2020-04-14 08:27
Ostern(aus Schulter an Schulter. Kriegsgedichte: 1915)Noch bläst es scharf vom Bergwaldkamm,Wenn abendlich die Sonne scheidet;Die tiefversteckte steile KlammLiegt windverweht in Schnee… Read More
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Edith's Miscellany Blog
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A blog about good literature, including reviews of books, literary film adaptations and author's portraits supplemented by own writings.
2020-04-06 15:00
Song(from Kéramos and Other Poems: 1878)Stay, stay at home, my heart, and rest;Home-keeping hearts are happiest,For those that wander they know not whereAre full of trouble and full o… Read More
2020-04-04 12:57
Loneliness(from The Heart of a Woman: 1906)Dear, I am lonely, for the bay is still As any hill-girt lake; the long brown beach Lies bare and w… Read More
2020-03-25 07:03
Spring(from Robert Bridges (ed.). Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins: 1918)Nothing is so beautiful as spring— When weeds, in wheels, shoot long and lovely and lush… Read More
2020-03-20 16:00
Many dream of a secluded life in the country although it certainly isn’t right for everybody. Those who are used to the permanent commotion of city life may find it not just a big chan… Read More
2020-03-20 15:05
My reads of three years ago were diverse as ever and comprised three contemporary and two classical works of literature from the pens of female and male writers from Europe and the Americas… Read More
2020-03-16 16:00
The Idea(from Songs, Ballads and a Garden Play: 1888)Beneath this worlcj of stars and flowers That rolls in visible deity,I dream another world is ours &nb&hell…Read More
2020-03-09 16:00
The Sparrow(from Heart of the Hills: 1917)A little meal of frozen cake,A little drink of snow,And when the sun is setting,A broad-eaved bungalow.A little hopping in the sunThroughout the win… Read More
2020-03-02 16:00
Spring(from The Poems of Lesbia Harford: 1941)The hot winds wake to life in the sweet daytimeMy weary limbs,And tear through all the moonlit darkness shoutingTremendous hymns.My body keeps e… Read More
2020-02-24 16:00
Bесна(из книги Стихи и политичес… Read More
2020-02-21 16:00
Even in our modern times it can be quite a challenge for a woman to stand her own in a society that can’t deny its patriarchal and sexist heritage, moreover one that men still live eit… Read More
2020-02-19 16:00
The literary form of the epistolary novel was in my review focus this month three years ago. In So Long a Letter by Mariama Bâ a Senegalese woman writes to her friend abroad about the… Read More
2020-02-17 16:00
Winter and Spring(from The Youth's Coronal: 1851)“Adieu!“ Father Winter sadly saidTo the world, when about withdrawing,With his old white wig half off his head,And his icicle fin… Read More
2020-02-15 09:32
The steadily growing divide between rich and poor isn’t a new phenomenon, or else Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels would never have had reason to write the Communist Manifest and the blo… Read More
2020-02-15 09:18
However much we’d like to start life all over again with a clean slate after a traumatising experience, it’s virtually impossible. If we like it or not, any such experience has a… Read More
2020-02-10 16:00
Winter Heavens(from A Reading of Earth: 1888)Sharp is the night, but stars with frost aliveLeap off the rim of earth across the dome.It is a night to make the heavens our homeMore than the n… Read More
2020-02-05 07:58
Regarding reviewed books, the first month of 2017 was extremely varied as prove my archives. Between the covers of two contemporary and two classical novels, I found people trying to underst… Read More
2020-02-05 07:35
Click on the image to go straightto the *New* Decade Challenge post in the GOODREADS Bookcrossers group 1 January - 31 December 202012 Volumes of Representative Fictionfrom 120 and 1 Years o… Read More
2020-02-05 07:18
Austria in the 1930s was no bed of roses. Neither people, nor economy had fully recovered from World War One and its aftermaths, when the Great Depression pushed people back into misery and… Read More
2020-02-05 07:10
There’s A Certain Slant of Light(from Poems by Emily Dickinson. Series 1: 1890)There's a certain slant of light,On winter afternoons,That oppresses, like the weightOf cathedral tunes.H… Read More
2020-01-27 16:00
Midwinter Thaw(from Songs of the Common Day and AVE!: 1893)How shrink the snows upon this upland field, Under the dove-grey dome of broo… Read More
2020-01-20 16:00
Winter(from Poems: 1859)I saw him on his throne, far in the North,Him ye call Winter, picturing him everAn aged man, whose frame with palsied shiverBends o’er the fiery element, his fo… Read More
2020-01-13 16:00
Dirge for the Year(from Posthumous Poems: 1824)Orphan hours, the year is dead; Come and sigh, come and weep;Merry hours smile instead,&n&hell…Read More
2020-01-11 10:32
National Socialism brought the horrors of totalitarianism, race hatred and war virtually all over Europe, but without doubt, Poland was one of the places where it showed its evil face most c… Read More
2020-01-06 16:00
En la festividad de los Santos Reyes(de Obras de Sta Teresa de Jesús, Tomo VI: 1919) Pues la estrellaes ya llegada,vaya con los Reyesla mi manada.Vamos todas juntasa ver el Mesí&hell…Read More
2020-01-01 16:00
Happy New Year! So here we are again at the beginning of a year, even of a new decade this time. Let’s hope that it will have many literary treats – contemporary and classical &n&hell…Read More
2019-12-30 15:52
Not Yet(from Poems: 1908)Time brought me many another friend That loved me longer.New love was kind, but i… Read More
2019-12-27 16:00
In The Wizard of Oz little Dorothy learns that “there’s no place like home” although her adventures ended well and she made good friends along the way. Not every return hom… Read More
2019-12-23 16:00
Christmas(from The Tryout, 6, No. 11: November 1920)The cottage hearth beams warm and bright, The candles… Read More
2019-12-20 14:12
Reviews of three classical and two contemporary novels closed my Double Alphabet of Writers in December 2016. First, I entered The Hive by en-Nobel-ed Camilo José Cela to witness peop… Read More
2019-12-16 16:00
Winter Night(from Poems: 1867)How calm, how solemn, how sublime the scene!The moon in full-orbed glory sails above,And stars in myriads around her move,Each looking down with watchful eye se… Read More
2019-12-09 16:00
December(from John Burroughs: Songs of Nature: 1901)When the feud of hot and coldLeaves the autumn woodlands bare;When the year is getting old.And flowers are dead, and keen the air;When the… Read More
2019-12-07 11:44
Just a hundred years ago the status of a girl largely depended on her chances for marriage. If she hadn’t found a husband by her mid-twenties people around would start looking at her a… Read More
2019-12-02 16:00
Winter in the Library(from The Mountain Road and Other Verses: 1912)All the Iivelong dayI feed on ancient sweets,Nor heed how the wind blowsNor how the wild rain beats,For at my will I wand… Read More
2019-11-29 16:00
Sometimes it can be difficult to distinguish dream from reality, especially for people with a vivid imagination who aren’t quite willing to face the hard facts of adult life. Often the… Read More
2019-11-25 16:00
Versuch der Erinnerung(aus Worte in Versen IX: 1930)Was hab ich nur heute geträumt?Noch spür ich, wie ich im Schlafohne Schwanken das Richtige traf,und das Ding gehorchte aufs Wort… Read More
2019-11-20 16:00
After a one-novel stay in the Far East a three-book tour of Europe was on my review schedule of this month three years ago. My point of departure was seventeenth-century Japan where I joined… Read More
2019-11-18 16:00
Autumn in the Hills(from Poems: 1900)November came that day,And all the air was grayWith delicate mists, blown downFrom hilltops by the south wind’s balmy breath;A… Read More
2019-11-15 16:00
The return to the place of a happy childhood can be quite overwhelming for everybody, notably for a sensitive person who has been away for long. Faded and repressed memories are bound to res… Read More
2019-11-11 16:00
November’s Cadence(from The Burial of Isis and Other Pems: 1884)The bees about the Linden-tree,When blithely summer blooms were springing,Would hum a heartsome melody,The simple baby-s… Read More
2019-11-09 18:33
The Trees at Night(from Georgian Poetry 1920-22: 1922)Under vague silver moonlight The trees are lovely and ghostly, In the pale blue of the night There are few stars to see. The leaves are… Read More
2019-11-09 18:09
In the Rushing Wind(from Sweet Hours: 1904)THE wind hath whirled the leaves from off the tree.The leaves were yellow, they had lived their time,And lie a golden heap or fly away,As if the bu… Read More
2019-10-21 15:00
The Autumn Wind(from The Dream and Other Poems: 1840)I.Hush, moaning autumn wind! be still, be still!Thy grieving voice forbiddeth hearts to rest;We hear thee sweeping down the lonely hill,A… Read More
2019-10-18 15:00
Click on the index card to enlarge it!Some people take life more seriously than others. The idealists among them will be determined to work hard to make the world a better place because they… Read More
2019-10-16 15:00
Leafing back three years in my blogging calendar, there are two classical and two contemporary novels on my review list of October. I started with a less widely read work by the English reci… Read More
2019-10-14 15:00
Sitting by the Fire(from Poems and Songs: 1862)Ah! the solace in the sitting, Sitting by the fire,When the wind without is callingAnd th… Read More
2019-10-11 16:05
There are people, even entire families, who get more than the usual share of misfortune in life. While some may simply call it bad luck, others will be convinced that in the world nothing ev… Read More
2019-10-07 15:00
Czend(Kaffka Margit könyveből: 1906) Én nem tudokA csendről, melybe száz forró titokÉs jövendő viharok lelke ébred;Hol nász… Read More
2019-10-04 15:00
For many people there comes a moment, when they look back on life and re-evaluate the choices that they made along the way. Often it’s an event that draws attention to how fragile and… Read More
2019-09-30 15:00
To Autumn(from Lamia, Isabella, The Eve of St. Agnes and Other Poems: 1820)Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;Conspiring with him how to load and… Read More
2019-09-27 15:00
When fate strikes badly and turns life completely upside down thwarting all plans, it’s usually a very unsettling experience that can make feel at a loss even the most flexible mind. S… Read More
2019-09-23 15:00
Thoughts(from Little Songs. A Book of Poems: 1925)I gave my thoughts a golden peach,A silver citron tree;They clustered dumbly out of reachAnd would not sing for me.I built my thoughts a roo… Read More
2019-09-20 15:00
Peculiarities that make a person stand out of her or his social circle often result in marginalisation and even exclusion, be it out of disgust or out of awe. In either case, fear of the dif… Read More
2019-09-18 15:00
With the reviews of five books, three classics and two contemporary works, I filled my blog this month three years ago. I started my tour in Barcelona of the 1930s with the coming-of-age of… Read More
2019-09-16 15:00
Alter Ego(from The Nuts of Knowledge: 1903)All the morn a spirit gay Breathes within my heart a rhyme, 'Tis but hide and seek we play In and out the courts of Time.Fairy lover, when my feet… Read More
2019-09-14 13:07
Sometimes there are rumours about extraordinary, even mysterious events that give us the creeps no matter how erudite and rational we happen to be because – if only for an instant &nda&hell…Read More
2019-09-14 13:07
It’s people who make history by way of passing on knowledge about the more or less heroic deeds of individuals and groups to later generations not just through different memorabilia, b… Read More
2019-09-14 13:07
As time passes, ideas may go out of fashion or even become kind of taboo, but once in the world they never disappear completely. These days, fascist ideas including national socialist ones s… Read More
2019-09-09 15:00
In an Apple Tree(from Marigold Garden: 1885)In September, when the apples were red,To Belinda I said,“Would you like to go awayTo Heaven, or stayHere in this orchard full of treesAll y… Read More
2019-09-06 15:15
Since times immemorial the main ingredients of a good love story are two steadfast lovers who overcome all kinds of obstacles and hazards until at last they are allowed to live “happil… Read More
2019-09-06 15:07
When love takes on the nature of obsession, it can do a lot of harm. In a way that strongly reminds of a drug, it can cloud even the sharpest mind and make the affected act like a fool and… Read More
2019-09-02 15:00
Harvest(from Songs, Merry and Sad: 1906)Cows in the stall and sheep in the fold;Clouds in the west, deep crimson and gold; A heron's far… Read More
2019-08-26 15:00
Sunset (from Songs and Sonnets of Springtime: 1881) The sun is setting not in colours gay, But pure as when he blazed with noon-day heat; The upland path is gold before my feet, Save where l… Read More
2019-08-23 15:00
Much like beauty also truth is in the eye of the beholder. This becomes particularly obvious with regard to history because known facts are always subject to interpretation and often allow v… Read More
2019-08-21 15:00
Except for the dystopian fantasy from the Habsburg monarchy before the first Great War, all books that I presented at this time of summer three years ago dealt with World War II and with som… Read More
2019-08-19 16:49
A vida(das Poesías: 1873)A alvorada foi risonha;Ergueste-te como o dia,Eu fiz, naquela alvorada,Uma alegre profecia.Inda radiava fulgenteVénus, a saudosa estrela,Já tu o… Read More
2019-08-12 15:00
Every-Day Heroes(from The World's Complaint and Other Poems: 1847)We speak and we read of the hero’s deeds, And envy perchance his fame;We would tread, like him… Read More
2019-08-05 15:00
The Sun Upon the Weirdlaw Hill(from George Thomson: A Select Collection of Original Scottish Airs for the Voice. Volume V: 1818)The sun upon the Weirdlaw Hill, In Ett… Read More
2019-08-04 08:07
For a person who grew up in a family of long linage with a glorious past incorporated by adventurous and fearless ancestors whose deeds keep being recounted all across the country, it can be… Read More
2019-07-29 15:00
Soliloquy by a Parachute Jumper(from Poetry Magazine, June 1942)We do not know how tall was Newton’s treeFrom which fell Newton’s apple,Whence he drew laws to work infallibly.Now… Read More
2019-07-26 15:00
Whichever the individual story, to have survived World War II as a Jew in Eastern Europe must have been an experience that marked, if not scarred the person for life. Even the luckier ones w… Read More
2019-07-22 15:00
Raiders’ Dawn(from Raiders’ Dawn and Other Poems: 1942)Softly the civilizedCenturies fall,Paper on paper,Peter on Paul.And lovers walkingFrom the night—Eternity’s mas… Read More
2019-07-17 15:00
On the five Fridays of July 2016, I presented three contemporary works, two of them genre fiction from Japan and a holocaust novel from Italy, along with two classics from 1920s France and W… Read More
2019-07-15 15:00
The Click of the Garden Gate(from The Casualties Were Small. Wartime Poetry and Diaries of a Lincolnshire Seaside Villager: 2009)I hear the click of the garden gateBut it is not heHe comes n… Read More
2019-07-13 15:36
Ever since scientists first expounded their theory of evolution, those in power gladly have been taking recourse to the concept of the survival of the fittest to justify even their most self… Read More
2019-07-13 14:00
There can be no doubt that living in times of war is a traumatic experience. Even those who never see any fighting, nor suffer bodily harm of any kind are inevitably marked by its manifold h… Read More
2019-07-08 15:00
The Unborn(from Hello, Soldier! Khaki Verse: 1919)I see grim War, a bestial thing,with swinish tusks to tear;Upon his back the vampires cling,Thin vipers twine among his hair,The tiger's gre… Read More
2019-07-01 15:00
Die Abendglocke auf dem Berge (aus Sämtliche Werke. Band 16. Neue verbesserte Auflage: 1822)Zu der Musik des Freyherrn von Krufft auf den Text: Glöckchen tönt von luft’g… Read More
2019-06-24 15:00
June(from Earthly Paradise: 1868-70) O June, O June, that we desired so,Wilt thout not make us happy on this day?Across the river thy soft breezes blosSweet with the… Read More
2019-06-21 15:00
Not only political power can bring the despotic vein of a person to the surface. In fact, most of us will be a lot more familiar with it from a family setting where it shows more or less mar… Read More
2019-06-21 14:20
The people who rule a country, be it a republic or a monarchy, a democracy or a dictatorship, even a tyranny, quite naturally provoke controversy. They carry the burden of responsibility, bu… Read More
2019-06-19 15:00
With my first summer reads of three years ago, I travelled from India to three countries of South-East Asia. With my opening review I went a little astray because The Monkey Grammarian by Oc… Read More
2019-06-17 15:00
Happiness(from The Floral Year: 1847)There is a spell in every flower—A sweetness in each spray,And every simple bird has powerTo please me with its lay!And there is music on each bree… Read More
2019-06-14 15:22
No notable ruler of a country ever made his or her fame out of the blue, but they were all strong-minded men and women who had to prove their skill in war and politics to rise to power and t… Read More
2019-06-10 15:00
A Red, Red Rose(from James Johnson (ed.), The Scottish Musical Museum: 1794)O my Luve’s like a red, red roseThat’s newly sprung in June;O my Luve’s like the melodieThat&rsq&hell…Read More
2019-06-08 15:52
The urge for freedom is so strong that not even the cruelest totalitarian regime can crush it completely. Fear of persecution, imprisonment, torture and death may keep it in check outwardly… Read More
2019-06-03 15:00
Thoughts in a Library (from Poems: 1848)Speak low — tread softly through these halls; Here genius lives enshrined,—Here reign, in silent majesty,&nbs&hell…Read More
2019-05-31 15:00
The past can be as tempting a subject of contemplation as a better future, but while we can shape the last according to our dreams and plans, the first is impossible to change. What happened… Read More
2019-05-27 15:00
The Green Linnet(from Poems. Volume I: 1807)Beneath these fruit-tree boughs that shedTheir snow-white blossoms on my head,With brightest sunshine round me spread  &hell…Read More
2019-05-20 15:00
Eolie(from Poems by Edith May: 1850)Oh ! you are welcome as the dew To the worn feet of pilgrim day.And wild and fresh as flowers that keep &nb&hell…Read More
2019-05-17 15:52
Among my four reviewed books of three years ago there were three focusing on the lives of women. The 2008 historical novel The Enchantress of Florence by Salman Rushdie revolves around a six… Read More
2019-05-13 15:00
Mis Mai(o Gwinllan y Bardd: 1831)Mor dêg a hyfryd ydyw Mai, Pob peth heb’drai sy’n ddedwydd,— Mor hardd eu drych yw bloda’'r drain A geir yn gain ar gynnydd… Read More
2019-05-10 15:32
When life doesn’t take the expected turn, it’s often easier to come up with the idea of a conspiracy than to search for the real cause of events. Especially misanthropists (but n… Read More
2019-05-06 15:00
The Hot-House Rose(from Conversations Introducing Poetry: 1804)An early rose borne from her genial bower,Met the fond homage of admiring eyes,And while young Zephyr fanned the lovely flower… Read More
2019-05-03 15:49
Dreams of a better future are an exceptionally strong driving force as prove millions of people on the move on our planet. Unlike the latter – who must be really desperate – most… Read More
2019-04-29 15:00
A Picture(from At Dawn and Dusk: 1898)THE sun burns fiercely down the skies;The sea is full of flashing eyes;The waves glide shoreward serpentwiseAnd fawn with foamy tongues on starkGray roc… Read More
2019-04-26 15:39
Five reviews of contemporary and classical novels from Europe and the Americas were on my review schedule this month three years ago. The Italian novel The City and the House by Natalia Ginz… Read More
2019-04-22 15:00
Easter(from The White Wampum: 1895)April 1, 1888Lent gathers up her cloak of sombre shading In her reluctant hands.Her beauty heightens… Read More
2019-04-19 15:00
It’s never easy to find the place in life that feels right, but if we do, it’s like heaven. Some people, however, lack the courage and/or the stamina to reach for the stars and t… Read More
2019-04-15 15:00
The Enkindled Spring(from Amores: 1916)This spring as it comes bursts up in bonfires green,Wild puffing of emerald trees, and flame-filled bushes,Thorn-blossom lifting in wreaths of smoke be… Read More
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