Archiver pour octobre 2014
Posté le 21 octobre 2014 - par therhythmofwords
Mamie
Hello !
This week, I would like to present to you a poem by Carl Sandburg. It is about a woman who always dreamt of another life. First, she lived in a little Indianan city. However, she no longer wanted to live there. She dreamt of « romance and big things ». So much that she left for the city of her dreams: Chicago. She began to work in the basement of the Boston store, a big shop. Once again, she didn’t like the place and she wanted to leave. Is there any place where she could be fine ?
Carl Sandburg is an American poet born in 1878 and dead in 1967. He was a reporter for the Chicago Daily News. Other famous poems are « Chicago » and « Fog ». He won an American price twice, the Pulitzer. (It was also for his biography of Abraham Lincoln.)
Mamie
Mamie beat her head against the bars of a little Indiana
town and dreamed of romance and big things off
somewhere the way the railroad trains all ran.
She could see the smoke of the engines get lost down
where the streaks of steel flashed in the sun and
when the newspapers came in on the morning mail
she knew there was a big Chicago far off, where all
the trains ran.
She got tired of the barber shop boys and the post office
chatter and the church gossip and the old pieces the
band played on the Fourth of July and Decoration Day
And sobbed at her fate and beat her head against the
bars and was going to kill herself
When the thought came to her that if she was going to
die she might as well die struggling for a clutch of
romance among the streets of Chicago.
She has a job now at six dollars a week in the basement
of the Boston Store
And even now she beats her head against the bars in the
same old way and wonders if there is a bigger place
the railroads run to from Chicago where maybe
there is
romance
and big things
and real dreams
that never go smash.
I sought some vocab :
- « the streaks of steel flashed in the sun » : les éclats de l’acier brillant au soleil
- far off : au loin
- chatter : bavardage
- to sob : sangloter
- fate : le sort
- to struggle : avoir du mal (à faire qqch)
- a basement : un sous-sol
I enjoy this poem because the girl is always in search of a better place to be. She believes the romantic and heroic life she wants exists in another city, she just had to find the good one. (And the bigger the better.) In a way, it is a naive character for she hopes and then she is disappointed two times. Nevertheless, this naive girl has a difficult life: for example, her salary is really meager. In my opinion, her disappointment is very well-showed with the words « she beats her head against the bars » twice-told.
In a sense, I think this short story is quite common in the USA during the beginning of the twentieth century. In a context of poverty, many people went to the city for a better life. (approximately a third of laborers were poor according to an article of wikipedia without references…)
In the middle of the text, the authors refers to the fourth of July. It is the date of the Independence day in America. The holiday commemorates the declaration of independence : the fourth of July in 1776, the US declared they were free.
Posté le 14 octobre 2014 - par therhythmofwords
Branch library
Branch library
I wish I could find that skinny, long-beaked boy
who perched in the branches of the old branch library.
He spent the Sabbath flying between the wobbly stacks
and the flimsy wooden tables on the second floor,
pecking at nuts, nesting in broken spines, scratching
notes under his own corner patch of sky.
I'd give anything to find that birdy boy again
bursting out into the dusky blue afternoon
with his satchel of scrawls and scribbles,
radiating heat, singing with joy.
If you listen to the record, you will probably well understand rhymes.
Posté le 5 octobre 2014 - par therhythmofwords
Introduction
English poetry is not well-known by foreigners. Only a few poets are studied during English classes. Nevertheless, for the one who likes poetry, it is a way of discovering differently the sound of the English language. Even if the grammar is harder to understand, it helps to keep in mind some structures.
In my blog, I am going to present some short poems I like. There are texts from various ages. The evolution of the style and language could remind what happened in France. Some of the texts will be taken from Poetry Foundation.
Readings from artists are also a good way to hear the pronunciation of verses. I will put links for listening to. I will put translation of atypical vocabulary about poems, and I will redact a short presentation of poets and their periods.