Poets and Poetry
Posts in The Copybook tagged ‘Poets and Poetry’
William Cowper feels he has learnt more on one short walk than in many hours of study.
In Book VI of his groundbreaking poem ‘The Task’, William Cowper (‘cooper’) takes a lunchtime walk on a winter’s day. As he listens to the soft sounds of Nature, he reflects that for the thinking man time spent in the countryside is never wasted.
The scheming Iago warns Othello against falling victim to jealousy.
Othello, a General in the Venetian army, has promoted Cassio to Lieutenant instead of Iago; in revenge, Iago has hinted at an intrigue between Cassio and Desdemona, Othello’s wife. Othello is beside himself to hear more, but Iago teasingly clams up, as if worried about Cassio’s reputation.
Walking with his ten-year-old daughter on the beach at Calais, Wordsworth considers the energy of God moving in all things.
In 1792, a young William Wordsworth visited France and met Annette Vallon. The lovers had a daughter, Caroline, but were sundered when Revolutionary France declared war on Britain. Shortly before William married Mary Hutchinson in October 1802, with her encouragement William seized the opportunity of the Peace of Amiens to visit Calais for a seaside walk with his little daughter.
William Wordsworth watches a playful kitten, and makes himself a promise.
Cats have inspired a great deal of poetic affection, and here William Wordsworth adds his own tribute to our feline friends, drawn from a much longer poem written in 1804. One budding mouser playing with autumn leaves sets Wordsworth thinking about staying young.
Poet Percy Bysshe Shelley says that the pinnacle of political achievement is the government not of others, but of ourselves.
Percy Shelley’s sonnet ‘Political Greatness’ was published after his death by his widow, Mary. Shelley rejected any theory of social order based on coercion, whether by explicit legislation or by the tyranny of unbreakable custom. Humanity will never be served by mastering others; it is mastering yourself that is the true humanism.