For many in Europe the focus has shifted west to the Americas, both by settlement and by war against the indigenous tribes. And then between themselves.Democracy would be reborn by the American War of Independence. In the East India becomes the stage for further expansion. For our wordsmiths the world had become a wider page on which to write their thoughts. Coleridge, Pope, Southey, Wordsworth speak with lyrical eloquence on subjects both great and small. But always form the heart...

Sometimes we just want the best. But that involves choices, judgements, decisions. And that all depends on our feelings, our mood at the time.Even more so with Poetry. Would we like a little more pathos, or love, or humour with that? Can we only choose one Keats? And ’If’? Surely Kipling wrote something else?So difficult to decide. This one or that? Is it easier to choose your fifty favourite poets or your fifty favourite poems?The argument can go on forever, certai...

In England summer evenings remind us of the falling of the light, of village greens and the thump of willow on leather. In winter, evenings are dark, unlit and a time to be inside.The evening light, of twilight, of sunset, has another name in the movie business. They call it ‘magic hour’ and sometimes it is just that. The heavy, golden light suffuses everything with a glow and fullness that gladdens our hearts and delights our eyes.For our poets this was a time of mystery a...

The stereotypical image of a poet is one of unknown talent starving in a garret and who’s faithfulness and legacy to the art is discovered only after their death.In some cases this is undoubtedly true, but Poets being human and with the same building blocks of physical and mental health as the rest of us, also had the same afflictions and problems as the rest of us.The long roll call of names and the truncated legacies that were left behind is filled with these lost talents...

The year reaches its end with the Twelfth month. The landscape may be bleak, a sculpture of lines, monochrome dominates. The air carries the sounds of winter; wind, storms, silence.1 - Fifty Shades of January - An Introduction2 - Month of January by Hilaire Belloc3 - Ode Written on 1st of January by Robert Southey4 - Written January 1st, 1832 by Henry Alford5 - January Cold Desolate by Christina Georgina Rossetti6 - January 1st, 1828 by Natha...

Gibran Khalil Gibran was born on 6th January 1883 in the village of Bsharri, Beirut Vilayet, then part of the Ottoman EmpireHis mother took him and his siblings to the United States in 1895 where he was enrolled into a Boston school and his creative talents soon noted. He was sent home to be schooled at the Collège de la Sagesse in Beirut but returned to Boston following the death of his youngest sister in 1902. Within a year his mother had also died.In 1904, Gibran's drawi...

One of the ‘truths’ about writers is that after a successful first book the agonies of the second devour both time and talent. For Daniel Sheehan that seems to have been turned on its head. Rather than go forward it was easier to look back, to dredge rather than furrow, gathering words, lines and phrases from the past and re-fashioning, distilling and evolving poems of simplicity, complexity, light and dark. Sometimes very dark.His work is often characterized by a modern, intimate,...

Today perhaps we all agree that youth is spoilt, ill-disciplined and in search of constant, and instant, gratification. No matter how much we love them, our children, as they mature from child to youth, are pampered.A century ago, and even further back, even the most privileged of youth was rarely indulged. In this volume we look at those years of youth through the eyes and pens of classic poets. They reveal times of hardship, of fear, of love and loss.But youth is idealist...

William Wordsworth was born on 7 April, 1770 in Cockermouth, in Cumbria, northwest England.Wordsworth spent his early years in his beloved Lake District often with his sister, Dorothy. The English lakes could terrify as well as nurture, and as Wordsworth would write “I grew up fostered alike by beauty and by fear,”After being schooled at Hawkshead he went to St. John’s College, Cambridge but not liking the competitive nature of the place idled his way through saying he “was...

Marguerite Radclyffe-Hall was born on August 12th, 1880 to wealthy parents who separated while she was still an infant. Her parents thereafter paid little attention to her. Hall was educated privately, and then at King’s College London. Later she travelled to Europe, settling in Dresden, Germany. With the death of her paternal grandfather she inherited a large estate and was then able to live as she pleased.In Germany, Hall met Mabel Batten and fell in love despite the twenty-three...

The sun has descended below the far horizon. The inky blackness of night begins to envelop the land. Day has gone and the nocturnal times reveal themselves. But above the dark blanket the moon, whether waxing or waning, stands sentry and around it vast clouds and swirls of stars regiment themselves. We look up in awe and wonder, frail beneath their vista.Our gloried poets are on hand though to capture word and deed, emotion and feeling, friend and foe. Among our ranks of astounding...

When the wind blows and the rain lashes our emotions can become dulled and our thoughts depressed but sometimes these swirling conditions can excite and invigorate. Whether we shut the door physically or delight in watching nature's displays, we cannot ignore the weather. It’s the natural topic of conversation for the British. Summer breezes and spring showers can elevate our senses bringing a thump to the heart, a grin to the face and an abandon to immerse yourself in nature's ever changi...