BY HOWARD NEMEROV
The house is so quiet now
The vacuum cleaner sulks in the corner closet,
Its bag limp as a stopped lung, its mouth
Grinning into the floor, maybe at my
Slovenly life, my dog-dead youth.
I’ve lived this way long enough,
But when my old woman died her soul
Went into that vacuum cleaner, and I can’t bear
To see the bag swell like a belly, eating the dust
And the woolen mice, and begin to howl
Because there is old filth everywhere
She used to crawl, in the corner and under the stair.
I know now how life is cheap as dirt,
And still the hungry, angry heart
Hangs on and howls, biting at air.
More and more, gay celebrities and celebrity-hopefuls are proudly coming out of the closet much earlier in, or even at the very start of, their careers.
Love at first sight is an experience and a common trope in literature in which a person, character, or speaker feels an instant, extreme, and ultimately long-lasting romantic attraction for a stranger on the first sight of them. Described by poets and critics from the Greek world on, it has become one of the most powerful tropes in Western fiction.
● romance
Romance or romantic a usually refers to romance (love), love emphasizing emotion over libido.
I apologize. / I owe you an apology.
I’m sorry. (identify the feeling with you)
● poetry
one of the three major genres of imaginative literature, which has its origins in music and oral performance and is characterized by controlled patterns of rhythm and syntax (often using meter and rhyme); compression and compactness and an allowance for ambiguity; a particularly concentrated emphasis on the sensual, especially visual and aural, qualities and effects of words and word order; and especially vivid, often figurative language.
Didacticism is a philosophy that emphasizes instructional and informative qualities in literature and other types of art. "Related to education and teaching", and signified learning in a fascinating and intriguing manner.
● dactyl
In quantitative verse, often used in Greek or Latin, a dactyl is a long syllable followed by two short syllables, as determined by syllable weight. In accentual verse, often used in English, it is a stressed syllable followed by two unstressed syllables—the opposite is the anapaest (two unstressed followed by a stressed syllable)
● spondee
In poetry, a spondee is a metrical foot consisting of two long syllables, as determined by syllable weight in classical meters, or two stressed syllables, as determined by stress in modern meters. The word comes from the Greek σπονδή, spondē, "libation".
● iamb
Originally the term referred to one of the feet of the quantitative meter of classical Greek prosody: a short syllable followed by a long syllable (as in "delay"). This terminology was adopted in the description of accentual-syllabic verse in English, where it refers to a foot comprising an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable (as in a-bove).
● trochee
A metrical foot consisting of a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed one in English, or a heavy syllable followed by a light one in Latin or Greek. Trochee comes from the Greek τροχός, trokhós, "wheel", and choree from χορός, khorós, "dance"; both convey the "rolling" rhythm of this metrical foot.
somewhere i have never travelled,gladly beyond
E. E. Cummings, 1894 - 1962
somewhere i have never travelled,gladly beyond
any experience,your eyes have their silence:
in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me,
or which i cannot touch because they are too near
your slightest look easily will unclose me
though i have closed myself as fingers,
you open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens
(touching skilfully,mysteriously)her first rose
or if your wish be to close me,i and
my life will shut very beautifully,suddenly,
as when the heart of this flower imagines
the snow carefully everywhere descending;
nothing which we are to perceive in this world equals
the power of your intense fragility:whose texture
compels me with the colour of its countries,
rendering death and forever with each breathing
(i do not know what it is about you that closes
and opens;only something in me understands
the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses)
nobody,not even the rain,has such small hands
Ottava rima is a rhyming stanza form of Italian origin. Originally used for long poems on heroic themes, it later came to be popular in the writing of mock-heroic works. Its earliest known use is in the writings of Giovanni Boccaccio.
● sestina
A fixed verse form consisting of six stanzas of six lines each, normally followed by a three-line envoi. The words that end each line of the first stanza are used as line endings in each of the following stanzas, rotated in a set pattern.
Terza rima is a rhyming verse stanza form that consists of an interlocking three-line rhyme scheme. It was first used by the Italian poet Dante Alighieri.
In poetry, a Ballad stanza is the four-line stanza, known as a quatrain, most often found in the folk ballad. This form consists of alternating four- and three-stress lines. Usually only the second and fourth lines rhyme (in an a/b/c/b pattern). Assonance in place of rhyme is common. Samuel Taylor Coleridge adopted the ballad stanza in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, alternating eight and six syllable lines.
an obligation to fulfill its exception
to demonstrate its personality or character
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed--and gazed--but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:
For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.
A rhyme scheme is the pattern of rhymes at the end of each line of a poem or song. It is usually referred to by using letters to indicate which lines rhyme; lines designated with the same letter all rhyme with each other.
● couplet
A couplet is a pair of lines of metre in poetry. Couplets usually comprise two lines that rhyme and have the same metre. A couplet may be formal (closed) or run-on (open). In a formal (or closed) couplet, each of the two lines is end-stopped, implying that there is a grammatical pause at the end of a line of verse. In a run-on (or open) couplet, the meaning of the first line continues to the second.
● quatrain
A quatrain is a type of stanza, or a complete poem, consisting of four lines.
Existing in various forms, the quatrain appears in poems from the poetic traditions of various ancient civilizations including Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, and China; and, continues into the 21st century, where it is seen in works published in many languages. During Europe's Dark Ages, in the Middle East and especially Iran, polymath poets such as Omar Khayyam continued to popularize this form of poetry, also known as Ruba'i, well beyond their borders and time. There are twelve possible rhyme schemes, but the most traditional and common are: AAAA, AABB, and ABAB.
● pentameter
a line of poetry with five feet: "Nuns fret | not at | their con- | vent’s nar- | row room."
● sonnet
a fixed verse form consisting of fourteen lines usually in iambic pentameter. An Italian sonnet consists of eight rhymelinked lines (an octave) plus six rhymelinked lines (a sestet), often with either an abbaabba cdecde or abbacddc defdef rhyme scheme. This type of sonnet is also called the Petrarchan sonnet in honor of the Italian poet Petrarch (1304– 74). An English or Shakespearean sonnet instead consists of three quatrains (four- line units) and a couplet and often rhymes abab cdcd efef gg.
● iambic
referring to a metrical form in which each foot consists of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one; this type of foot is an iamb. The most common poetic meter in English is iambic pentameter—a metrical form in which most lines consist of five iambs: "One cóm- | mon nóte | on éi- | ther lýre | did stríke" (Dryden, "To the Memory of Mr. Oldham").
● hexameter
a line of poetry with six feet: "She comes, | she comes | again, | like ring | dove frayed | and fl ed" (Keats, The Eve of St. Agnes).
● free verse
poetry characterized by varying line lengths, lack of traditional meter, and nonrhyming lines.
A new, 29.5-foot sculpture of Nelson Mandela is billed as the biggest statue of the former South African leader. It also has a tiny quirk: a sculpted rabbit tucked inside one of the bronze ears.
South African officials said Wednesday that they want the rabbit removed from the statue, which was unveiled outside the government complex in Pretoria, the capital, on Dec. 16, a day after Mandela’s funeral.
South Africa’s department of arts and culture says it didn’t know the two sculptors had added a rabbit, said to be a discreet signature on their work.
Mogomotsi Mogodiri, a department spokesman, says the statue “represents what everyone in South Africa is proud of,” and the rabbit must go.
● Vocabulary
di- stands for away
e.g. divorce/ differ/ divide
dic- stands for to say or to tell
e.g. predict/ diction
qua- stands for four
e.g. quarter/ quatrain
penta- stands for five
e.g. pentameter/ Pantagon
hexa- stands for six
e.g. hexameter
literally (adv.) [ˋlɪtərəlɪ]
definition: in the literal or strict sense
sentence: What does the word mean literally?
literature (n.) [ˋlɪtərətʃɚ]
definition: writings in which expression and form, in connection with ideas of permanent and universal interest, are characteristic or essential features, as poetry, novels, history, biography, and essays.
sentence: He majors in Russian literature.
metaphorical (adj.) [͵mɛtəˋfɔrɪk!]
definition: using words to mean something different from their ordinary meaning when describing something in order to achieve an effect
sensual (adj.) [ˋsɛnʃʊəl]
definition: pertaining to, inclined to, or preoccupied with the gratification of the senses or appetites; carnal; fleshly.
sentence: Primarily a food writer, she is more fixated on the sensual past than she is on any actions.
daffodils (n.) [ˋdæfədɪl]
definition: a bulbous plant, Narcissus pseudonarcissus, of the amaryllis family, having solitary, yellow, nodding flowers that bloom in the spring.
sentence: Attendees can enjoy live music and storytelling events throughout the day, and also purchase daffodil bulbs from local vendors.
flutter (v.) [ˋflʌtɚ]
definition: to flap the wings rapidly; fly with flapping movements.
sentence: The young bird fluttered its wings.
jocund (adj.) [ˋdʒɑkənd]
definition: cheerful; merry; gay; blithe
glee (n.) [gli]
definition: open delight or pleasure; exultant joy; exultation.
sentence: She was in high glee when she learnt the news.
circumstance (n.) [ˋsɝkəm͵stæns]
definition: a condition, detail, part, or attribute, with respect to time, place, manner,agent, etc., that accompanies, determines, or modifies a fact or event; a modifying or influencing factor
sentence: In normal circumstances I would have resigned immediately.
environment (n.) [ɪnˋvaɪrənmənt]
definition: the aggregate of surrounding things, conditions, or influences; surroundings; milieu.
sentence: Children need a happy home environment.
encounter (v.) [ɪnˋkaʊntɚ]
definition: to come upon or meet with, especially unexpectedly
sentence: I encountered great difficulties in learning English grammar.