weekly posts on literature, languages, and learning
Emily Dickinson is one of the most celebrated American poets of the 19th century. Her numerous works—close to 1800 poems!—continue to impress contemporary readers by their freshness, unconventionality and captivating symbolism. Dickinson’s personal life was just as intriguing: she spent a good part of it in self-imposed isolation, raising many speculations regarding possible reasons for …
Continue reading "Films and documentaries on Emily Dickinson"
Looking for some peace and quiet? Robert Frost’s poem ‘A Prayer in Spring’ just might give you some inspiration. As I often mention in my poetry posts, try to read this poem out loud—it has a great rhythm that you might completely miss out on if you read it silently. And that would be unfortunate, …
William Carlos Williams (1883–1963) was one of the most important American poets of the 20th century: a modernist of the imagist kind, he was known for using simple and colloquial language to express his ideas—a feature many critics now consider typical of modern American poetry. This can be contrasted with the modernists such as T. …
Continue reading "‘Spring Storm’ by William Carlos Williams"
Whitman’s poem featured in this post is a very short one, originally published in the Herald newspaper on 12th March 1888. It just so happened that immediately after its publication, a major blizzard hit the state of New York, which made the poet’s timing rather unfortunate, and the subject of many jokes. It reminded me …
Dear friends and followers of the Grammaticus blog, I am happy to share with you the second title in the series of ebooks primarily designed for English language learners. After the successful launch of Hugh Walpole’s short story The Snow, this time you can enjoy a lovely piece of 19th century writing by the inimitable …
Continue reading "Free ebook: ‘A Morning Walk’ by Kate Chopin"
Annette Wynne was an early 20th century American writer of children’s poems. Her debut collection ‘For Days and Days: A Year-Round Treasury of Child Verse’ came out in 1919, followed by ‘Treasure Things’ in 1922. The short poem featured in this post is called ‘To an Old Tree’. It’s a lovely ode to the stoic …
Charles Turner Dazey was an American writer and playwright born in Lima, Illinois, in 1855. He wrote a number of successful plays, also leaving a mark in the early film history as a writer of numerous of silent films. He died in Quincy in 1938; sadly, his works quickly became forgotten. Charles T. Dazey I …
Randomly picked off a library book shelf the other day, Truman Capote's last work, Answered Prayers (posthumously published in 1986), was a first for me. Although I've been intrigued for a long time, I kept avoiding Capote, confident that I'd dislike his writing as much as I dislike what I'd known were his usual themes: …
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Amos Russel Wells (1862–1933) was an American scholar and Christian activist. He authored numerous works, including poetry, essays, young adult fiction and devotional writings. In this post we’ll read his poem “Some Questions for Saint Valentine’s Day.” You can tell that Wells was a classicist: addressing Cupid rather than the venerable Christian saint and martyr, …
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The Grammaticus blog is no stranger to the works of Sarah Orne Jewett. Her novella The Country of the Pointed Firs is one of my favourite books, and I wrote about it in the review accessible here. In this post we’ll read one of her winter-themed children’s poems: A Country Boy in Winter, first published …
Continue reading "“A Country Boy in Winter” by Sarah Orne Jewett"
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