Tag Archives: The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

Caffeinated Links: Emma Watson and Miles Teller Costar, 10 Most Anticipated 2015 Poetry Books

books poetry lit January 16, 2015 Leave a comment

Miles-Teller whiplash

Emma Watson and Miles Teller are almost certainly going to star together in Damian Chazelle’s next project, an oldschool MGM-style musical set in LA called La La Land. Damian Chazelle’s Whiplash, which was my favorite movie of 2014 along with Guardians of the Galaxy, just got five Oscar nominations. Emma Watson is one of my favorite people for her fierce, poised, intelligent self, and Miles Teller is my favorite 20-something actor after his knockout, charismatic, incredibly human performance as a drummer prodigy in Whiplash. THIS is a dream. RT

Flavorwire has the 10 Most Anticipated Poetry Books of 2015. “Although many books aren’t slated until later in the first quarter, 2015 is already shaping up to be a major year for American poetry, especially with the return of favorites like Mary Jo Bang, new collected works from masters like Jorie Garaham, and a book from perhaps our greatest living poet, John Ashbery. Add to this mix the rediscovery (or first translation) of forgotten yet undeniably major poets like Alejandra Pizarnik and the arrival of younger poets like Uljana Wolf, and it’s clear that poetry in America is firing on all cylinders.” RT

Flavorwire also killed it with a beautiful retrospective on T.S. Eliot’s quintessential “The Love Song of J.Alfred Prufrock.” “Thomas Stearns Eliot began writing “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” in 1910, at the age of twenty-two. The poem was published five years later, when Ezra Pound, whom Eliot met and befriended as an expatriate in Europe, sent it to Poetry in Chicago, adding: “This is as good as anything I’ve ever seen.” This year, then, marks the 100 year anniversary of Prufrock’s imaginative journey into the half-deserted streets, the one-night cheap hotels, and the chambers of the sea.” RT

Blinkboxx Books created an infographic of the ages at which famous authors were first published and first hit it big, respectively, and it’s  both fascinating and highly encouraging for aspiring novelists. “Haruki Murakami hitting his stride at 34 with A Wild Sheep Chase and Gabriel Garcia Marquez penning One Hundred Years of Solitude at 41, so don’t give up hope yet—or ever.” RT

Benedict Cumberbatch talks baby names with Ellen Degeneres. RT

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

books poetry lit July 8, 2014 Leave a comment

Throwback time.

sea2

S’io credesse che mia risposta fosse
A persona che mai tornasse al mondo,
Questa fiamma staria senza piu scosse.
Ma perciocche giammai di questo fondo
Non torno vivo alcun, s’i’odo il vero,
Senza tema d’infamia ti rispondo.

LET us go then, you and I,
When the evening is spread out against the sky
Like a patient etherized upon a table;
Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets,
The muttering retreats
Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels
And sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells:
Streets that follow like a tedious argument
Of insidious intent
To lead you to an overwhelming question….
Oh, do not ask, “What is it?”
Let us go and make our visit.

In the room the women come and go
Talking of Michelangelo.

The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes,
The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes
Licked its tongue into the corners of the evening,
Lingered upon the pools that stand in drains,
Let fall upon its back the soot that falls from chimneys,
Slipped by the terrace, made a sudden leap,
And seeing that it was a soft October night,
Curled once about the house, and fell asleep.

Continue reading →

Caffeinated Links: Catching Fire Book Cover, T.S. Eliot, Inside Llewyn Davis Music

art & illustration, books poetry lit, this & that December 2, 2013 Leave a comment

animatedhungergames

Julian Peters’ illustrations of T.S. Eliot’s The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock are among the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen. RT

This “book covers come to life” – animated book covers – series is not just breathtaking, but also the way of the future – one day very soon we’ll walk into bookstores and the book covers will be animated. RT

Millenials in American aren’t the only ones desperate for jobs – it’s the same in Europe, according the New York Times writing about a generation “Young and Educated in Europe, but Desperate for Jobs”

100 Notable Books from 2013, RT

Ruth Engel reviews the Inside Llewyn Davis soundtrack – “The album itself is lovely – Oscar Isaac’s voice is so compelling that I’m sure his performance in the movie will be beyond reproach even if he doesn’t act at all. It includes a number of instantly recognizable folk standards, including one of my all-time favorites,” 500 Miles.” Marcus Mumford collaborates on an aching version of “Fare Thee Well (Dink’s Song)” that contains no frenetic banjo strumming, and Chris Thile and the Punch Brothers bring warmth and a fiddle into the mix.” RT