WALT WHITMAN

Walt Whitman was born in West Hills, on Long Island, New York, on 31 May 1819. He was an American poet, essayist, and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Read here.

“We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. So medicine, law, business, engineering ... these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love ... these are what we stay alive for.”

ITHAKA

When you set out for Ithaka
ask that your way be long,
full of adventure, full of instruction.
The Laistrygonians and the Cyclops,
angry Poseidon – do not fear them:
such as these you will never find
as long as your thought is lofty, as long as a rare
emotion touch your spirit and your body.
The Laistrygonians and the Cyclops,
angry Poseidon – you will not meet them
unless you carry them in your soul,
unless your soul raise them up before you.

Ask that your way be long.
At many a Summer dawn to enter
with what gratitude, what joy –
ports seen for the first time;
to stop at Phoenician trading centres,
and to buy good merchandise,
mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
and sensuous perfumes of every kind,
sensuous perfumes as lavishly as you can;
to visit many Egyptian cities,
to gather stores of knowledge from the learned.

Have Ithaka always in your mind.
Your arrival there is what you are destined for.
But don’t in the least hurry the journey.
Better it last for years,
so that when you reach the island you are old,
rich with all you have gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaka to give you wealth.
Ithaka gave you a splendid journey.
Without her you would not have set out.
She hasn’t anything else to give you.

And if you find her poor, Ithaka hasn’t deceived you.
So wise you have become, of such experience,
that already you’ll have understood what these Ithakas mean.

Constantine Cavafy

"Ithaca" is a poem written by Constantine Cavafy. In Greek mythology, Ithaca is considered to be a very prosperous island and the path to Ithaca, filled with many perils. Reaching Ithaca was every adventurer's dream. The poet, treating life as the adventure, gives a very insightful poem and hence giving us a deep, resonating and uplifting message.

https://classicsmalta.org/life-as-a-journey-ithaka-by-constantine-p-cavafy/

GEORGE ORWELL'S ESSAY "WHY I WRITE"

"From a very early age, perhaps the age of five or six, I knew that when I grew up I should be a writer. Between the ages of about seventeen and twenty-four I tried to abandon this idea, but I did so with the consciousness that I was outraging my true nature and that sooner or later I should have to settle down and write books."  Read here.

WILLIAM BLAKE: THE ROMANTIC VISIONARY

https://artuk.org/discover/stories/william-blake-the-romantic-visionary#

https://medium.com/@musicianchris1/william-blake-and-allen-ginsberg-poets-of-a-fallen-world-prophets-of-the-new-world-883bc70c9433

VIRGINIA WOOLF'S MRS DALLOWAY

Virginia Woolf's Mrs Dalloway was published on 14 May 1925.

It examines one day in the life of Clarissa Dalloway, an upper-class Londoner married to a member of Parliament. Mrs. Dalloway is essentially plotless; the action takes place mainly in the characters’ consciousness. The novel addresses the nature of time in personal experience through multiple interwoven stories, particularly that of Clarissa as she prepares for and hosts a party and that of the mentally damaged war veteran Septimus Warren Smith. The two characters can be seen as foils for each other (= they contrast with each other and go well together). Read here.

The Hours was the working title Virginia Woolf  gave the novel that became Mrs. Dalloway. This novel chronicles the hours that make up one day in the life of Clarissa Dalloway, who prepares to host a party. Mrs. Dalloway inspired Michael Cunningham's novel, The Hours (1998). In both the earlier and later books, the title refers to the events and thoughts characters experience during the hours in an ordinary day. In a larger sense, the characters are preoccupied by mortality  and suicide becomes the ultimate rejection of a meaningless or too-painful life. 

The Hours is a 2002 psychological drama film directed by Stephen Daldry and starring Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore, and Nicole Kidman.

W.H. AUDEN - 5^C LINGUISTICO

English poet, playwright, critic, and librettist Wystan Hugh Auden exerted a major influence on the poetry of the 20th century. He grew up in Birmingham, England and was known for his extraordinary intellect and wit. His first book, Poems, was published in 1930 with the help of T.S. Eliot. Just before World War II broke out, he emigrated to the United States where he met the poet Chester Kallman, who became his lifelong lover. W.H. Auden won the Pulitzer Prize in 1948 for The Age of Anxiety. Much of his poetry is concerned with moral issues and evidences a strong political, social, and psychological context. Read here.

EPITAPH ON A TYRANT

Dated January 1939, it is one of W.H. Auden's most famous political poems. Concise and brutally witty, it is readily applicable to Hitler, Stalin, Franco, Mussolini, or whichever dictator you hate most.

https://emilyspoetryblog.com/2014/10/08/epitaph-on-a-tyrant-by-w-h-auden/

https://interestingliterature.com/2017/01/a-short-analysis-of-w-h-audens-epitaph-on-a-tyrant/

MAY

"Fast fading violets cover'd up in leaves;

And mid-May's eldest child,

The coming musk-rose, full of dewy wine,

The murmurous haunt of flies on summer eves."

John Keats

from "Ode to a Nightingale"