You are going to be taken on a slightly different journey with this article. I have yet another special guest who has graciously written something for me to share on this blog. Without further ado, I present to you my visitor and his thoughts (note to my guest: I'll pay you later for all the compliments you've added)...
Bed
Poets Society:
Well,
here we are nearly halfway through this crazy-ass year, still firmly
stuck in our (very slowly easing) Covid-19 lockdown world.
One
consequence of hour after hour of square eyed working from home is
the need to pursue other things which do not involve work, social
distancing and daily govt briefings.
So,
firstly, thank you to your esteemed blog host for allowing me to idly
witter away on her little bit of space in this virtual world –
clearly, Katrina, you are a woman of infinite taste and wisdom!
This
is going to be a post about poetry. Now, I agree this might not be
the norm for what’s actually a movie blog, but don’t panic dear
reader. There will be no actual poetry during this article.
This is more of a sideways look at the subject – phew, lucky
escape…
Everyone
knows about poetry, though, right? For many, it was that thing we all
spent interminable periods of time studying, with varying degrees of
success, at school.
Ah,
school, eh? Endless study, reading, notes, questions, repetition.
Enough to put anyone off poetry for life you’d think. For me it
pretty much did…bloody Wilfred Owen.
Nonetheless,
names such as Shakespeare, Wordsworth, and Shelley are known to many
and even if they’re not, most people will still have heard of at
least one or more famous lines of poetry. This even if they might not
have the first idea who would have written it.
Think:
“I wandered lonely as a cloud”, or “To be, or not to be”, or
“Hit me baby, one more time” (that one’s for you, Lady K!).
Many
of you reading this will have heard of Lord Byron. Some of you may
even have read or studied some of his poems. Bit of a character was
old George Gordon Byron, to give him his full name. So much so, that
he was once described as being “mad, bad and dangerous to know” -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Byron
.
Moving
away from the boys however, I wonder how many of you have ever heard
of Letitia Elizabeth Landon? Letitia who, I hear you say? Well,
Letitia (or L.E.L. as she was commonly known) was, in her time,
regarded as something of a celebrity poet who both mesmerized and
scandalised 19th century British society and public in
equal measure.
For
many years, she had been regarded as the most famous poet in the
country. Named as someone whose work was noted for its ‘lively
intelligence’ and ‘emotional intensity’ and yet, at the age of
36 she was found dead, in 1838, with a bottle of prussic (no, me
neither) acid in her hand, having apparently poisoned herself. Very
poetic.
Personally,
in spite of her huge profile for the time, I had never actually heard
of her before. Indeed, the only reason I know anything of her at all
is entirely down to wandering into Foyles bookshop in Grand Central
one lunchtime and seeing the letters L.E.L. staring back at me from a
new hardback about her that had recently gone on sale. Maybe a
comment on how overlooked female poets have been throughout British
history...
Anyway,
if you want to know more about the woman who was described in some
quarters as “the Female Byron” there’s plenty more about her
here -
https://daily.jstor.org/on-the-life-of-forgotten-poet-letitia-elizabeth-landon/
.
In
fact, at the risk of revealing even more poetry ignorances than I
have already, in terms of female poetry, I’d only ever really heard
of Maya Angelou, Sylvia Plath and Pam Ayres (ask your folks).
In
reality, of course, there are many, many
more! - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_female_poets
Anyway,
enough of this for now. Thank you, Katrina, for letting me loose on
your blog for a bit. Back now to rotating 15 different boxsets and
the ‘joys’ of WFH.
Now,
where did I put that book of limericks?
Written
by: Wayne
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