WHEN POETRY MEETS VISUAL ART: MILK AND HONEY

 

 

Hi, everyone! Have you ever heard of a contemporary poetess called Rupi Kaur?  I started to read her first book of poetry, Milk and Honey, at the beginning of the year and I found out a whole world in her poetry.

WHO IS RUPI KAUR?

Rupi Kaur is a Canadian poetess, illustrator, photographer, and author. She was born in Punjab, India, but, then,  her family  migrated to Canada, when she was 4. She began to do performing poetry in 2009.

GEORGE GRAY - CATCH THE WIND OF DESTINY WHEREVER THEY DRIVE THE BOAT

Here are Andrea's and Sofia's reflections of Edgar Lee Masters' poem, George Gray

ANDREA: REGRET IN GEORGE GRAY

This epitaph by Edgar Lee Masters wants to underline the irremediable despair of those who didn’t have the courage to face life in order to fully live it. The poem is written in free verse , without any rhyme nor structures of stanzas.

ALEXANDER THROCKMORTON AND THE PURSUIT OF GENIUS

In youth my wings were strong and tireless, 

but I did not know the mountains.

In age I knew the mountains

But my weary wings could not follow my vision

Genius is wisdom and youth.

(E.L. Masters, Spoon River Anthology, 1915)

Alexander Throckmorton is one of the protagonists of Edgar Lee Masters’ collection of poems Spoon River Anthology. Each poem tells the story of one of Spoon River’s citizens. All the protagonists,  now dead, confess their desires, ambitions and, above all, their regrets. 

The poem, composed by five free lines, is written in the first person. In the first line Alexander describes life as a flight whose destination is the “mountains”. These mountains stand for knowledge and experience. Instead,  the “wings”, which makes him able to fly, symbolise dreams, ambitions, desires, energy, and freedom.