEM OF THE DAY : THE LAUGHING HEART BY CHARLES BUKOWSKI

THE LAUGHING HEART BY CHARLES BUKOWSKI 

(READ BY TOM O'BEDLAM)

280,470 views•Jul 1, 2010

SpokenVerse

96.8K subscribers

 

The words of Solomon represent the wisdom of the ages, and their truth does not depend on whether you believe in God.

 

This is what he says about laughter in Ecclesiates 7, verses 3 to 12:

Sorrow is better than laughter: for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better.

The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.

It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise, than for a man to hear the song of fools. For as the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of the fool: this also is vanity.

Surely oppression maketh a wise man mad; and a gift destroyeth the heart.

Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof: and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.

Be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry: for anger resteth in the bosom of fools.

Say not thou, What is the cause that the former days were better than these? for thou dost not enquire wisely concerning this.

Wisdom is good with an inheritance: and by it there is profit to them that see the sun.

For wisdom is a defence, and money is a defence: but the excellency of knowledge is, that wisdom giveth life to them that have it.

 

Grateful thanks to CHARLES BUKOWSKI, TOM O'BEDLAM, SpokenVerse

and YouTube and all the others who made this video possible 

POEM OF THE DAY : MERCY by William Shakespeare

MERCY 

by William Shakespeare

The quality of mercy is not strained;
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath: it is twice blest,—
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes:
‘Tis mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes
The thronèd monarch better than his crown:
His sceptre shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty,
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;
But mercy is above this sceptred sway,—
It is enthronèd in the hearts of kings,
It is an attribute to God himself;
And earthly power doth then show likest God’s,
When mercy seasons justice

POEM OF THE DAY : YOUR LIFE IS YOUR LIFE: GO ALL THE WAY - CHARLES BUKOWSKI

YOUR LIFE IS YOUR LIFE: GO ALL THE WAY - 

CHARLES BUKOWSKI

3,941,458 views•Feb 10, 2016

ROGIDREAM

20.1K subscribers

 

This is a combination of 2 poems made by Charles Bukowski

 

music: The last samurai OST #4

Writer: Charles Bukowski

 

please consider to subscribe

it will be a life changer

Speaker: Tom O'Bedlam

 

Get even more Inspired by liking our Facebook Page!

https://www.facebook.com/RogiDream/

 

All copyrights go to their respective owners.

Rogidream does not own the rights to these pictures or audio. They have, in accordance with fair use, been repurposed with the intent of educating and inspiring others. However, given that many aspects of Fair Use are open to interpretation, if any owners of the pictures or audio would like me to remove the video, I have no issue with this and will do so as fast as possible. Please contact us.

 

Grateful thanks to ROGIDREAM and YouTube and all the others who made this video possible 

POEM OF THE DAY : THE ADDICTIONS OF SIN: W. H. AUDEN IN HIS OWN WORDS

THE ADDICTIONS OF SIN: W. H. AUDEN 

IN HIS OWN WORDS (6/6)

58,415 views•Oct 18, 2009

HERMIONECAZ232

109 subscribers

 

Grateful thanks to HERMIONECAZ232 and YouTube and all the others who made this video possible