Upon His Mistress Dancing by James Shirley

LibriVox volunteers bring you 23 recordings of Upon His Mistress Dancing by James Shirley (1596-1666). This was the Weekly Poetry project for January 15th to January 22nd, 2012.

James Shirley (sometimes spelt Sherley) was a prolific English playwright and poet who was active in the first half of the seventeenth century.
(Summary by Lucy Perry)

 

Running time=49s (mp3@64kb)

O Hollow! Hollow! Hollow! by W.S. Gilbert, from the opera Patience

LibriVox volunteers bring you 17 recordings of O Hollow Hollow Hollow by W.S. Gilbert (1836-1911). This was the Weekly Poetry project for January 8th to January 15th, 2012.

Here is a poem by the “fleshly” poet, Bunthorne, from the opera Patience, by Gilbert and Sullivan. Who better to introduce it than the poet himself:

BUNTHORNE. It is a wild, weird, fleshy thing; yet very tender, very yearning, very precious. It is called, “Oh, Hollow! Hollow! Hollow!”
PATIENCE Is it a hunting song?
BUNTHORNE. A hunting song? No, it is not a hunting song. It is the wail of the poet’s heart on discovering that everything is commonplace. To understand it, cling passionately to one another and think of faint lilies.

Bunthorne was considered to have been modelled on Oscar Wilde, but more recent reseach has suggested that this claim is not correct. ( Summary by Algy Pug )

 

Running time=1m 23s (mp3@64kb)

The Visionary by Ellis Bell (Emily Brontë)

Each week a poem is chosen to be recorded by as many LibriVox volunteers as possible.

LibriVox volunteers bring you 18 recordings of “The Visionary” by Ellis Bell (Emily Brontë (1818-1848)). This was the weekly poem for January 1st to January 8th, 2012.

The first 12 lines originally appeared in one of a large group of Gondal poems, the word coming from the name of a fictitious island kingdom in a fantasy created by Emily and her sister Anne. When Emily finally consented to have some of her poems published in 1846, along with those of sisters Charlotte and Anne, she selected parts of the Gondal poems and removed all reference to the fantasy land. However, this poem first appeared in a new, expanded edition of the sisters’ poetry (in 1850, after both Emily and Anne had died) and was apparently derived as follows:

“The Visionary (October 9, 1845)
This poem is part of the same Gondal poem from which Emily carved “The Prisoner. A Fragment.” Charlotte Brontë took lines 1-12 of Emily’s original poem, “Julian M. and A.G Rochelle,” and added 8 lines of her own. Thus, the positive ending in which the watcher has a spiritual experience is Charlotte’s and the watcher may be seen as Emily rather than a Gondal character. In Charlotte’s version, it is hard to explain the guiding light in the window of stanze 2.” (Source)

This account is fully supported by other sources. So the poem, as it was published in 1850, is a combination of work by Emily and Charlotte. Charlotte is accused by critics of using a heavy hand in editing some of Emily’s formerly unpublished poems for the 1850 volume. (Introduction by Leonard Wilson)

 

Running time=2m 8s (mp3@64kb)

2011 in review, courtesy of the number crunchers at WordPress

It’s not really very interesting, but it’s available, so I’ve made it public. Just “because”.

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for my blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 11,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 4 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

Welcome to 2012! 2011 was a bit rubbish, I’m hoping for better this year, doubt I’ll get it.

*sigh*

For me, 2011 was a bit of a disappointment. For others around this planet, it was a complete nightmare, and the drums never stop!
This year is the year of that Mayan prophecy that documentary channels have been warning (read “grabbing for ratings”) about and now the 2012 countdown is up, running and counting down … to our doom! Supposedly. Should be an interesting year then, and an even more interesting December.