National Poetry Month was inaugurated by the Academy of American Poets in 1996. Over the years, it has become the largest literary celebration in the world, with schools, publishers, libraries, booksellers, and poets celebrating poetry’s vital place in our culture.
Here are twelve poems that Glossophilia has collected over the past year in its “Poetry in Motion” series: click on the hyperlinks to see the image above in full.
In recent language news: a trilingual pop artist, singing trilingually; a dating trend gets a trendy name; a capital city changes its name; a typeface makeover; and more … Continue reading
Hat tip to Mary Rose on Facebook for bringing this to Glosso’s attention.
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I’ll be seeing you
In all the old familiar places
That this heart of mine embraces
All day and through
In that small cafe
The park across the way
The children’s carousel
The chestnut trees
The wishing well
I’ll be seeing you
In every lovely summer’s day
In everything that’s light and gay
I’ll always think of you that way
I’ll find you in the morning sun
And when the night is new
I’ll be looking at the moon
But I’ll be seeing you
I’ll be seeing you
In every lovely summer’s day
In everything that’s light and gay
I’ll always think of you that way
I’ll find you in the morning sun
And when the night is new
I’ll be looking at the moon
But I’ll be seeing you
— by Irving Kahal and Sammy Fain; song made famous by Billie Holiday
In memory of David, who died 10 years ago today.
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The Death of Caesar (1798) by Vincenzo Camuccini / Wikimedia Commons
Ides: The “middle day of a Roman month,” early 14th century, from Old French ides (12c.), from Latin idus (plural) “the ides,” a word perhaps of Etruscan origin. In the Roman calendar the eighth day after the nones, corresponding to the 15th of March, May, July, and October; the 13th of other months. “Debts and interest were often payable on the ides” [Lewis]. (from Online Etymology Dictionary)
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Caesar:
Who is it in the press that calls on me?
I hear a tongue shriller than all the music
Cry “Caesar!” Speak, Caesar is turn’d to hear.
Soothsayer:
Beware the ides of March.
Caesar:
What man is that
Brutus:
A soothsayer bids you beware the ides of March.
— from Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare
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Seen on the C train, Manhattan, March 11, 2019.
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Seen on the C train, Manhattan, 8 March
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Ellen Jovin / Facebook
In the news this past week: a grammar guru solves the world’s grammar problems on the streets of New York City; Jonathan Franzen gets Twitter’s knickers in a twist with his rules for aspiring writers; how Calvin Harris has managed to keep his accent; and Glosso is listed among 5 best blogs for language learning … Continue reading
Gelatin dessert / Wikimedia
With Bohemian Rhapsody becoming the second-highest grossing music biopic of all time, Freddie Mercury and Queen are back in the news and on the airwaves. There’s a word in the chorus of “Killer Queen” (“Mercury’s piano-led paean to a Moët-quaffing courtesan”*) that I’ve only just realized I’ve been hearing wrong all these years. And I had always assumed Freddie knew something I didn’t when he sang the French loan word. How could I have been so wrong? Continue reading
Wilfred Owen on Folkstone Beach; idea of Danny Boyle
Move him into the sun—
Gently its touch awoke him once,
At home, whispering of fields half-sown.
Always it woke him, even in France,
Until this morning and this snow.
If anything might rouse him now
The kind old sun will know.
Think how it wakes the seeds—
Woke once the clays of a cold star.
Are limbs, so dear-achieved, are sides
Full-nerved, still warm, too hard to stir?
Was it for this the clay grew tall?
—O what made fatuous sunbeams toil
To break earth’s sleep at all?
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