King of Denmark (1912 – 47) who symbolized his nation's resistance to the German occupation in World War II. He assumed the throne on the death of his father, Frederick VIII (1843 – 1912). In 1915 Christian signed a constitution granting equal suffrage to men and women. After the German occupation began in 1940, he rode frequently on horseback through the streets of Copenhagen, showing that he had not abandoned his claim to national sovereignty, and he opposed Nazi demands for anti-Jewish legislation. His speech against the occupation forces in 1943 led to his imprisonment until the end of the war.
Trivia:
King Christian used to ride through the streets of Copenhagen unaccompanied while the people stood and waved to him. One apocryphal story relates that one day, a German soldier remarked to a young boy that he found it odd that the king would ride with no bodyguard. The boy reportedly replied, "All of Denmark is his bodyguard."
Christian X was the 1,100th Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece in Spain, the 849th Knight of the Order of the Garter in 1914 and the 265th Grand Cross of the Order of the Tower and Sword.
George Gershwin
George Gershwin was born in Brooklyn in 1898, the second of four children from a close-knit immigrant family. He began his musical career as a song-plugger on Tin Pan Alley, but was soon writing his own pieces. Gershwin’s first published song, “When You Want ‘Em, You Can’t Get ‘Em,” demonstrated innovative new techniques, but only earned him five dollars. Soon after, however, he met a young lyricist named Irving Ceaser. Together they composed a number of songs including “Swanee,” which sold more than a million copies.
George collaborated with his brother, lyricist Ira Gershwin, a partnership that would continue for the rest of the composer's life.
When he was 25 years old, his jazz-influenced "Rhapsody in Blue" premiered in New York's Aeolian Hall. He followed this success with his orchestral works "Piano Concerto in F", "Rhapsody No. 2" and "An American in Paris. In 1935, he presented a folk opera "Porgy and Bess" in Boston with only moderate success. It is not recognized as one of the seminal works of the American opera.
Quotes by George Gershwin:
"Life is a lot like jazz. It's best when you improvise."
"Why should I limit myself to only one woman when I can have as many women as I want?"
"True music must repeat the though and inspirations of the people and the time. My people are Americans and my time is today."
Read more and listen at: http://www.gershwin.com/
T.S. Eliot
Thomas Stearns Eliot was born in St. Louis, Missouri. He was educated at Harvard and did graduate work in philosophy at the Sorbonne, Harvard and Merton College, Oxford. He settled in England, where he was for a time a schoolmaster and a bank clerk, and eventually literary editor for the publishing house Faber & Faber, of which he later became a director. He founded and, during the seventeen years of its publication (1922-1939), edited the exclusive and influential literary journal Criterion. In 1927, Eliot became a British citizen and about the same time entered the Anglican Church.
Eliot has been one of the most daring innovators of twentieth-century poetry. Never compromising either with the public or indeed with language itself, he has followed his belief that poetry should aim at a representation of the complexities of modern civilization in language and that such representation necessarily leads to difficult poetry.
Suggested Reading:
Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats; a collection of whimsical poems by T.S. Eliot about feline psychology and sociology.
The Hollow Men; a major poem concerned with post-War Europe under the Treaty of Versailles (which Eliot despised).
- This is the way the world ends
- This is the way the world ends
- This is the way the world ends
- Not with a bang but a whimper.
"Home is where one starts from."
"I have measured out my life with coffee spoons."
"Poetry may make us from time to time a little more aware of the deeper, unnamed feelings which form the substratum of our being, to which we rarely penetrate; for our lives are mostly a constant evasion of ourselves."
Read more at: www.whatthethundersaid.org
I have many fond memories of reading T.S.Eliot's poems as a child. There was a time when I could recite the whole of 'Macavity the Mystery Cat' from memory. My favourite line was:
ReplyDelete"Macavity, Macavity, there's no one like Macacity, There never was a Cat of such deceitfulness and suavity."