MetaFilter posts tagged with library and poetry

"I often read dozens of books simultaneously."

the man of twists and turns — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 00:22:22 -0800

My 6,128 Favorite Books - "Joe Queenan on how a harmless juvenile pastime turned into a lifelong personality disorder."

Bon à tirer

Lezzles — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 05:41:59 -0800

Gallica (the digital section of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France) has put Charles Baudelaire's heavily annotated proofs of Les Fleurs du Mal on line.

Thought Audio

nickyskye — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 22:47:24 -0800

Thought Audio is a small, simple and likable free library of classic literature and philosophy MP3 audio downloads.

"They were not true, those dreams, those story books of youth..."

steef — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 07:58:36 -0800

Dream Voices: Siegfried Sassoon, Memory and War: artifacts, manuscripts, and illustrations from the diaries and notebooks of the World War I poet, currently on display at Cambridge University Library (exhibition blog), with an accompanying Picasa gallery, and audio slideshow from the BBC.

What else is there besides matters of taste?

ersatz — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 07:59:28 -0800

It's almost as good as being at John Ashbery's home (bio) and there's more, including a preliminary inventory of his library* (search for "inventories" or scroll down). Ashbery's poetry is still very much invested in the reader's pleasure—more so than many supposedly "approachable" poets. You can hear him read his poems (more), watch him (here's -transcript- a brief taste and a half-hour video) or read a few of his poems. The Ashbery Resource Center has plenty of material including a list of Ashbery's cited influences. You can find more poems, reviews and pages on his work and be sure to click through to the Jacket feature. Skip to the conversation with Kenneth Koch about art and if you aren't satiated yet try this article, a TLS review of his latest or an older effort by the Boston review. Finally, you can see his collages and read an essay on John Ashbery's surrealism. For completeness' sake, here's an animated poem. *Yes!

Pandaemonium

spamguy — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 11:03:16 -0800

Milton turns 400 today. The Morgan Library celebrates by exhibiting the last surviving pages of Paradise Lost manuscript. Just you wait for the movie! More MeFi content on the quadricentennial, even if 10 months too early.

June 30th, June 30th

ikahime — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 19:59:52 -0800

30 years ago, Richard Brautigan's last collection of poems, June 30th, June 30th, was published. June 30th is a haibun (a poetic travelog in the tradition of Basho's Narrow Road to the Interior) of his time in Japan, a place he frequented in the 70s after his poetry sadly fell out of favor. A number of excellent tribute pages exist, as well as several fond memoirs & collected essays, not to mention a few imaginary libraries based off of his novel The Abortion: An Historical Romance. "The Hillary Express" I just ordered my first meal curry and rice all by myself in a Japanese restaurant. What a triumph! I feel like an infant taking its first faltering step. Watch out Mount Everest! Tokyo May 16, 1976