The sweet (or sometime even harsh) notes of birdsong, the fragrance and colours of flowers around which bees buzz collecting nectar, delicate butterflies fluttering about, insects with iridescent colours—these sights, sounds, and scents are constantly at play around us but it is rarely, if at all that we pause to take note and appreciate them.…
Guest Post: Review: Old Dame Trot and Her Comical Cat (1860) by Anonymous #ReadingtheMeow2024
Starting off #ReadingtheMeow2024 with a guest post from my mother who found this cute vintage rhyme on fadedpage, a poem that turned out to have a rather interesting history. I found this vintage Rhyme Book on Fadedpage. Published in 1860, the Author is anonymous and so is the artist. Perhaps the writing and illustrations are…
Book Review: The Republic of Plato: Book 1 Remix by G. McLaughlin #NonfictionNovember
My thanks to Booktasters for a review copy of this book. In The Republic of Plato: Book 1 Remix, author G. McLaughlin makes the first book of Plato a quick and enjoyable read by rendering it into simple verse, while keeping the dialogic format and Socrates’ intricate arguments intact. Book one of the Republic broadly…
Guest Post: Book Review: Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats (1939) by T. S. Eliot #ReadingtheMeow2023
Today, for #ReadingtheMeow2023 I'm sharing my mother's thoughts on her third pick, Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats (1939) by T.S. Eliot, the second volume of pawetry to be added to Reading the Meow this week (the other is Jan's review of Cat Poems). * * * How can Cat Week be complete without a…
Poetry Post: The Eternal Cycle of Life #poetry #kipling
The cyclical nature of things—of time, of nature, and indeed of manmade things is the subject of Rudyard Kipling’s (1865–1936) ‘Cities and Thrones and Powers’, which also reflects on how then does one live life, with this knowledge that it must eventually end. This poem formed part of his collection, Puck of Pook’s Hill (1906),…
Adventures of Our Own Making: A Morning Dream by Eleanor Farjeon
Imaginary friends, cops and robbers, make believe—as children, our games, whether with friends or on our own, relied so much on our imaginations (do they as much these days, one wonders, with phones, tablets, and gadgets the chief sources of play and entertainment?) In literature too, Alice’s adventure in wonderland or for that matter through…
Winding Down
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com Nature moves cyclically--everything that starts also comes to an end. A moment, an hour, a day. As the sun rises each morning bringing with it new hope, a fresh start, every evening too, it sets, and then comes the time when all creatures and us humans too (at least we…
Squares, Bears, and Some Gentle Fun #Poetry #AAMilne
Bears--cute teddy bears to scary grizzlies--often make an appearance in children's stories--from Goldilocks who came upon the three bears' house in the forest (subject of a topsy turvy version by Roald Dahl) to Baloo in the Jungle Book, to Winnie-the-Pooh, and their relationship with 'literary children' has been described as rather 'ambivalent'.* Some are friendly…
The Grass is always Greener… #Poetry #FrancesCornford
From Danish Fairy and Folk Talesvia Wikimedia commonshttps://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Danish_fairy_and_folk_tales_-_a_collection_of_popular_stories_and_fairy_tales_(1899)_(14741908066).jpg 'The Princess and the Gypsies' by Frances Cornford tells of a conversation between a princess and some gypsies, narrated in the 'voice' of the Princess. One May morning, the Princess decides to lay down her crown 'And live no more like a queen', and so, still dressed…
Three Little Pigs–with a Twist!
The Pig Carrying the StrawSource: Leonard Leslie Brooke [Public domain] via wikimedia commons The Three Little Pigs is of course a tale familiar to us all--the story of ...er... three little pigs who go out into the wide world, in search of 'their fortune', and end up building houses for themselves, each with different material--straw,…
Literary Potpourri 