Recent Event Highlights: James Elroy Flecker - Poem: 'To a Poet a Thousand Years hence', Richard Burton reads James Elroy Fleckers's poem 'Yasmin' (A Ghazal)., James Elroy Flecker - Opportunity, James Elroy Flecker - To A Poet A Thousand Years Hence, "The Old Ships" by James Elroy Flecker (poetry reading), Poem of the week: The Old Ships by James Elroy Flecker, and 7 more...
Created by dipity on Oct 18, 2009
Last updated: 11/02/10 at 10:23 AM
This poem is read here by the voice of a non native speaker of English. James Elroy Flecker (born 5 November 1884) died at the age of 30 on 3 January 1915 from tuberculosis. He was living in Davos, Switzerland at the time of his death. His body was buried in Cheltenham, England. His death was described at the time as "unquestionably the greatest premature loss that English literature has suffered since the death of Keats". Flecker's gravestone is engraved with his own words: "O Lord, restore his realm to the dreamer."
A ghazal is a Middle Eastern or Indian lyric poem with a fixed number of verses and a repeated rhyme. Origin: via Persian from Arabic gazal. The ghazal does not fit naturally into English verse, and attempts to make it do so often end up sounding strained and artificial. Not so in Flecker's beautiful poem.
James Elroy Flecker (1884 - 1915). ●▬▬▬▬▬▬๑۩۩๑▬▬▬▬▬▬● "But who art thou, with curious beauty graced, O woman, stamped with some bright heavenly seal Why go thy feet on wings, and in such haste?" "I am that maid whose secret few may steal, Called Opportunity. I hasten by Because my feet are treading on a wheel, Being more swift to run than birds to fly. And rightly on my feet my wings I wear, To blind the sight of those who track and spy; Rightly in front I hold my scattered hair To veil my face, and down my breast to fall, Lest men should know my name when I am there; And leave behind my back no wisp at all For eager folk to clutch, what time I glide So near, and turn, and pass beyond recall." "Tell me; who is that Figure at thy side?" "Penitence. Mark this well that by decree Who lets me go must keep her for his bride. And thou hast spent much time in talk with me Busied with thoughts and fancies vainly grand, Nor hast remarked, O fool, neither dost see How lightly I have fled beneath thy hand." ●▬▬▬▬▬▬๑۩۩๑▬▬▬▬▬▬●
James Elroy Flecker (1884 - 1915). ●▬▬▬▬▬▬๑۩۩๑▬▬▬▬▬▬● I who am dead a thousand years, And wrote this sweet archaic song, Send you my words for messengers The way I shall not pass along. I care not if you bridge the seas, Or ride secure the cruel sky, Or build consummate palaces Of metal or of masonry. But have you wine and music still, And statues and a bright-eyed love, And foolish thoughts of good and ill, And prayers to them who sit above? How shall we conquer? Like a wind That falls at eve our fancies blow, And old Maeonides the blind Said it three thousand years ago. O friend unseen, unborn, unknown, Student of our sweet English tongue, Read out my words at night, alone: I was a poet, I was young. Since I can never see your face, And never shake you by the hand, I send my soul through time and space To greet you. You will understand. ●▬▬▬▬▬▬๑۩۩๑▬▬▬▬▬▬● Music: Arcadia by Kevin MacLeod.
WRITTEN by RAMBLIN' WAYN (c) 2010 for heart-of-man-music I am dressed like a gypsy just to accomplish my songs, RW Half to forget the wandering and the pain, Half to remember days that have gone by, And dream and dream that I am home again! James Elroy Flecker 1884-1915
I think that this poem by James Elroy Flecker, as with the Play that it featured in, HASSAN, was heavily influenced by the great Persian poet, Omar Khayyam. The author of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam.
Kinkajou's Polly MacLean singing her acapella version of the poem by James Elroy Flecker. Thomas Truax's Full Moon Sunday night at the Spice Of Life, London Sunday March 28th 2010.
Raw video (2007 Flip, no separate audio) of the International Orange Chorale (iocsf.org) singing Gustav Holst's delicate and poignant "O Spiritual Pilgrim" in an office building at 55 Second Street in San Francisco, the afternoon of December 4, 2009. Soloist: Elizabeth Blevins, Conductor: Holst scholar Kenric Taylor, who also works nearby. In fact, many members work nearby. I like that this chamber choir is actually singing in a chamber (room)! Text from James Elroy Flecker (1884-1915): O spiritual pilgrim, rise: the night has grown her single horn; The voices of the souls unborn are half-a-dream from Paradise. God be thy guide from camp to camp: God be thy shade from well to well; God grant beneath the desert stars thou hear the Prophet's camel bell. And God shall make thy body pure, and give thee knowledge to endure This ghost-life's piercing phantom pain, and bring thee out to life again. This was one of Holst's final compositions, dating from 1933. The International Orange Chorale is a by-audition, all-volunteer community chorus of young adults with a passion for chamber singing. All concerts from this non-profit group are presented free to the public, with the goal of promoting and enriching choir music in San Francisco. Please visit our website www.iocsf.org for upcoming events, sound clips, or to audition or donate. The International Orange Chorale is currently directed by Zane Fiala of zaynardstudios.com, and has been singing since 2004 with founding director Dr ...
The 25th September marks my three year YouTube anniversary! Thank you for making it such a wonderful journey! =) Royalty-free music by Kevin MacLeod www.incompetech.com
The "talkative bald-headed seaman" is of course Odysseus, also known as Ulysses... "Ulysses Deriding Polyphemus - Homer's Odyssey" 1829, was painted by Joseph Mallord William Turner. I don't know why he chose to mix Greek and Latin terms in the title.
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...on board the reconstructed Alexander von Humboldt in the Mediterranean. Photograph: Maurizio Gambarini/EPA James Elroy Flecker begins his poem, "The Old Ships", in the buttonholing style of the Ancient Mariner: "I have seen old ships … " During his consular...
Source Info
Guardian Unlimited
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2009/aug/24/james-elroy-flecker-old-ships
"We who with songs beguile your pilgrimage..."
We travel not for the trafficking alone, By hotter winds our fiery hearts are fanned. For lust of knowing what should not be known We take the Golden road to Samarkand. - James Elroy Flecker The Registan, a ginormously glorious 15th and 16th century cluster of Islamic medressa buildings (schools or universities), made Samarkand once one of the greatest intellectual centres of the world. Science, mathematics, economics, foreign language and culture, astronomy, and religion amongst other disiplines were taught here. Today, I discovered a small UNESCO supported carpet company nestled amongst the history and grand architecture. This afternoon, we head for Penjikent in Tajikistan and then onto Dushanbe and the 732km Pamir Hwy. For me, this highway wil be one of the trip highlights, apparently last year only 150 tourists travelled this route across the "roof of the world". With visas and special military permits in hand, the road ahead is set to be cold but full of warm and generous mountain folk. Traveller's teacup www.teacup.net.au
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...Odd and tragic coincidences in maritime history render a little more plausible the breathless meters of James Elroy Flecker (1884–1915): “The dragon-green, the luminous, the dark, the serpent-haunted sea.” That sea haunts me too, especially with the realization...
Source Info
Fourmilog: None Dare Call It Reason
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http://www.fourmilab.ch/fourmilog/archives/2008-02/000970.html
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...our fiery hearts are fanned: For lust of knowing what should not be known We take the Golden Road to Samarkand. James Elroy Flecker (1884-1915) Since 1997 Jerry Dekker, instructor of Humanities at New College of California in San Francisco, has been...
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Payvand News of Iran
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http://www.payvand.com/news/07/nov/1279.html
Concluding part of the Auditions programme ... Theatre Hassan Noel Coward Tenessee Williams James Elroy Flecker Present Laughter The Glass Menagerie Fumed Oak
An Actor reminisces on his uphill struggle to achieve recognition ... Theatre Hassan Noel Coward Tenessee Williams James Elroy Flecker Present Laughter The Glass Menagerie Fumed Oak
An Actor reminisces on his uphill struggle to achieve recognition ... Theatre Hassan Noel Coward Tenessee Williams James Elroy Flecker Present Laughter The Glass Menagerie Fumed Oak
An Actor reminisces on his uphill struggle to achieve recognition ... Theatre Hassan Noel Coward Tenessee Williams James Elroy Flecker Present Laughter The Glass Menagerie Fumed Oak
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