Showing results by publisher "Spoken Realms" in European

James Elroy Flecker, linguist, scholar, critic, poet, and diplomat, like his illustrious poetic peers, Wilfred Owen and Rupert Brooke, did not survive the First World War. All three died young: Owen and Brooke in the line of battle, and Flecker, who never fought due to a long-standing respiratory illness, in a sanatorium in Switzerland in 1915. Flecker's poems are generally short: none of his original verse works exceeds 1200 words in length. Flecker revised his poems regularly, refining their spare but telling verbiage and achieving simplicity and directness.

Much of Tennyson's poetry is elegiac in nature, featuring characters who have been disempowered by isolation, age, or lack of opportunity. One of the most famous examples of this is the dramatic soliloquy, "Ulysses". "Columbus", written many years later, is also a dramatic narrative. In both cases, the narrators are elderly mariners, who have a long history of daring forays into remote regions, and who are eager to venture forth again but are hampered by lack of opportunity and the effects of aging.

Like his great contemporaries, John Keats and Lord Byron, Shelley suffered an untimely death, but still managed to stun the world with a wide-ranging body of work, including poetry, drama, and criticism. His poetry is that of a young man, a lover of nature and fiercely critical of institutionalized corruption, and virtuosic in his use of language and imagery.

This lyrical ballad is one of Tennyson's most famous poems. The subject, the tragic passing of a reclusive noblewoman, was suggested by a 13th-century Italian romance, the Donna di Scalotta.

John Keats died in Rome in February 1821, at the age of 25. Shelley, who was to follow him to the grave the following year, was inspired to compose this pastoral lament, which consists of 55 Spenserian stanzas

This evocative poem was first published in 1832 but republished in 1842 with extensive alterations.

As with many of Ostrovsky's plays, the target of the author's satire is the merchant class and the inevitable corruption associated with mercantile endeavors. In Ostrovsky's bitterly realistic world, all personal encounters end in transactions, some humourous and some tragic.

First published in 1913, more than a decade after the author's death, Charmides and Other Poems is a collection including the long narrative poem "Charmides" (1881), and a number of shorter poems, and sonnets, many written when Wilde was at the height of his powers as an author.

This collection contains 21 reviews of artistic events and artifacts which originally appeared between 1877 and 1889. Clearly on display is Wilde's comprehensive knowledge of contemporary painting, fashion, and literature, as well as his capacity to create paradoxical aphorisms, which is such a feature of more substantial works like The Picture of Dorian Gray and The Importance of Being Earnest.

The Green Cockatoo is a short play set in a busy tavern on the night of the storming of the Bastille. Rich Parisian nobles come to watch some actors play at being rogues, thieves, and other criminals, but they quickly find reality and fantasy blending together in the most alarming of ways.

Parisina was first published in 1816. The tragic narrative poem is the sixth, and shortest, in the series of Byron's "Oriental Romances" or "Heroic Tales". Prince Azo, overhearing his wife, Parisina, muttering in her sleep, discovers that she is having an affair with his illegitimate son, Hugo. Parisina and Hugo were engaged to be married before Azo claimed her for his own bride. Hugo is sentenced to death, and Parisina is forced to watch the execution as her punishment.

Slowbridge's customs have been set in stone by Lady Theobald, who has decreed that young ladies should always wear white muslin to social events and that their only decoration should be fresh flowers - which invariably wilt by the end of the evening. Enter Octavia, bedecked in yards of lace and ribbons and with a profusion of diamond jewelry. She is soon informed that only married ladies wear diamonds in England. She makes other mistakes: Young ladies do not ask men to join them on terraces; they do not invite men to play croquet on their lawns.

"The Siege of Corinth" is a tragic narrative poem first published in 1816. It was inspired by the Ottoman siege of the Venetian-held Acrocorinth in 1715.

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.

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.

George Bernard Shaw embraced the concept of what he called creative evolution. In 1982, after having witnessed the horrors of the First World War, Shaw started work on Back to Methuselah, a large-scale presentation of the story of human development, starting from the Garden of Eden and extended far into the future. The first performance was held in New York in 1922. The five plays included are "In the Beginning", "The Gospel of the Brothers Barnabus", "The Thing Happens", "Tragedy of an Elderly Gentleman", and "As Far As Thought Can Reach".

The Frozen Deep was originally written as a play by Wilkie Collins and Charles Dickens. With Dickens himself gracing the stage as Wardour, the play was met with success, drawing audiences to tears night after night, and even performing for Queen Victoria herself. Drawing on reports of the real-life Franklin expedition of 1845, in which a crew had set out from England to discover the North Passage and disappeared without a trace, Collins and Dickens recreated the events of the ill-fated journey.

This play is a fictionalized account of the life of William Shakespeare, beginning from his humble origins in Stratford-upon-Avon with his wife, Anne Hathaway, to his life as a successful playwright in London. This play uses several biographical speculations about Shakespeare's life to tell a fascinating tale, such as his relationship with his wife (to whom he famously left his "second-best bed" in his will), his friendship with fellow playwright and competitor Christopher Marlowe, his interactions with Queen Elizabeth I, and an extramarital dalliance with the queen's maid of honor.

Idealistic parson's son Jim goes to sea thirsting for adventure as the mate of the pilgrim ship Patna. However, when disaster looms, Jim is persuaded by his crewmates to abandon the ship, leaving the vessel and hundreds of passengers to their fate. But with his life in ruins, Jim alone has the courage to face up to the public censure which follows, piquing the interest of Captain Marlow, who befriends Jim and relates the tale of the young man's attempts to come to terms with his guilt and make an honorable future for himself.

Count Lara returns home after a long absence abroad. He is accompanied by a single page, the faithful Kaled. In his youth, prior to his travels, Lara had led a dissolute life. On his return he is much changed - haughty, reserved, and world-weary. Nothing is known of his life in the interim. During an evening function given by the Count Otho, a local magnate, the host's cousin, Sir Ezzelin, angrily confronts Lara with accusations of unnamed crimes abroad. Otho intervenes and an appointment is made for the following day for the local nobles to hear and judge the accusations.