Great news indeed @Dalai and @revchuck

Yes it is!

Brings a smile to my face - wonderful news, indeed!

@Racer Ex - the next time I go do intervals in really cold weather, I may resort to cannibalism... ;)

Very good news indeed.

Royal Shakespeare Company intervals this week. 2.5 hours Henry IV part 1 on Wednesday, 2.5 hours Henry IV part 2 on Thursday. Absolutely brilliant, but TSS zero. The way December has gone I'm starting to feel positively Falstaffian myself.

Very jealous. Love Richard II and both parts of Henry IV, hands down my favorite Shakespeare plays.

For God's sake, let us sit upon the ground and tell sad stories of the death of kings!

You're formidably well-read, HP. Impressive.

Not sure I have a favourite. Terrific to see these two in quick succession with the same cast, though.

Well-read in Shakespeare, Chaucer and modern poetry, my faves. That's it. Beyond that, I just have a smattering of familiarity. And some stuff I hate. Ugh, Milton. And romantic poetry, just shoot me now.

Shakespeare, I love the histories, especially the ones covering English history. Obviously not 100% accurate but still even the gist of the semi-accurate truth is fantastic, its just unbelievably larger-than-life stuff. :)

And the sunlights clasps the earth, and the moonbeams kiss the sea
What are all these kissings worth, if thou kiss not me?

Don't like Shelley? Dear me. I confess I love Milton, too. Sonorous is the word that comes to mind. Shakespeare is in a class of his own, though. I think he and Mozart must have had something in common, the stuff seems to have just poured out of them in torrents.

Mozart was prolific. One can't help but wonder what musical treats the world would have had if he'd lived a normal lifespan.

Or if half of Bach's compositions weren't lost.

Merckx at a keyboard.

Haha. Nope on Shelley, Keats, Browning. And OMG no on Milton. Too overwrought for me. Not even Yeats.

But I do like this:
Earth, receive an honored guest-
William Yeats is laid to rest.
Let the Irish vessel lie
Emptied of his poetry.

Because it makes you say it "poe it tri".

That's Auden, my #4 favorite modern poet. :)

I now have a picture in my mind of group ride with all of you quoting poetry and blasting the classics from smart phones. That would be a lovely ride.

Shakespeare is timeless in his stories, so much of his work translates to modern day. I was a theatre geek in middle school and continued on to community theatre from there at the urging of my drama teacher. She and her husband were local directors.

“My dear,
Find what you love and let it kill you.
Let it drain you of your all. Let it cling onto your back and weigh you down into eventual nothingness.
Let it kill you and let it devour your remains.
For all things will kill you, both slowly and fastly, but it’s much better to be killed by a lover."

~ Falsely yours- Charles Bukowski

Professor Jennings:

Don't write this down, but I find Milton probably as boring as you find Milton. Mrs. Milton found him boring too. He's a little bit long-winded, he doesn't translate very well into our generation, and his jokes are terrible.
But that doesn't relieve you of your responsibility for this material. Now I'm waiting for reports from some of you... Listen, I'm not joking. This is my job!

**Animal House**

Truthfully I like the beats too. Poetry and prose. :) :)

Here I sit, broken hearted...

To my regret, poetry never resonated with me. I read voraciuosly, and folks have paid me to write on a surprisingly broad range of topics. We have a box at the Opera. I sat first chair for six years of orchestra and band.

But you might as well recite couplets to a mule.

Now if we're talking limericks, I can tell you about a young man from Karass.

But carry on. You never know when the things you throw at wall finally start sticking. I may start raging against the dying of the light.

And great Animal House pickup Sara...

Ah, Dylan Thomas. You've hit on something there.

If you like music you'll like Thomas's poetry, and a lot of his prose. You just have to start by forgetting about the meaning of the words.

Work with me here. If you start by trying to "get" what some poets, especially modern poets, are on about it will seem dry and incomprehensible and obscure. Start with the rhythms and sounds of the language, treat it like music - or at least song - and you'll be a long way there. The meaing or the lines then starts to penetrate by a sort of osmosis. And anyway, it doesn't really matter what he meant, it matters what it means to you.

Here endeth the lesson, sorry. But Thomas is a lyricist, his stuff is meant to be heard rather than read.

Dylan Thomas, 1952: A Child's Christmas in Wales, A Story - Recorded at Steinway Hall, NY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hv4-sgFw3Go

I was not familiar with Bukowski. That is beautiful.


There's an ancient, ancient garden that I see sometimes in dreams,
Where the very Maytime sunlight plays and glows with spectral gleams;
Where the gaudy-tinted blossoms seem to wither into grey,
And the crumbling walls and pillars waken thoughts of yesterday.

IMHO Bukowski is the finest modern poet in English, and uniquely American.
Not for everyone, if inclined to Daffodils or lovely rhyme schemes look elsewhere.

Avoid the hideous film "Bar Fly" purported to be a Bukowski bio-pic at all costs, posturing drivel.

Charles Bukowski, American Author

I saw that shortly after the film came out. It completely ruined Mickey Rourke for me.

I subscribe to the Klingon Proverb that says "revenge is a dish best served cold."

Now don't go ruin it for me by telling me that the quote came from someone in the Dead Poet's Society (which was a GREAT film).

I can relate to Ex. I was a voracious reader when I was young, especially of sci-fi/fantasy. Asimov, Bradbury, among the many - my heroes, and no better social commentary can be found than that in the Empire and Robots series. I don't read all that much anymore, though I still enjoy a good film or a wonderful piece of classical music, though. And classic rock! Poetry, though. It never took hold. Shakespeare almost did. I was a theater major in college (technical concentration), and I was immersed in classical theater, as well as powerful, human condition, absurdist (think Glass Menagerie, The Boys in the Band, Genet's The Balcony, works by Ionesco, etc) plays. But poetry? No.

Unless you count folk lyrics - Joni Mitchell, Neal Young - but NOT Bob Dylan!

Humor? Oh my, yes!