Portal:Literature
Introduction
Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially novels, plays, and poems. It includes both print and digital writing. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include oral literature, much of which has been transcribed. Literature is a method of recording, preserving, and transmitting knowledge and entertainment. It can also have a social, psychological, spiritual, or political role.
Literature, as an art form, can also include works in various non-fiction genres, such as biography, diaries, memoirs, letters, and essays. Within its broad definition, literature includes non-fictional books, articles, or other written information on a particular subject. (Full article...)
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"A Song for Simeon" is a 37-line poem written in 1928 by American-English poet T. S. Eliot. It is one of five poems that Eliot contributed to the Ariel poems series of 38 pamphlets by several authors published by Faber and Gwyer. "A Song for Simeon" was the sixteenth in the series and included an illustration by avant garde artist Edward McKnight Kauffer. The poems, including "A Song for Simeon", were later published in both the 1936 and 1963 editions of Eliot's collected poems.
In 1927, Eliot had converted to Anglo-Catholicism and his poetry, starting with the Ariel Poems, took on a decidedly religious character. "A Song for Simeon" is seen by many critics and scholars as a discussion of the conversion experience. In the poem, Eliot retells the story of Simeon from the second chapter of the Gospel of Luke, a just and devout Jew who encounters Mary, Joseph and the infant Jesus entering the Temple of Jerusalem. Promised by the Holy Ghost that he would not die until he had seen the Saviour, Simeon sees in the infant Jesus the Messiah promised by the Lord and asks God to permit him to "depart in peace" (Luke 2:25–35). Several critics have debated whether Eliot's depiction of Simeon is a negative portrayal of a Jewish figure and evidence of anti-Semitism on Eliot's part.
Selected excerpt
“ | Away with your fictions of flimsy romance, Those tissues of falsehood which Folly has wove; Give me the mild beam of the soul-breathing glance, Or the rapture which dwells on the first kiss of love. |
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— Lord Byron, "The First Kiss of Love" |
More Did you know
- ... that John Donne's Devotions upon Emergent Occasions is one of only seven printed works he acknowledged authorship of?
- ... that Amir Hamzah left one of his fifty poems in his prison cell before being executed?
- ... that the Hongwu Emperor was so fond of Gao Ming's play The Lute that he ordered it to be performed every day at court?
- ... that both the Star Trek novels The Tears of the Singers and Uhura's Song included Uhura as a main character as the authors thought she was underdeveloped in the show?
- ... that author Colum McCann described the subject of his 2003 novel Dancer, Rudolf Nureyev, as "a monster"?
Selected illustration
Did you know (auto-generated) -
- ... that in the Forum of Augustus in Rome, elogia were hung on statues of commanders and Augustus's ancestors?
- ... that a 1955 satirical comedy play by Kasymaly Jantöshev was one of the first signs of the relaxation of Soviet literary restrictions after the death of Joseph Stalin?
- ... that literary fiction novel Agatha of Little Neon's title stems from a house that is "the color of Mountain Dew"?
- ... that Robert Weiner taught AP English Literature while coaching football at Henry B. Plant High School?
- ... that the Lviv branch of the Ukrderzhnatsmenvydav was the main publisher of Polish literature in the Soviet Union by 1941?
- ... that Bulkboeken ('bulk books') were cheap reprints of Dutch literary classics, published from 1971 to the late 1990s, and again from 2007?
Today in literature
- 1645 - Jean de La Bruyère, French writer born
- 1860 - Jules Laforgue, French poet born
- 1888 - T. E. Lawrence, English writer born
- 1902 - Georgette Heyer, English novelist born
- 1920 - Charles Bukowski, American poet born
- 1949 - Margaret Mitchell, American novelist died
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