Poetry Month - Shakespeare, a Master Wordsmith

 I stumbled across this Meme recently and it made me appreciate Shakespeare's work even more:

 So to recognize one of the master wordsmiths of history, ladies and gentlemen, I present to you poetry by Shakespeare:

"Those Lips that Love's own Hand did Make" by William 

Shakespeare

 
Those lips that Love's own hand did make
Breathed forth the sound that said "I hate"
To me that languished for her sake;
But when she saw my woeful state,
Straight in her heart did mercy come,
Chiding that tongue that ever sweet
Was used in giving gentle doom,
And taught it thus anew to greet:
"I hate" she altered with an end,
That followed it as gentle day
Doth follow night, who like a fiend
From heaven to hell is flown away.
"I hate" from hate away she threw,
And saved my life, saying "not you."

Poetry Month - Emily Dickinson

"He ate and drank the precious words,          

His spirit grew robust;

He knew no more that he was poor, 

Nor that his frame was dust. 

He danced along the dingy days,              

And this bequest of wings     

Was but a book.

What liberty    

A loosened spirit brings!"

-Emily Dickinson

This poem is one of my favorites because I have felt what it describes.  My favorite poems make me laugh or they give expression to what I am unable to express but wish I could.

Emily Dickinson said it best when she defined poetry this way: “If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can warm me I know that is poetry. If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry. These are the only way I know it. Is there any other way?”

- Anita

Happy Poetry Month!

From all of us at the BYU Bookstore, we hope you have a wonderful Poetry Month!

This is an exciting time for the BYU Bookstore, it's a great time to celebrate captivating work, to stop and enjoy the beauties of language, to step out of the ordinary life and transcend into more enriched human beings.

As Pulitzer prize writer Carl Sandburg put it,

"Poetry is the journal of the sea animal living on land, wanting to fly in the air.  Poetry is a search for syllables to shoot at the barriers of the unknown and the unknowable.  Poetry is a phantom script telling how rainbows are made and why they go away."
 
We hope you will stop and take some time out your day to appreciate poetry more, whether that's reading on, writing one, or participating in poetry reading.

Come celebrate with us for the following events:

And also, stay tuned this next month while we share some of our favorite poems with you.

Ciao!

-Hillary

Books for Valentines Day

I stumbled upon Time Magazine's "Top 10 Romantic Books," in which the listed the following novels as the most romantic works:

1. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
2. Troilus and Criseyde by Chaucer
3. Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
4. Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
5. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
6. The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
7. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
8. Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
9. The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje
10. The Feast of Love by Charles Baxter

I'm familiar with one, three, five and six. And I wouldn't argue against those. I can't ever forget Ms. Bennett or Mr. Darcy, or Gatsby and Daisy, or Catherine and Heathcliff. 

May I propose another to this list that is more well-known than some listed above: Gone With the Wind. I realize those characters were extremely frustrating and debatebly more selfish than romantic, but there's some iconic romantic moments there...

And I have a feeling several Nicholas Sparks could be proposed to this list. Perhaps they didn't make the list because TIME was choosing those that have survived the test of time. Do you think any of Sparks's novels will become classics? If nothing else, I would argue that The Notebook will be a timeless movie.

Do you think this list is accurate, good, or is something missing? 

Oh yes, and Happy Valentines Day! 

-Hillary