Here's to William

One of the most well known poets of all time is certainly William Shakespeare!  Here is a little bit of information about him.

William Shakespeare (26 April 1564 (baptised) – 23 April 1616)^[nb 1] was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist.^[1] He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon".^[2][nb 2] His extant works, including some collaborations, consist of about 38 plays,^[nb 3] 154 sonnets, two narrativelongpoems, and a few other verses, the authorship of some of which is uncertain. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright.^[3]

Shakespeare was born and brought up in Stratford-upon-Avon. At the age of 18, he married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part-owner of a playing company called the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later known as the King's Men. He appears to have retired to Stratford around 1613 at age 49, where he died three years later. Few records of Shakespeare's private life survive, and there has been considerable speculation about such matters as his physical appearance, sexuality, religious beliefs, and whether the works attributed to him were written by others.^[4]

Shakespeare produced most of his known work between 1589 and 1613.^[5][nb 4] His early plays were mainly comedies and histories, genres he raised to the peak of sophistication and artistry by the end of the 16th century. He then wrote mainly tragedies until about 1608, including Hamlet, King Lear, Othello, and Macbeth, considered some of the finest works in the English language. In his last phase, he wrote tragicomedies, also known as romances, and collaborated with other playwrights.

Many of his plays were published in editions of varying quality and accuracy during his lifetime. In 1623, John Heminges and Henry Condell, two friends and fellow actors of Shakespeare, published the First Folio, a collected edition of his dramatic works that included all but two of the plays now recognised as Shakespeare's. It was prefaced with a poem by Ben Jonson, in which Shakespeare is hailed, presciently, as "not of an age, but for all time."^[6]

(the above information is courtesy of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shakespeare )

Words have Wings

Words.

I love words.  I love the way they feel in my mouth, on my tongue, the weight they carry.  The way they can be sweet, or heavy or sometimes just a gossamer whisper slipping over my lips.

Words can heal, but also hurt.  They have wings.  Once they leave your mouth, they fly away, never to return unspent.

Words have to be used carefully.  They carry a responsibility.  God created by means of a word.  He IS a word.  Words are to be treasured.

As a child my father taught me that cussing or swearing was proof of a poor and inadequate vocabulary, and my sister told me to always choose my words the same way that I would pick flowers for a friend, just the most beautiful.  I have passed these truths on to my children.

This post is all about WORDS.

A single word can be a poem by itself, it is loaded with suggestion and meaning.  It can calm the storm or ignite a fire.  It can instantly conjure up a meaning, tell a story or unleash a song.  My children and I often play this game with my husband.  We would say a word and he will sing us a song with that word in it.

I decided that on Mondays I will share posts about words, poetry or any form of writing with you.  It is for all the word artists out there, or anybody interested in the beauty of words and their meaning.  I will share poetry, little literary titbits, quotes, books to read, etc with you on a weekly basis.  Please feel free to share, comment or contribute in some way.

Let your words have wings......

Today I want to share a bit of information about poetry itself.

"Poetry as an art form predates literacy. Some of the earliest poetry is believed to have been orally recited or sung. Following the development writingof, poetry has since developed into increasingly structured forms, though much poetry since the late 20th century has moved away from traditional forms towards the more vaguely defined free verse and prose poem formats.

Poetry was employed as a way of remembering oral history, story (epic poetry), genealogy, and law. Poetry is often closely related to musical traditions, and much of it can be attributed to religious movements. Many of the poems surviving from the ancient world are a form of recorded cultural information about the people of the past, and their poems are prayers or stories about religious subject matter, histories about their politics and wars, and the important organizing myths of their societies.

Poetry as an art form may predate literacy^[1] Thus many ancient works, from the Vedas (1700 - 1200 BC) to the Odyssey (800 - 675 BC), appear to have been composed in poetic form to aid memorization and oral transmission, in prehistoric and ancient societies.^[2] Poetry appears among the earliest records of most literate cultures, with poetic fragments found on early monoliths, runestones and stelae.

The oldest surviving poem is the Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor,^[3] writtenin Hieratic and ascribed a date around 4500 B.C.E. Other sources ascribe the earliest written poetry to the Epic of Gilgamesh written in cuneiform; however, it is most likely that The Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailorpredates Gilgamesh by half a millennium. The oldest epic poetry besides the Epic of Gilgamesh are the Greek epics Iliad and Odyssey andIndianthe Sanskrit epics Ramayana and Mahabharata. The longest epic poems ever written were the Mahabharata and the Tibetan Epic of King Gesar."

(The above information is courtesy of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_poetry )

If you would like to share something with us about poetry, feel free to do so.  I would love to hear from you.

Let Your Words Take Flight!!!!

I love words, the way they sound, the way they feel on my tongue, the way a simple word can take my thoughts on a fantasy flight.  I love the rhythm and melody of poetry.  Poetry is like a painting done with one's soul.  Poetry give our thoughts wings. So it is just natural that on my blog there should be a place for poetry.  Every month I will share some poetry with anybody who happens to flutter by, and I will also post a poetry prompt/ challenge for you to take part in and I will give awards to 3 of the participants.   You can enter as many poems as you want, but only one of them will be eligible for the award. The rules are simple: any poetry submitted here for the challenge must be your own, and it must comply with the prompt given.   You have to also comment on at least two other entries.  Remember only positive feedback and constructive critique please. Any poetry you want to share with us that belongs to somebody else must be clearly marked as to who the original author is.
I will also give short discussions about poetry forms, rhyme or interesting titbits.

Do take part, there is a poem within each of us!!  Have fun!!!!

To take part or comment, simply scroll right down to the bottom and click on the words "no comment/ 1 comment" , then write your poem in the white comment box that will appear and click on "publish".

8 March 2013

The poetry challenge for March is "Friendship". 
Any type of poetry, free verse or rhyme. 
Minimum 6 lines, max 20 lines.
You can submit your poem all through March, but the closing date is 31 March 2013. 

I am looking forward to your poems!!

To read my poetry click on the All Poetry link on this page.