Literary
mementomori | January 18, 2008When used deftly, words can be incisive tools of communication. Finding the best word to describe an emotion or idea tumbling around inside of one's brain should be an exciting and rewarding experience. Such mental exercises keep one's wits sharp while relaying information in a vivid, often memorable manner, such as when Winston Churchill described the expected role of the Allies in World War II: "In War: Resolution. In Defeat: Defiance. In Victory: Magnanimity. In Peace: Good Will." Notice how he distilled the essence of these powerful concepts down to just a few words.
We all enjoy…
mementomori | May 20, 2007Walt Whitman (1819-1892), regarded as one of our nation's greatest poets, broke many barriers with his writing, resulting in criticism, controversy and of course worldwide and everlasting fame. His use of freestyle verse, his audacious (for the times) description of sexuality and his egocentric weltanschauung, paired with his genius for the poetic voice have cemented his reputation as a poet who should be on the bookshelf in every home.
The following two excepts are the beginning and then (below the fold) the ending of the 52 sections of "Song of Myself," the first poem published in Whitman'…
mementomori | April 15, 2007Alfred Edward Housman, born in Fockbury, Worcestershire, England, March 26, 1859, is almost the prototype of the sensitive poet. He was 'small and frail,' had six siblings and suffered the death of his mother when he was twelve. On his way to becoming a brilliant if not the preeminent classics scholar in England, he studied Latin and Greek at Oxford, where he fell in love with a handsome classmate, Moses Jackson. Jackson was heterosexual, though, and although they remained friends and even flatmates in London, Housman's affections were rebuffed.
Thus his everlasting misery, according to…
mementomori | April 1, 2007Frederick Louis MacNeice, CBE was born in Belfast, Ireland in 1906, educated at Oxford and then lived in London not only as a poet but also playwright, college lecturer, novelist, translator, and writer and producer for the BBC. He is considered to be a major contributor to Irish poetry, possibly the Emerald Isle's finest after Yeats. His was a life bursting with life - marriages and affairs, friendships with Auden, Stephen Spender and Cecil Day-Lewis (father of actor Daniel Day-Lewis), travel, alcohol and finally death at age 55 from pneumonia caught while spelunking for sound effects for…
mementomori | March 25, 2007[Editor's Note: "Please enjoy this little blurb on the famous German Romantic poet Novalis, and send money, but quickly." This message was found in a bottle off the coast of southern Florida. We presume it is from the C. O., still off on his relaxing holiday. Here is the remainder of his note:]
Georg Friedrich Philipp von Hardenburg (wrote under the pen name of Novalis) was born in Oberwiederstedt, Prussian Saxony, into a family of Protestant Lower Saxon nobility. His father was a director of a salt mine. At the age of ten Novalis was sent to a religious school but he did not adjust to…
mementomori | March 4, 2007Tonight we bring you one of the narrator's favorite poems, of course for your amusement but also (for those who have never read it), as a test of your deductive skills. The poem you see is an allegory, and your job is to decipher what this "Haunted Palace" really represents. The poem is a part of Poe's famous short story "The Fall of the House of Usher," and rather than spoil the ending I shall hush up and let the following speak for itself. Curtain, please:
The Haunted Palace
By E. A. Poe, ESQ
In the greenest of our valleys
By good angels tenanted,
Once a fair and stately palace --
Snow-…
mementomori | December 23, 2006Since I'm going to be busy tomorrow night celebrating Christmas I thought I'd share this poem with you a day early. It was written by a five foot two manic-depressive (putative), intellectually brilliant, Oxford educated Jesuit priest who died of typhoid fever at the age of 44.
If you haven't had the chance yet, meet Father Gerald Manley Hopkins. His Wikipedia entry is a perfect introduction to his body of work. One of the amazing facts of his life is that his poetry was published in 1918 - 29 years after his death. Hopkins is considered one of the greatest poets of the Victorian age, and…
mementomori | December 17, 2006Edgar Lee Masters wrote forty books in his lifetime, but none equaled the success of his first: Spoon River Anthology, published in 1915. The book is a collection of 244 epitaphs written in blank verse, each spoken by a dearly departed citizen of a small Illinois farming town. The tales of sorrow, anger, mistreatment, ignorance and pride (to name a few) of the dejected souls lying forever beneath their revealing headstones became one of the most popular works of fiction in the 20th century.
Those of you who have read it understand what I am talking about. Anyone who hasn't yet had the…
mementomori | December 11, 2006[Editor's Note: The narrator, in addition to being a day late again, has identified this week's poet by his given name; since most readers won't recognize this we shall provide the poet's nom de plume: Pablo Neruda.]
No one would ever argue against the claim that Neruda was one of the 20th century's greatest poets. His prodigious output alone is astounding - does anyone really know how many thousands of poems he actually wrote? His love poems are thought to be exquisite; his works were translated into numerous languages; he was awarded the Nobel prize in Literature in 1971; he is…
mementomori | November 28, 2006[Editor's note: the narrator hosted a large family gathering over Thanksgiving and apologizes for posting The Sunday Poem on Tuesday. He also is looking for ways to disguise reheated leftovers from his children, alas, to no avail.]
Wilfred Owen will forever be known as the most acclaimed poet who wrote about "The Great War," or World War I. Born in 1893, he enlisted in the British army in 1915 at the age of 22. In 1917 while hospitalized in England recovering from shell shock he met the poet Siegfried Sassoon, who encouraged Owen to expand his poetic voice to include his experiences in…
mementomori | November 19, 2006[Editor's note: The narrator has been begging me for months to let him post some poetry on this site, using the argument that unless we promote the world's greatest poems, the collective I.Q. of this country is going to drop to the level of people who buy books by O. J. Simpson. Out of respect for his opinion and feelings I have decided to allow the C. O. to share a poem every Sunday night. Here is his first offering.]
He Wishes For The Cloths Of Heaven
Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light…
mementomori | November 15, 2006I think there be six Richmonds in the field;
Five have I slain to-day instead of him.
A horse! a horse! my kingdom for a horse!
-William Shakespeare, Richard III
Optatio: expressing a wish, typically with earnest (if not fervent) desire.
The situation was disturbing, to say the least. After being bombarded with both chemotherapy and radiation therapy, not only had my patient's cancer survived, it had in all likelihood spread to his lungs. A chest CT revealed the suspicious lesions, some plastered up against the pleural lining like a mud dauber's nest, some floating in the lung parenchyma…
mementomori | October 29, 2006This may sound silly but I believe you aren't a true fan of Hallowe'en unless you stay up really late, turn out all the nights except one, plop yourself down into an old chair right next to a window - preferably one straining to hold back a wailing wind, and read one of the most famous horror stories of all time.
What is it? Oh, do not ask, dear readers.....it is too frightening to mention by name. Everyone has heard it before, though, and now is the time to shudder over it again.
Just click on this link to read it...and pleasant dreams....heh, heh, heh....
mementomori | October 19, 2006Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
-William Blake (1757-1827), The Tyger
Assonance: identity or similarity in sound between internal vowels in neighboring words.
Alliteration: repetition of initial consonant sound.
Blake's famous poem is an excellent example of the power of alliteration and assonance to jolt the reader awake, if not draw attention to the underlying meaning of the words on the page. These classical devices are a writer's best friend. By linking words together the writer lights an emotional…
mementomori | August 29, 2006"The true art of memory is the art of attention." -Samuel Johnson
An Open Letter to All Those Who Love to Read:
Have you ever got involved in a good book, be it a mystery, biography or even a delightful review of the geological history of Mothership Earth, set it aside for a few nights and then realized that you can't recall what is going on?
Pehaps you have forgotten which relative Sir David visited before he was found with a cord tightly woven around his neck, or maybe you lost track of Teddy Roosevelt's activities prior to his election as governor of New York. If you're like me your…
mementomori | August 1, 2006How embarrassing it is to reveal that I am probably the last bibliophile to read Jon Krakauer's classic narrative of the disastrous May 1996 expedition to Mount Everest. I knew it was wonderfully reviewed but have resisted the temptation to vicariously ascend the deadly peak, perhaps out of fear and loathing of the tragedy that occurred.
As a physician I found the most astounding aspect of this sorrowful trek was the climbers' ability to withstand punishing exhaustion and pain. The strength hidden within our bodies and our minds is almost unfathomable. It is the reason why prisoners of war…
mementomori | June 26, 2006"Jason's heart was strong within him, and he thought that with the help of the bright-eyed youths around and with the help of those who would come to him at the word of the voyage, he would bring the Golden Fleece to Iolcus and make famous for all time his own name."
All across the world researchers are continuously conducting experiments in an attempt to get cancerous tumors to do one or more of the following:
a. commit suicide (by the process known as apoptosis, although a vicious six-foot drop from a wooden scaffold wouldn't bring any tears to my eyes).
b. wound themselves, if not to…
mementomori | June 14, 2006Ozymandias
I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
`My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone…