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June Thunder
''June Thunder'' is a 28-line poem by Louis MacNeice. It was first published in book form in MacNeice's poetry collection The Earth Compels (1938). The poem begins with memories of idyllic summer days in the countryside - "the unenduring / Joys of a season" - before returning to the present and "impending thunder". ''June Thunder'' is written in a loose form of the sapphic stanza, with three lines set in falling rhythm followed by a shorter fourth line. The poem was anthologised in ''A New Anthology of Modern Verse 1920-1940'' (1941), edited by Cecil Day-Lewis and L.A.G. Strong, and ''Penguin New Writing'' No. 2 (January 1941). Themes Jon Stallworthy, in his biography of Louis MacNeice, links ''June Thunder'' to The Sunlight on the Garden, the poem that immediately follows ''June Thunder'' in MacNeice's 1938 poetry collection The Earth Compels. The two poems show MacNeice thinking along much the same lines and using the same imagery, with "birds", "sky", "garden", "thunder" a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Louis MacNeice
Frederick Louis MacNeice (12 September 1907 – 3 September 1963) was an Irish poet and playwright, and a member of the Auden Group, which also included W. H. Auden, Stephen Spender and Cecil Day-Lewis. MacNeice's body of work was widely appreciated by the public during his lifetime, due in part to his relaxed but socially and emotionally aware style. Never as overtly or simplistically political as some of his contemporaries, he expressed a humane opposition to totalitarianism as well as an acute awareness of his roots. Life Ireland, 1907–1917 Louis MacNeice (known as Freddie until his teens, when he adopted his middle name) was born in Belfast, the youngest son of Rev. John Frederick and Elizabeth Margaret ("Lily") MacNeice.Poetry Foundation profile Both were originally from the West of Ireland. MacNeice's fa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Earth Compels
''The Earth Compels'' was the second poetry collection by Louis MacNeice. It was published by Faber and Faber on 28 April 1938, and was one of four books by Louis MacNeice to appear in 1938, along with ''I Crossed the Minch'', ''Modern Poetry: A Personal Essay'' and ''Zoo''. The first edition of ''The Earth Compels'' has the following blurb on the flap of the dust jacket: "Mr. MacNeice's position as a poet was incontestably established in 1935 by his first volume of ''Poems''. He is one of the few poets to-day none of whose poems could have been written by anyone else. His second volume has been awaited for some time: now that it has arrived, it needs no advertisement." ''The Earth Compels'' is dedicated "To NANCY" (Nancy Coldstream, later Nancy Spender, with whom Louis MacNeice had an affair during 1937–38), and has an epigraph from a Greek tragedy MacNeice was then translating, Euripides' '' Hippolytus''. According to Jon Stallworthy, in his biography of Louis MacNeice, t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sapphic Stanza
The Sapphic stanza, named after Sappho, is an Aeolic verse form of four lines. Originally composed in quantitative verse and unrhymed, since the Middle Ages imitations of the form typically feature rhyme and accentual prosody. It is "the longest lived of the Classical lyric strophes in the West". Definitions In poetry, "Sapphic" may refer to three distinct but related Aeolic verse forms: # The ''greater Sapphic'', a 15-syllable line, with the structure: – u – – – , u u – , – u u – u – – –=long syllable; u=short syllable; , =caesura # The ''lesser Sapphic'', an 11-syllable line, with the structure: – u – x – u u – u – – x=anceps (either long or short) # The ''Sapphic stanza'', typically conceptualized as comprising 3 ''lesser Sapphic'' lines followed by an adonic, with the structure: – u u – – Classical Latin poets duplicated the Sapphic stanza with subtle modification. Since the Middle Ages the terms "Sapphic stanzas" or frequently simpl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cecil Day-Lewis
Cecil Day-Lewis (or Day Lewis; 27 April 1904 – 22 May 1972), often written as C. Day-Lewis, was an Irish-born British poet and Poet Laureate from 1968 until his death in 1972. He also wrote mystery stories under the pseudonym of Nicholas Blake. During World War II, Day-Lewis worked as a publications editor in the Ministry of Information for the U.K. government, and also served in the Musbury branch of the British Home Guard. He is the father of actor Sir Daniel Day-Lewis, and documentary filmmaker and television chef Tamasin Day-Lewis. Life and work Day-Lewis was born in 1904 in Ballintubbert, Athy/Stradbally border, Queen's County (now known as County Laois), Ireland. He was the son of Frank Day-Lewis, a Church of Ireland rector of that parish, and Kathleen Blake (née Squires; died 1906). Some of his family were from England (Hertfordshire and Canterbury). His father took the surname "Day-Lewis" as a combination of his own birth father's ("Day") and adoptive father's ("L ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jon Stallworthy
Jon Howie Stallworthy, (18 January 1935 – 19 November 2014) was a British literary critic and poet. He was Professor of English at the University of Oxford from 1992 to 2000, and Professor Emeritus in retirement. He was also a Fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford, from 1986, where he was twice acting president. From 1977 to 1986, he was the John Wendell Anderson Professor of English at Cornell University. Biography Stallworthy was born in London. His parents, Sir John Stallworthy and Margaret Stallworthy, were from New Zealand and moved to England in 1934. Stallworthy started writing poems when he was only seven years old. He was educated at the Dragon School, Rugby School and at Magdalen College, Oxford, where he won the Newdigate prize. His works include seven volumes of poetry, and biographies of Wilfred Owen and Louis MacNeice. He edited several anthologies and is particularly known for his work on war poetry. While researching the local history of New Zealand St ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Sunlight On The Garden
''The Sunlight on the Garden'' is a 24-line poem by Louis MacNeice. It was written in late 1936 and was entitled ''Song'' at its first appearance in print, in The Listener magazine, January 1937. It was first published in book form as the third poem in MacNeice's poetry collection The Earth Compels (1938). The poem explores themes of time and loss, along with anxiety about the darkening political situation in Europe following the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. It is one of the best known and most anthologized of MacNeice's short poems. George MacBeth describes it as "one of MacNeice's saddest and most beautiful lyrics". Biographical background According to Jon Stallworthy, Louis MacNeice wrote ''The Sunlight on the Garden'' as a "love-song" for his first wife, Mary Ezra, shortly after their divorce was finalised in November 1936. Mary had left MacNeice for Charles Katzman in November 1935, and she followed Katzman to America early the next year. MacNeice was initially "dev ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Autumn Journal
''Autumn Journal'' is an autobiographical long poem in twenty-four sections by Louis MacNeice. It was written between August and December 1938, and published as a single volume by Faber and Faber in May 1939. Written in a discursive form, it sets out to record the author's state of mind as the approaching World War II seems more and more inevitable. Fifteen years later, MacNeice attempted a similar personal evaluation of the post-war period in his ''Autumn Sequel''. "There will be time to audit the accounts later" While MacNeice was still revising his long poem, he sent a tentative description of it to T. S. Eliot at Faber and Faber for publicity purposes. This mentioned that it was "written from August to December 1938" and contained 24 "sections averaging about 80 lines in length. This division gives it a ''dramatic'' quality, as different parts of myself … can be given their say in turn". In addition "it is written throughout in an elastic kind of quatrain. This form (a) give ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Beech
Beech (''Fagus'') is a genus of deciduous trees in the family Fagaceae, native to temperate Europe, Asia, and North America. Recent classifications recognize 10 to 13 species in two distinct subgenera, ''Engleriana'' and ''Fagus''. The ''Engleriana'' subgenus is found only in East Asia, distinctive for its low branches, often made up of several major trunks with yellowish bark. The better known ''Fagus'' subgenus beeches are high-branching with tall, stout trunks and smooth silver-grey bark. The European beech (''Fagus sylvatica'') is the most commonly cultivated. Beeches are monoecious, bearing both male and female flowers on the same plant. The small flowers are unisexual, the female flowers borne in pairs, the male flowers wind-pollinating catkins. They are produced in spring shortly after the new leaves appear. The fruit of the beech tree, known as beechnuts or mast, is found in small burrs that drop from the tree in autumn. They are small, roughly triangular, and edible, w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gorse
''Ulex'' (commonly known as gorse, furze, or whin) is a genus of flowering plants in the family Fabaceae. The genus comprises about 20 species of thorny evergreen shrubs in the subfamily Faboideae of the pea family Fabaceae. The species are native to parts of western Europe and northwest Africa, with the majority of species in Iberia. Gorse is closely related to the brooms and like them has green stems and very small leaves and is adapted to dry growing conditions. However it differs in its extreme thorniness, the shoots being modified into branched thorns long, which almost wholly replace the leaves as the plant's functioning photosynthetic organs. The leaves of young plants are trifoliate, but in mature plants they are reduced to scales or small spines. All the species have yellow flowers, generally showy, some with a very long flowering season. Species The greatest diversity of ''Ulex'' species is found in the Iberian Peninsula, and most species have narrow distributio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marlborough College
Marlborough College is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school (English Independent school (United Kingdom), independent boarding school) for pupils aged 13 to 18 in Marlborough, Wiltshire, England. Founded in 1843 for the sons of Church of England clergy, it is now Mixed-sex education, co-educational. For the academic year 2015/16, Marlborough charged £9,610 per term for day pupils, making it the most expensive day school in the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference (HMC) – the association of British independent schools. The ''Good Schools Guide'' described Marlborough as a "famous, designer label, co-ed boarding school still riding high." The school is a member of the G20 Schools Group. A sister school in Johor, Malaysia opened in 2012. History Founded in 1843 for the education of the sons of Church of England clergy, the school now accepts both boys and girls of all beliefs. Currently there are just over 900 pupils, approximately 45% of whom are female. New p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Graham Shepard
Graham Howard Shepard (1907–20 September 1943) was an English illustrator and cartoonist. He was the son of Ernest H. Shepard, the illustrator of ''Winnie-the-Pooh'' and ''The Wind in the Willows''. He was educated at Marlborough College and Lincoln College, Oxford. At Marlborough he was a member of the college's secret 'Society of Amici'Paths of Progress: A History of Marlborough College by Rt Hon Peter Brooke MP and Thomas Hinde where he found himself a contemporary of John Betjeman and Anthony Blunt, and a close friend of Louis MacNeice. MacNeice's "He had a date" (1943) is loosely based on the life and death of Shepard. At Oxford he was also a contemporary and friend of MacNeice and Osbert Lancaster. Following in his father's footsteps, he became an illustrator and cartoonist, working for the ''Illustrated London News''. Shepard served in the RNVR during World War II. Lieutenant Shepard was lost along with all but one crew member when their ship, HMS ''Polyanthus'', was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stanza
In poetry, a stanza (; from Italian language, Italian ''stanza'' , "room") is a group of lines within a poem, usually set off from others by a blank line or Indentation (typesetting), indentation. Stanzas can have regular rhyme scheme, rhyme and Metre (poetry), metrical schemes, but they are not required to have either. There are many different : Stanzaic form, forms of stanzas. Some stanzaic forms are simple, such as four-line quatrains. Other forms are more complex, such as the Spenserian stanza. Fixed verse, Fixed verse poems, such as sestinas, can be defined by the number and form of their stanzas. The stanza has also been known by terms such as ''batch'', ''fit'', and ''stave''. The term ''stanza'' has a similar meaning to ''strophe'', though ''strophe'' sometimes refers to an irregular set of lines, as opposed to regular, rhymed stanzas. Even though the term "stanza" is taken from Italian, in the Italian language the word "strofa" is more commonly used. In music, groups of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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