Easter 1916 - William Butler Yeats Reading

The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

click on link above to hear a reading of the poem at Poets.org

Shakespeare Sonnet #3 Performed by Joe LaRue

Notes from YouTube - #3 is saying: take a good long look at yourself and ask: why haven't you had a kid yet? where is there any hot chick who doesn't want to screw you? is it because you're so in love with yourself? ok, here's yet another reason to have a kid - so that when you get older, you can look at that kid and relive your own beauty and youth through it, the same way your mother does with you now.

music: joni mitchell "both sides"

Shakespeare's use of Oxymorons in Romeo and Juliet

Romeo and Juliet Art Print
Dicksee, Sir...
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Oxymorons are used in Shakespeare's 'Romeo and Juliet' when Romeo is describing to Benvolio how much he loves Rosaline:

Romeo. Why then, O brawling love! O loving hate!
O anything of nothing first create,
A heavy lightness, serious vanity,
Misshapen chaos of well-seeming forms,
Feather of lead…


Juliet also uses oxymorons after having found out about her cousins death at the hands of Romeo she says:

O serpent heart, hid with a flow'ring face!
Beautiful tyrant, fiend angelical'
Dove-feathered raven,wolfish ravening lamb'
A damned saint, an honourable villain

Sonnet from the Portuguese 44 audio version

Sonnet from the Portuguese 44: How do I Love thee?
click title to hear the audio version @ poetryfoundation.org

By Elizabeth Barrett Browning

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of being and ideal grace.
I love thee to the level of every day’s
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints. I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.





Elizabeth Barrett Browning Giclee Print

Galloway, Ewing


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Because I could not stop for death- Emily Dickinson

There are several versions of this poem, this is my favorite one;

Because I could not stop for death

Because I could not stop for Death,
He kindly stopped for me;
The carriage held but just ourselves
And Immortality.
We slowly drove, he knew no haste,
And I had put away
My labor, and my leisure too,
For his civility.

We passed the school, where children strove
At recess, in the ring;
We passed the fields of gazing grain,
We passed the setting sun.

Or rather, be passed us;
The dews grew quivering and chill,
For only gossamer my gown,
My tippet only tulle.

We paused before house that seemed
A swelling of the ground;
The roof was scarcely visible,
The cornice but a mound.

Since then 'tis centuries, and yet each
Feels shorter than the day
I first surmised the horses' heads
Were toward eternity.

By Her Aunt's Grave by Thomas Hardy

'Sixpence a week', says the girl to her lover,
'Aunt used to bring me, for she could confide
In me alone, she vowed. 'Twas to cover
The cost of her headstone when she died.
And that was a year ago last June;
I've not yet fixed it. But I must soon.'

'And where is the money now, my dear?'
'O, snug in my purse... Aunt was so slow
In saving it—eighty weeks, or near.'...
'Let's spend it,' he hints. 'For she won't know.
There's a dance to-night at the Load of Hay.'
She passively nods. And they go that way.

by Thomas Hardy. Public Domain.

See You Later Alligator

See you later Dad,

And it seemed that she was sad.

See you later Alligator,

After while Crocodile,

My little starry eyed woman child,

With your nappy hair and your big smile,

Go and go with style,

And when you have walked that mile,

Sit and rest a while.

When you have gone around that track,

Lugging that baggage in a big old pack,

Or if life won't cut you slack,

You may not even know how to react.

Think of home but don't look back.

Taylor Mali on what teachers make Video

Notes from YouTube; - Taylor Mali, slam poet, gives his mind on what teachers make.

Quote of the Day - John Keats

Poetry should please by a fine excess and not by singularity. It should strike the reader as a wording of his own highest thoughts, and appear almost as a remembrance.

John Keats (1795 - 1821)

Jack Kerouac- American Haiku

Jack Kerouac - American Haiku

And Still I Rise - Maya Angelou Video

Notes from YouTube; Maya Angelou has steadily written poetry over the years. In this video Professor Angelou recites her poem, "And Still I Rise," from her volume of poetry And Still I Rise, published in 1978.

Poetry by Langston Hughes - The Weary Blues

Poetry by Langston Hughes - The Weary Blues


Notes from YouTube; One of 25 video poems in Four Seasons Productions upcoming Moving Poetry Series - Three innovative new films - RANT * RAVE * RIFF. The Weary Blues was written by Langston Hughes in 1923 and recited in our film by author and Harvard Professor Dr. Allen Dwight Callahan. Learn more about this provocative new series, featured poems, poets and readers at www.4SeasonsProductions.com.

Allen Ginsberg at megatripolis reading Hum Bom

Notes from YouTube; Allen Ginsberg - at megatripolis UK reading his poem 'Hum Bom!' on October 19 1995, HEAVEN nightclub, London. Shot by Steve Teers, Diva Pictures (www.divapix.co.uk).

This clip was Mr Ginsberg's final public stage reading in the UK at the megatripolis underground club-night which ran in London between 1993-96. At the reading was an audience of about 1000 people. There was also a Q + A session later in the club.

More clips at www.allenginsbergdvd.com and www.myspace.com/allenginsbergliveinlondo . A memorable, brilliant night. Many thanks Tom Pickard, poet, Lee Harris, crew. This clip taken from the DVD 'Allen Ginsberg Live in London ' a film made of that evening.

Allen Ginsberg at megatripolis

Sylvia Plath Reads 'Daddy'

Sylvia Plath Reads 'Daddy'