Fun_People Archive
27 Sep
LIT BITS V3 #271
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From: Peter Langston <psl>
Date: Wed, 27 Sep 100 22:26:18 -0700
To: Fun_People
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Subject: LIT BITS V3 #271
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Excerpted-from: LITERARY CALENDAR V3 #271
From: ptervin@pent.yasuda-u.ac.jp
Today is Thursday, 28 September 2000; on this day,
197 years ago (1803),
Man of letters Prosper Merimee, whose translations of Russian classics
will introduce the works in France, is born in Paris. Though he first
studied law, his interest turned to Greek, Spanish, English, and
Russian languages and their literatures. He wrote his first play,
_Cromwell_, at 19.
109 years ago (1891),
In New York, Herman Melville, 72, dies in obscurity to scanty obituary
notices.
91 years ago (1909),
Poet and critic Stephen Spender is born in London.
83 years ago (1917),
In France, T. E. Hulme, English poet, dies while fighting in World
War I.
34 years ago (1966),
Andre Breton, one of the founders of the Surrealist movement, dies in
Paris, France.
Today's poem:
Daybreak
At dawn she lay with her profile at that angle
Which, when she sleeps, seems the carved face of an angel.
Her hair a harp, the hand of a breeze follows
And plays, against the white cloud of the pillows.
Then, in a flush of rose, she woke, and her eyes that opened
Swam in blue through her rose flesh that dawned.
From her dew of lips, the drop of one word
Fell like the first of fountains: murmured
'Darling', upon my ears the song of the first bird.
'My dream becomes my dream,' she said, 'come true.
I waken from you to my dream of you.'
Oh, my own wakened dream then dared assume
The audacity of her sleep. Our dreams
Poured into each other's arms, like streams.
Stephen Spender
© 2000 Peter Langston