MetaFilter posts tagged with poetry

Enheduanna, the first poet we know by name

Kattullus — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 20:33:39 -0800

Enheduanna was a priestess and poet in the city of Ur in the 23rd century BC and supposedly the daughter of Sargon the Great of Akkad. She is the first author known by name. Here are a number of her poems in English translation, The Exaltation of Inana, Inana and Ebih, A Hymn to Inana, The Temple Hymns and A Balbale to Nanna. Here are two alternate translations of The Exaltation of Inana, one by James D. Pritchard and an English rendering of Dr. Annette Zgoll's German translation. If you want to learn more, go to The En-hedu-Ana Research Pages.

Wizard, as an ironist, you alone receive some sense of subjective freedom.

patricio — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 06:47:01 -0800

Review of Gauntlet (Atari, 1985) By Ross Sutherland and found via this awesome project

For I will consider my cat Jeoffry

kittens for breakfast — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 16:11:32 -0800

Poet Robert Pinsky presents an appreciation (and reading) of the most famous section of Christopher Smart's "Jubilate Agno" (1759-1763) -- the (epic) fragment devoted to the spiritual consideration of the institutionalized Smart's sole constant companion for the years of his confinement: Jeoffry (his cat). The word "epic" may not quite get across, for those unfamiliar with this poem, exactly what Mr. Smart hath wrought here. Allow me, then, to share its beginning with you: For I will consider my Cat Jeoffry. For he is the servant of the Living God, duly and daily serving him. For at the first glance of the glory of God in the East he worships in his way. For is this done by wreathing his body seven times round with elegant quickness. For then he leaps up to catch the musk, which is the blessing of God upon **his prayer. For he rolls upon prank to work it in. For having done duty and received blessing he begins to consider himself. For this he performs in ten degrees. For first he looks upon his forepaws to see if they are clean. For secondly he kicks up behind to clear away there. For thirdly he works it upon stretch with the forepaws extended. For fourthly he sharpens his paws by wood. For fifthly he washes himself. For sixthly he rolls upon wash. For seventhly he fleas himself, that he may not be interrupted upon the beat. For eighthly he rubs himself against a post. For ninthly he looks up for his instructions. For tenthly he goes in quest of food. For having considered God and himself he will consider his neighbor. For if he meets another cat he will kiss her in kindness. For when he takes his prey he plays with it to give it a chance. For one mouse in seven escapes by his dallying. For when his day's work is done his business more properly begins. For he keeps the Lord's watch in the night against the adversary. For he counteracts the powers of darkness by his electrical skin and glaring eyes. For he counteracts the Devil, who is death, by brisking about the life. For in his morning orisons he loves the sun and the sun loves him. For he is of the tribe of Tiger. For the Cherub Cat is a term of the Angel Tiger. (...)

Brindin Press, poetry translations

Kattullus — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 19:38:18 -0800

Brindin Press has lots of poetry translations into English online, concentrating on French, German, Italian and Spanish, though more than 40 other languages are represented as well. A boatload of translators is represented, from those toiling in obscurity to big literary names (e.g. there are translations of Catullus poems by Ben Jonson, Jonathan Swift, Louis Zukofsky, Aubrey Beardsley and Thomas Hardy). There is also a section of quirky poems. Finally, here's a rendition of Goethe's Der Erlkönig that substitutes the elfish king with a dalek.

Fou to You

PhoBWanKenobi — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 06:50:16 -0800

Fou Magazine's panda-themed third issue ("Best not viewed with IE. Best viewed with bamboo."), released Monday, combines gorgeous web-design with equally gorgeous poetry. Previous fox-themed and uh . . . yellow-themed issues are no less pretty.

Tethered To The Sun

dual_action — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 20:46:57 -0800

They are tethered to the sun. Ashley and Traci are neighbors who connect on issues such as desire, books, paintings, and photography. Ingoing. NSFW

Haiku Finder

mdn — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 17:03:23 -0800

words that seem boring
will become much more worthwhile
when viewed through this lens.
[via mefi projects]

Thousands of poems by women writers of the British Isles in the Romantic era

Kattullus — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 19:28:33 -0800

British Women Romantic Poets Project is a collection of poetry written by women from the British Isles between 1789 and 1832. Over a hundred female poets are represented. Women rarely feature in literary histories of the Romantic period but there is treasure if you search (some poems are, frankly, terrible). A few places to start are Charlotte Turner Smith's Elegiac Sonnets, and Other Poems, Christian Ross Milne's Simple Poems on Simple Subjects and Mary Robinson's sonnet cycle Sappho and Phaon. The oddest works to modern readers may be Elizabeth Hitchener's Enigmas, Historical and Geographical and Marianne Curties' Classical Pastime, which are collections of verse riddles (the answers are at the end of the text).

A conspiracy of theorists

Mr. Palomar — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 20:51:19 -0800

Several Twitter-based games were launched during the world's first Literary Twestival: Flash Fiction, Collective Nouns, Pass the Plot, and Project Twutenberg (via).

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

kenko — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 17:45:29 -0800

Primiti Too Taa is an animated excerpt from Kurt Schwitters' Ursonate. You can see the whole text, and hear the whole thing as voiced by Schwitters or many others, including a text-to-speech program and the author of Eunoia. The various performances are quite different; Christian Bök takes it extremely quickly, Jaap Blonk's 1986 version is very soft, and Adrian Khactu is more speechlike. Kun Jia's "Simultaneous Ursonate" is surprisingly musical.

Short Versions

Miko — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 20:09:36 -0800

Dissertation Haiku

Learn it, in the name of Science.

silby — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 09:35:31 -0800

Squid and Owl is a poetical, scientifical, graphical design project by John Holbo. Kind of Dr. Seuss meets Dave Eggers meets Bill Nye the Science Guy. [via Bruce Schneier's Friday Squid Blogging series]

Silent Conversation

litleozy — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 07:34:52 -0800

Silent conversation, a truly beautiful flash game that has you trying to touch as many words of a poem as you can. (Yes it does have Williams Carlos Williams) via bontegames

Facebook for Poetry

dylan20 — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 17:49:12 -0800

ReadWritePoem was a multiuser poetry blog until July 31, when it turned into a social network for poetry with forums, groups, subblogs and more.

Shatner Interprets Palin

CunningLinguist — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 12:29:44 -0800

Shatner Interprets Palin

In a nest, an egg, / small, white, empty. And somewhere, / a hawk, belly full.

filthy light thief — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 13:56:58 -0800

7x20 is a twitter zine, publishing 140-characters-or-fewer short stories and poems. [via mefi projects]

The Poet's Obligation

adamvasco — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 12:31:49 -0800

Exit wounds: - It is the poet's obligation, wrote Plato, to bear witness. With the official inquiry into Iraq imminent and the war in Afghanistan returning dead teenagers; Carol Duffy, recently elected UK Poet Laureate invited a range of her fellow poets to bear witness, each in their own way, to these matters of war. More about the poets inside: The Poets: - Clare Shaw; Jane Weir; Jo Shapcott; Carole Satyamurti; Sean O'Brien; Robert Minhinnick; Daljit Nagra; Alan Jenkins; Matthew Hollis; Ian Duhig; Amanda Dalton; Gillian Clarke; Fred D'Aguiar; John Agard; Carola Luther; and Paul Muldoon It's getting dark, but not dark enough to see An exit wound as an exit strategy.

Clerihews

Iridic — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 10:12:50 -0800

Sir Humphry Davy
Was not fond of gravy.
He lived in the odium
Of having discovered sodium.

This is the first example of the form that came to be known as the cler ihew. It's a biographical quatrain with a rhyme scheme of AABB. The first line uses the subject's name as a rhyme, while some element of their history occupies the rest of the stanza. The form aspires to wit, irreverence, and metrical irregularity:

Oscar Wilde Had his reputation defiled. When he was led from the dock in tears He said, "We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at two years." (Stephen Fry)

Edmund Clerihew Bentley, who invented the clerihew as a schoolboy, is best remembered today as the author of Trent's Last Case, cited previously on Metafilter as the 33rd best mystery novel of all time. Several clerihews by W.H. Auden Sarah Palin clerihews Clerihews on philosophers Clerihews on female poets of the Romantic era

How to Enjoy Reality

digaman — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 13:07:29 -0800

Rest in peace, Simon Vinkenoog [Dutch blog w/English option], poet, friend of artists like Karel Appel, translator of Beat Generation figures like Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac, psychedelic enthusiast and "weed ambassador" of Amsterdam, and author of such guides to hip living as How to Enjoy Reality. One of the European jazz-loving proto-hippies who made the '60s swing and mentored several generations of culture hackers, though he was never widely known in the US.

wetness ... pours onto my paper out of my pen

divabat — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 09:32:05 -0800

Suheir Hammad, a Palestinian-American poet and activist now based in New York, writes about being a Muslim immigrant and also a woman challenging conventions. Spotted by Russell Simmons for Def Poetry Jam, she has performed pieces about love in the time of war, exoticising beauty, and a touching ode to her father, among many others. Suheir has just produced and released her first feature film Salt of This Sea, up for the Cannes Films Festival and possibly an Oscar, and recently performed in Ramallah for the 2009 Palestinian Festival of Literature.

American Verse Project

Fizz — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 06:14:04 -0800

American Verse Project is assembling an electronic archive of volumes of American poetry. Most of the archive is made up of 19th century poetry, although a few 18th century and early 20th century texts are included. Notables Include: Edgar Allen Poe, Carl Sandburg, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Emily Dickinson (Series [1], [2], [3]), Hilda Doolittle (H.D.), James Russell Lowell. The full text of each volume is being converted into digital form and coded in Standard Generalized Mark-up Language (SGML) using the TEI Guidelines.(1) The volumes already online, which include books of poetry by a number of African-American and women poets, represent an interesting selection. In many cases, the texts selected are the only existing editions of the author's work.

Dairy Odes

carsonb — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 11:50:09 -0800

Oh cow, oh cow, what are you thinking?      Should I leave the gate open?
Are you content?                                     Would you be happy?
Do you yearn?                                         Would you turn feral?

Do you want freedom?                               Oh cow
Greener pastures?                                     Moo cow
A bull?                                                    Run free cow

The Online Dairy Ode Contest was a light-hearted, web-based, sister competition to the James McIntyre Poetry Contest. It was held at irregular intervals from 2001 to 2005. The only criterion for entry was that the poems had to be Dairy Odes; ie about dairy products, cows, or dairying.

C. P. Cavafy, demotic poet

Kattullus — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 09:37:10 -0800

The Cavafy Archive has translations of all of C. P. Cavafy's poems (go here for the Greek) except for the 30 unfinished poems, which have just recently been translated into English for the first time by Daniel Mendelsohn. His translations are reviewed in a lengthy essay by Peter Green in the most recent New Republic. Mendelsohn was interviewed on NPR's All Things Considered earlier this week. Late last year Mendelsohn wrote an essay about Cavafy in The New York Review of Books. The Cavafy Archive also has translations of a few prose pieces by Cavafy as well as manuscripts, pictures, translated letters & short texts and a catalog of Cavafy's library.

Typographic Mobiles

netbros — Sat, 30 May 2009 10:55:09 -0800

"I want our type to jump, scream, whisper and dance..." Ebon Heath and His Visual Poetry. "When I close my eyes I can see the words of great poets like Rakem or Tupac flying thru the air and dancing with the same physicality my body instinctually feels. My mobiles attempt to create a visual sense of rhythm and flow that is alive, not contained." This interview with Heath breaks down his Stereo.type and Purge projects. From the folks at Yatzer.com.

The influence of Edmund Spenser across two and a half centuries as traced through 25000 different texts

Kattullus — Wed, 27 May 2009 20:54:47 -0800

Spenser and the Tradition: English Poetry 1579-1830 is a mammoth database of English poetry and other writings that traces the influence of the great 16th-Century poet Edmund Spenser on English poetry across 250 years. There are roughly 25000 different texts on the site, over 6000 poems from famous classics to obscure ephemera, and further thousands of biographies and commentaries. Since it would take years to read all the material I am happy to say that there is a guide to navigating the database, an overview of its contents, a statistical summary and an essay on tradition and innovation. The immense database, which started life as a pile of index cards, was compiled largely by Virginia Tech Professor David Hill Radcliffe over the course of 17 years.