Showing results by narrator "Denis Daly" in All Categories

Not all the young poets whose lives were cut short during the First World War were actual casualties of the conflict. James Elroy Flecker and Rupert Brooke both died in 1915, each leaving a body of finished work which places him in the ranks of the major poets of the 20th century. Brooke seems to have had a premonition of his untimely demise for a considerable period. The subject of death is very prominent in his verse, which, even in its most playful moments, is characterized by a profoundly elegaic quality.

A central theme of Ostrovsky's plays is the inevitable struggle between the demands of personal morality and and those dictated by social propriety. In this grim drama, the dramatist sketches a tragic incident arising from the conflict of two social classes: the petty tradesmen and the nobility. From the coarse environment of the first emerge honest, upright natures like Krasnov, the earnest shokeeper; from the superficial, dawdling culture of the second come weak-willed triflers like the ineffectual landowner, Babayev.

Solicitor, journalist, poet, and war veteran, Andrew Barton Paterson is today best known for his colorful and jingoistic verse, in particular The Man from Snowy River. Paterson's prose works include An Outback Marriage (1906), and Three Elephant Power and Other Stories (1917), the latter being a collection of tall tales and serious (but often humorous) reporting.

Thomas Troward was a divisional Judge in British-administered India who had a particular interest in the study of comparative religion. Influences on his thinking, as well as on his writing, included the teachings of the New Testament, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism. After his retirement from the judiciary in 1896, Troward applied himself to the study of cause and effect in the spiritual realms using the principles of judicial investigation.

This aggressive diatribe against the Bible was published in 1894 and is based on an assertion that formed the basis of many of Ingersoll's attacks on organized religion - the concept of divine inspiration and the evils that spring from this contention.

This meditation on artistic creativity was written during the latter months of 1815, during a sojourn on the border of Windsor Forest. Critics have concurred in the opinion that the anonymous hero of the poem is Shelley himself, who feared that he too would become an "inheritor of unfulfilled renown". Today, the poem is considered to be the first major work of Shelley's maturity.

Accusation is the unperceived catalyst for this dramatic narrative; Job is framed by the accusation that his self-invested allegiance to God will evaporate if he is exposed to adversity. Job is unaware that this wager against his integrity has taken place. The drama that ensues on an epic scale resonates with universal experiences of human suffering - from Job's searching questions, to the grating interventions of Job's friends, and the sense that human misfortune can seem contingent on the whim of unseen powers.

Although his output was small, John of the Cross (1542 - 1591) is considered one of the most important figures in Spanish poetry. All his verses explore the same theme: the search of the soul for union with its creator and the glory of the resulting "mystical marriage". This selection of 20 poems opens with his most famous poem, "The Obscure Night of the Soul" and concludes with a free translation of "Psalm 137 (By the Waters of Babylon)".

In his short life, Australian poet Barcoft Boake completed 30 poems, the most famous of which is the pastoral lament, "Where the Dead Men Lie", which was first published in the The Bulletin in December, 1891. This collection was prepared and edited by critic and anthologist, A. G. Stephens, who also appended a detailed memoir of the poet.

Have you been lately to Lake Pipple Popple? Perhaps you have spotted the Pobble who has no toes? Or maybe you have roosted in the Quangle Wangle’s hat? Certainly Mr. Edward Lear has (he’s written all about it). And now, you can listen to his tales read aloud, full of rhyme, rhythm, and words that you won’t find in the dictionary!

Unlike most of Peacock's novels, The Misfortunes of Elphin has a distinct plot, built around the adventures of prominent figures of Arthurian legend, like Taliesin, the bard, the princes Elphin, and Seithenyn and King Arthur himself. The drama comes to a satisfactory resolution when Arthur's wife, Gwenyvar, who has been kidnapped by the ambitious King Melvas, is restored to her husband, after some skilful negotiation by Seithenyn and a cunning abbot.

Unlike Peacock's other novels, Maid Marian has a substantial plot, based on the romantic legend of Robin Hood. As is usual with Peacock, the violence is presented in a rather humorous fashion and the characters indulge lavishly in eating and drinking. Beneath the veneer of this well-known and innocuous narrative, Peacock finds ample opportunity to satirize the foibles of church and secular government.

Hamlet and Macbeth are two of Shakespeare's best-known plays and contain some of the most famous speeches in world literature. These one-act versions of the plays, which were edited by J. P. Crabb (the details of whose life and other works have disappeared into obscurity) retain the significant monologues and dialogues while presenting a streamlined view of the action.

In this novella, set in the French Revolution, Leonid Andreyev explores the behavior of a people as it prepares to exchange one form of public servitude for another. As with most of the works of Andreyev, the mood is somber and reflects the author's extreme disillusion with the fallout from the Russian revolution, which he had initially greeted with enthusiasm.

The melodramatic romance by Goethe The Sorrows of the Young Werther, the story of a troubled aesthete who kills himself for love, was first published in 1774 and has since become one of the staples of German literature. Such extravagant productions lend themselves readily to parody and naturally attracted the attention of skilled satirists like Thomas Love Peacock.

Headlong Hall was the first of his seven novels, all of which display the same structure. There is a faint semblance of a plot, which is merely a device to bring together a bunch of voluble eccentrics, who converse on a wide range of topical issues. Headlong Hall is the rural seat of the ebullient Squire Headlong, who invites a number of philosophers, a clergyman, a musician, a novelist, and a phrenologist, to dine with him and share their views.

Although Rupert Brooke is known today as a "war poet", he was never actually engaged in combat: His death was the result of an infection from an insect bite that occurred while he was in transit to commence duty in Turkey. Unlike Wilfred Owen, who had a bitter experience of life in the trenches, Brooke's vision was of the glory rather than the horror of war. Only the first section focuses on issues stemming from the war. Poems in the other sections are generally wistful evocations of places that the poet had visited in his travels and reflections on youthful love.

Much of the life of Spanish mystic John of the Cross (1542-1591) was dedicated to the establishment and management of monastic institutions. Among his responsibilities was the provision of spiritual direction to clerics and also to prominent lay Catholics. The 18 letters in this collection cover a range of administrative and spiritual topics.

The Diamond Sutra is one of the most revered philosophical texts in Buddhist literature. It has long been very popular among Buddhists in China, and with the exception of the Lotus of the Good Law, and the Leng-Yen-Ching, perhaps no other Sutra ascribed to Buddha is held by the Chinese in such esteem.

This poem was composed in 1875 and 1876, but was not published until 1918. It is considered by many to be Hopkins' masterpiece. One hundred and sixty-eight passengers and crew died when the steamship Deutschland ran aground on the Kentish Knock. Hopkins weaves many Christian themes into his poetic retelling of the tragedy, including the inevitability of suffering, divine providence, salvation, and the hiddenness of God.