I WISH YOU TIME

I don't wish you all sorts of gifts.
I just wish you, what most people don't have:
I wish you time to be happy and to laugh
and if you use it, you can make something out of it.

I wish you time for your doings and thinking,
not only for yourself, but also to give away to others.
I wish you time - not to hastle and run,
but time to know how to be contented.

I wish you time - not to pass just like that.
I wish that some of it may be left for you
as a time to marvel and to trust,
instead of just looking at the time on your watch.

I wish you time to reach for the stars,
and time to grow, to mature.
I wish you time to hope and to love.
There is no sense in putting this time off.

I wish you time to find yourself,
to see the happiness in each day and each hour.
I wish you time also to forgive.
I wish you: time to live.

Elli Michler (1921-2014) wrote this beautiful poem in the year 1987.

HAPPY NEW YEAR'S EVE!

HAPPY BOXING DAY!

Boxing Day is celebrated every year on 26 December. It became an official holiday during the reign of Queen Victoria, though some historians trace its origins back much further - to medieval times. Today, it's basically an extension of the Christmas holiday and a big day for sporting events and shopping.  Read here.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

CHRISTMAS GREETINGS

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MISS AUSTEN!

Jane Austen was born on 16 December 1775 in the village of Steventon in Hampshire. She was one of eight children of a clergyman and grew up in a close-knit family. She began to write as an adolescent. In 1801 the family moved to Bath. After the death of her father in 1805  Jane Austen, her sister Cassandra and their mother settled in Chawton, near Steventon.

Her first novel, “Sense and Sensibility”, appeared in 1811. Her next novel “Pride and Prejudice”, which she described as her "own darling child", received very favourable reviews. “Mansfield Park” was published in 1814. “Emma”, published  in 1816,  was dedicated to the Prince Regent, an admirer of her work.

In 1816 she began to suffer from ill-health, most likely due to Addison's disease. She travelled to Winchester to receive treatment,  and died there on 18 July 1817.

Two more novels, “Persuasion” and “Northanger Abbey” were published posthumously in 1818. Her novels have rarely been out of print, although they were published anonymously and brought her little fame during her lifetime.

Jane Austen’s novels, set among the English middle and upper classes, are outstanding for their wit, social observation and insights into the lives of early 19th century women. They often explore the dependence of women on marriage in the pursuit of favourable social standing and economic security. Her use of biting irony, along with her realism and social commentary, have earned her everlasting praise among critics and scholars.

WATCHING MACBETH

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, EMILY DICKINSON!

Emily Elizabeth Dickinson is one of America’s greatest and most original poets of all time. She challenged the existing definitions of poetry and the poet’s work. She wrote close to 1800 poems in her lifetime. Her poems are often extremely short, waste no words, and subvert the traditional forms of the day. Read here and here.

She was born in Amherst, Massachusetts, on 10 December 1830. Continue reading here.  

FOOD AND DRINK VOCABULARY ~ 1^C AND 1^D LINGUISTICO

Click here and here to learn useful food and drink vocabulary.

You can also find lots of exercises here! 

FRANKENSTEIN ~ 5^C LINGUISTICO

Mary Shelley and the Birth of Science Fiction is a very interesting lecture transcript about Frankenstein. It is commonly classified as a Gothic novel, but it is also considered  an early example of science fiction.

Here you can find a PowerPoint presentation to revise the novel.

DECEMBER

SHAKESPEARE'S ROMEO AND JULIET

REMEMBRANCE SUNDAY

Held on the second Sunday in November every year, Remembrance Sunday commemorates the agreement to end fighting during the First World War in 1918. Read here.

DYLAN THOMAS

Born on 27 October 1914, Welshman Dylan Thomas left school at age 16 to become a reporter and writer. His most famous poem, "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night" , was published in 1952 (read here an analysis of the poem), but his reputation was solidified years earlier. His prose includes Under Milk Wood (1954) and A Child's Christmas in Wales (1955). Dylan Thomas was in high demand for his animated readings, but debt and heavy drinking had bad effects, and he died in New York City while on tour on 9 November 1953, at age 39.  Continue reading here.

SONNET 60

Here and here you can find a text analysis of Sonnet 60 in which the poet warns about the destructive power of time and ponders on the role of art.

MY SUNDAY MOVIE - SECRET SUMMER

Secret Summer is a fun family movie which was released just in time for the 2016 summer season. It tells the story of writer Jake Kenman who wants to quietly research his current work-in-progress over the summer. But after receiving an unexpected request to watch his niece and nephew for the summer, he decides to alter his original plans.  Continue reading here.

NOVEMBER

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JOHN KEATS!

John Keats was born on 31 October 1795 in London. In spite of his death at the age of 25, he is one of the greatest English poets and a key figure in the Romantic movement. Read here.

WHAT IS HALLOWEEN?

What is the story behind Halloween and why do children trick-or-treat?

The origin of Halloween lies in Celtic Ireland

The Truth About Why We Really Celebrate Halloween

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, OSCAR WILDE!

Oscar Wilde was born in Dublin on 16 October 1854. He became involved in the Aesthetic Movement while studying at Magdalen College in Oxford,  and went on to become one of the century’s most brilliant poets, playwrights and essayists. 

He transgressed the oppressive boundaries of Victorian society and lived a full life, even after his reputation was ruined when his sexual orientation came to light. Read here.

DISCOVERING ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND

Today let's watch an insightful documentary on Elizabethan England. Click here.

If you need to revise the Elizabethan Age, click here.

THE RENAISSANCE ~ DAWN OF A NEW AGE

The Renaissance was a period in European history, from the 14th to the 17th century, regarded as the cultural bridge between the Middle Ages and modern history. It started as a cultural movement in Italy in the Late Medieval period and later spread to the rest of Europe, marking the beginning of the Early Modern Age. Read here.

Here you can find my previous post about the Renaissance.

HOW TO UNDERSTAND NATIVE SPEAKERS

ROMANTICISM - 5^C LINGUISTICO

"The heart is the only true source of art, the language of a pure, child-like soul. Any creation not sprung from this origin can only be artifice. Every true work of art is conceived in a hallowed hour and born in a happy one, from an impulse in the artist's heart, often without his knowledge."

Caspar David Friedrich

Romanticism (also known as the Romantic period) was an artistic, literary, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe toward the end of the 18th century and in most areas was at its peak in the period from 1800 to 1850. It was partly a reaction to the Industrial Revolution, the aristocratic social and political norms of the Age of Enlightenment, and the scientific rationalisation of nature.

Here you can find my previous posts about Romanticism.

OCTOBER

TRUMAN CAPOTE'S BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY’S

Born in New Orleans, Louisiana, on September 30, 1924, Truman Capote went on to become a professional writer, making waves with his debut novel Other Voices, Other Rooms. His novella Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1958) was adapted into a popular film, and his book In Cold Blood (1966) was a pioneering form of narrative non-fiction. Capote spent his later years pursuing celebrity and struggled with drug addiction. He died in 1984 in Los Angeles, California.  Read here.

DO vs. MAKE

Do and Make are two verbs which frequently confuse students. In order to learn about the difference between them and when to use each one,  make sure that you read here and do some exercises here!

https://www.grammarism.com/make-do-exercises/

http://www.learnenglish- online.com/domaketest.html

https://english-grammar.at/make-and-do.htm

ITALO CALVINO

On September 19 1985 Italo Calvino died at his home in Tuscany of a cerebral haemorrhage. Many Italians felt they had lost a literary friend; messages of condolence came from the Vatican and the President of the Republic, while Umberto Eco’s front-page obituary in the Corriere della Sera almost overshadowed news of the Mexican earthquake. In the same paper, John Updike lamented that “world literature had been deprived of its most refined and civil voice”. Reportedly, Italo Calvino had planned to write 14 more books; he was only 62. Read here.

Here you can read the translation of a famous article in which Italo Calvino explains why it is important to read the classics. 

During the last quarter century Italo Calvino has advanced far beyond his American and English contemporaries. As they continue to look for the place where the spiders make their nests, Calvino has not only found this special place but learned how himself to make fantastic webs of prose to which all things adhere.

Gore Vidal

WILLIAM HOGARTH AND HIS TIMES

William Hogarth's Gin Lane is one of his best-known works of engraved art. Along with its companion, Beer Street, Gin Lane addressed a serious problem in mid-18th century England - the abuse of spirits (= strong alcoholic drinks such as whiskey and gin) by the working classes and the poor. In the right  foreground a skeletal ballad singer has just died. His left hand still clutches his bottle. A drunken woman is taking her snuff while her neglected  baby falls to his death in front of the Gin Royal Tavern. Behind the wall a man and his dog fight for a bone. Further back, a man pawns his coat and saw and his wife her kitchen tools for some more drinks. The pawn broker is properly named, "S. Gripe" (= complaint, affliction). Both his comfortable home and rich clothes stand in contrast to the devastation around. Only pawn brokers, coffin makers and distillers profit in such a society.  Continue to read here.

TYPES OF NOVELS

The novel is an extended work of prose fiction. It derives from the Italian novella (“little new thing”), which was a short piece of prose. The novel has become a popular form of fiction since the early 18th century, even if prose narratives were written long before then. The term refers to a prose narrative about characters and their actions in what is recognisably everyday life. This differentiates it from its immediate predecessor, the romance, which describes unrealistic adventures of supernatural heroes. The novel has developed various sub-genres. Read here and here.

You can also read this post about the various genres of fiction.

WELCOME BACK TO SCHOOL!

REMEMBERING SEPTEMBER 11, 2001

SIEGFRIED SASSOON

Born on 8 September 1886, Siegfried Sassoon was an English writer and poet, WW I veteran. Read here and here.

He is best remembered for his angry and compassionate poems of the First World War, which brought him public and critical praise. Refusing the sentimentality and patriotism of other war poets, he wrote of the horror and cruelty of trench warfare and scornfully ridiculed generals, politicians, and churchmen for their incompetence and blind support of the war. 

MY SUNDAY MOVIE - MANSFIELD PARK

LONDON'S BIG BEN WILL BE SILENT UNTIL 2021

The iconic bell will only ring for special occasions over the next four years, such as New Year's Eve and Remembrance Sunday.  Read here and here.