Some of the best and strangest poetry and lyrics that inspired me to write this story. Themes include
CLASSICS (pre-1900)
Giacomo Leopardi (1836): La Ginestra - o Il fiore del deserto
(English translation: The Wild Broom)
This pessimist, atheist poem of human pride, humility, enlightenment and solidarity is such an essential work in Italian literary history that it is even quoted by cardinals. Interesting, considering that in 1890, this Roman Catholic scholar warned against Pessimism in the works of Leopardi as well as Schopenhauer: “It is the inspiring doctrine of socialism and nihilism.”
Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov (1841, posthumous): Демон
The Demon in English
Charles Baudelaire (1851): Sed Non Satiata
- A terribly imperialist/racist/sexist poem by the French decadent about his Creole lover Jeanne Duval. In all its sordid glory a monument to European exoticism and fascination for the Other.
Stéphane Mallarmé (1865): L’Aprés Midi D’un Faun (The Afternoon of a Faun)
- Still looking for a decent translation (of course, there are no perfect ones…)
CONTEMPORARY (1900-1920)
Joseph Mary Plunkett (1915): The Splendour of God
- Hot Catholic romanticism.
William Butler Yeats (1920):The Second Coming
- Doomsday atmosphere for the conservatively inclined.
Jazz Poetry (1920-1930): Great collection of poets of the Harlem Renaissance, dealing with Jazz and the (ab)use of Black culture. Includes the brilliant little poem “Honky Tonk in Cleveland, Ohio” by Carl Sandburg with the immortal line:
And the cartoonists weep in their beer.
(I can identify.)
ANACHRONISTIC, slightly (post-1920)
Claude McKay (Harlem Shadows, 1922): Flirtation; The White City
Lucille Bogan (1930’s): BD Women, Black Angel Blues, Reckless Woman… They’re all great. And some of them are VERY dirty.
More to come…