Williams spent his life as a doctor practicing pediatric medicine in northern New Jersey, a few miles west of New York City. During the work day, between seeing patients, he often dashed off poems on the backs of blank prescription pads that he kept in his pocket. This particular poem was written in just such a spontaneous way, after seeing the Russian Ballet perform in Manhattan. Each of the 16 readers in this collection took the challenge to make the same kind of leap – reading it spontaneously.
Lāčplēsis is an epic poem by Andrejs Pumpurs, a Latvian poet, who wrote it between 1872-1887 based on local legends. Lāčplēsis is regarded as the Latvian national epic.
The poem recounts the life of the legendary hero Lāčplēsis, chosen by the gods to become a hero of his people. His name means “Bear-slayer”. At the castle of Lord Aizkrauklis, he spies on the activities of the witch Spīdola(Spīdala), who is under the control of the Devil, and the holy man Kangars, who is in reality a traitor plotting to replace the old gods with Christianity. Lāčplēsis meets and falls in love with the maiden Laimdota and becomes friends with another hero, Koknesis (”Wood-bearer”).
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Williams was born in Rutherford, New Jersey, a community near the city of Paterson. His father was an English immigrant, and his mother was born in Puerto Rico. He attended public school in Rutherford until 1897, then was sent to study at Château de Lancy near Geneva, Switzerland, the Lycée Condorcet in Paris, France, for two years and Horace Mann School in New York City. Then, in 1902, he entered the University of Pennsylvania Medical School. During his time at Penn, Williams befriended Ezra Pound, Hilda Doolittle (best known as H.D.) and the painter Charles Demuth. These friendships supported his growing passion for poetry. He received his M.D. in 1906 and spent the next four years i...
L’Art d’être grand-père est un recueil de poèmes que Victor Hugo a publié en 1877. Suite à la mort de Charles Hugo, un de ses fils, et de sa femme, Victor Hugo prend en charge ses deux petits enfants Georges et Jeanne Hugo. Il écrit plusieurs poèmes illustrant les comportements et l’innocence reliée à ses petits-enfants qu’il élève seul et avec tendresse.
(Résumé par Wikipédia)
L’Art d’être grand-père (”The Art of Being a Grandfather”) is a series of eighteen poems by Victor Hugo, published in 1877. They were among the last he wrote.
On 13 March 1871, his 44-year-old son Charles died of a stroke, while riding in a carriage to a farewell dinner for som...