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A memorable poem about triumph over adversity.
At twelve, William Henley was diagnosed with tuberculosis. He lost one leg below the knee to the disease in 1868-69, and spent 1873-75 in an Edinburgh infirmary under Joseph Lister’s care. The battering experience drew from Henley one of the most quotable poems in our language, later dedicated to the memory of his friend Robert Hamilton Bruce.
Picture: By an unknown photographer, via Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.. Source.
Posted November 28 2024
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Jacques Cartier made history and made friends along the St Lawrence, but then threw all that goodwill away.
In the Spring of 1535, French explorer Jacques Cartier sailed up the St Lawrence River (so he named it) to Stadacona, near what would soon after become Quebec, and then further upriver to Hochelaga, which he named Montreal. Everything went well until winter came, for which the French were hopelessly unprepared.
Picture: © Katie Thebeau, Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 2.0 generic.. Source.
Posted November 28 2024
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Francis Bain’s alternative Adam and Eve story left its own question unanswered.
This ‘Indian fable’ is Indian only in the sense that Francis Bain was a professor of history at Deccan College in Pune when he wrote it. He sprinkled it with evocative images gathered from the Vedas, and claimed he had translated it from an ancient Sanskrit manuscript entrusted to him by a dying Brahman. Whether Bain expected anyone to believe him is unclear, but quite a few people did.
Picture: © Tapas Kumar Halder, Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 4.0.. Source.
Posted November 25 2024
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Bede died as he had lived, freely sharing all he had, and singing praises to God.
Bede, a monk at the monastery of St Paul in Jarrow, did as much as any prince to make England. Two centuries before the Kingdom came into being, his History of the English Church and People had begun to create the common English faith, culture and purpose that a united nation would need. His death in 735 was witnessed by a monk called Cuthbert, who wrote to his friend Cuthwine about it.
Picture: © Dunstan, Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 4.0.. Source.
Posted November 24 2024
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Cracking down on benefit claimants and migrant workers didn’t make Godfrey Bertram as popular as he expected.
In Guy Mannering, King George III has been pleased to appoint Godfrey Bertram, Laird of Ellangowan, to the magistrates’ bench. (“Pleased! I’m sure he cannot be better pleased than I am.”) The Laird at once gave up good-humoured tolerance and began sweeping the idle into work, the sick from their beds, and the ragged from the streets.
Picture: By William Home Lizars (1788–1859), via Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.. Source.
Posted November 21 2024
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One of China’s greatest poets reflects on silence, on speech, and on a song in the heart of a friend.
Po Chu-i or Bai Juyi (772-846) was a career bureaucrat in the Chinese government, national and regional, whose abilities and frank criticisms brought a head-spinning series of promotions and demotions. He is also one of China’s best-loved poets. Below are three of his many short poems, one playful, one protesting, and one a thoughtful tribute to his closest friend.
Picture: By an anonymous artist, via Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.. Source.
Posted November 19 2024