the journal

https://youtu.be/WfdMbOIpGG4 Ingram wasn't a poet by nature perhaps, but he made a great song lyricist. Colorful, but simple and short, unlike most of the poets of the age. He chose the moment before the Bell Witch first made her appearance to Betsy, when life was sane and magical, in a good sort of way. The truth of the story we'll never known. We'll never know whether the horrors inflicted … [Read more...] about Queen of the Haunted Dell, by M.V. Ingram, Authenticated history of the Bell Witch, 1894.

https://youtu.be/hqp_g1-zkQA Edmund Spenser wrote Epithalamion for Elizabeth Boyle, his bride to be as wedding gift. It's an account of their wedding day, from before dawn till late in the night, following the consummation of the marriage. Consisting of 24 stanzas, corresponding to the 24 hours of Midsummer Day, it also contains 364 lines, matching the days in a year. It follows the cycle of … [Read more...] about Poem 19 (from Epithalamion) by Edmund Spenser, 1594

https://youtu.be/oDjS9PhFuwg The Sands of Dee is a poem within a novel, Alton Locke, written by Charles Kingsley in 1849. Like most great rock and roll, he pens the lines to impress a girl, to give words to an air she's played on the piano. An air without words. What is an air? To the Irish, an air is a song played on an instrument, wordlessly. As opposed to a tune, which is a melody never … [Read more...] about The Sands of Dee (from Alton Locke) By Charles Kingsley, 1849

https://youtu.be/oH1GjIKZV_Q Kipling included this little poem in his book Traffics & Discoveries in 1904. Some say it's a children't poem, an allegory. The Kipling society folks seem to think it's about naval warfare. A political tale. I love the imagery, the tone. In a few short lines, Kipling creates an impossible world, where witches and little blue devils can speak to one another, … [Read more...] about The Eggshell by Rudyard Kipling, 1904

https://youtu.be/39Jp_0i1i_A Something is happening in The Listeners, but we never know what. We know it's about keeping promises, keeping your word, even if there's nobody there, nobody living at least to know that you did. Are the listeners the living or the dead? Is the traveller in fact the dead one, returning once more to his home as he'd promised? We never get to know the details, … [Read more...] about The Listeners by Walter de la Mare, 1912

https://youtu.be/XNEQTOgKYE8   MOSTLY FORGOTTEN TODAY, James Russell Lowell lived and breathed New England. Much as Mark Twain became the voice and accent of the midwest - the frontier at the time, Lowell became the archetype of the Yankee dialect. And in the process, helped define the mindset of the region. Born and living mainly his whole life in Cambridge, Massachusetts, he was … [Read more...] about Midnight by James Russell Lowell, 1842

https://youtu.be/O59iDcicIs0 IN THE EARLY SEVENTEENTH CENTURY, renowned dramatist, poet and favorite of the royal court composed a series of masques for the court's entertainment. A masque consisted of music, dance and acting, performed in a private setting featuring elaborate costumes, professional actors and elaborate stage design. The stage and costumes were often designed by renowned … [Read more...] about The Witches’ Song, from Ben Johnson’s Masque of Queens, 1609

ONE OF THE FIRST THINGS to come to mind when you think of Shakespeare's Macbeth is the witches. "Double, Double, toil and trouble" is quite cliche, isn't it? But it's also one of the archetypes for witches in the modern era. Shakespeare's play is full of the supernatural, from the witches and their prophecies to ghosts and of course, murder in a variety of forms, as well as revenge and … [Read more...] about Act IV Scene I (The Witches Song: Double, Double, Toil and Trouble) from the Tragedy of Macbeth by William Shakespeare, 1606