Go ahead and count me in although I might be awol from time to time. Things are getting pretty busy around here........stan

Thanks you.

.

Will be both fascinating and challenging, I'm sure. Sadly I won't be able to participate but will follow when I can.

I'm preparing for it. Still not sure which to choose. Come to think of it, not sure how to turn a haiku ino a biographical poem. lol. but I'll see what I can do.

Alid

And, if chosen, is it a "first come" type of arrangement?

and they need not be European... even. We're in this to expand our horizons.

This should be fun.

English will be the only place I will venture, but gods... the Canon of Six alone. Mark Twain! When was Frost born?
Ah, Kipling. Mowgli is the better Tarzan.

Born 1874, died 1963

It is on loan. We all of us can do without for a short time.
For you.

It was a tie between Hardy and Yeats, but the English man comes on top because I'm more familiar with him, though I've been inspired by Yeats' poetry more than Hardy's.

I love Hardy for his style of tragedy seen in Tess of the d'Ubervilles and The Mayor of Casterbridge. The latter shaped the way I saw the world fundamentally, the former I began to read on what has proven so far to be the most defining day of my life.

I take Hardy personally.

Masaoka Shiki born in October 14, 1867, died in September 19, 1902

I choose him because I love to explore asian poetry.

Night (Japanese haiku translated in english)

Night; and once again,
the while I wait for you, cold wind
turns into rain.

Masaoka Shiki

Alid

I chose him for two reasons. One I think he is one of the finest "lyric" poets whoever lived and I love his work dearly. Two is that I know nothing of the man save that his wife wrote Frankenstein.

Come to find out, he was victimized in school and turned to pranksterism to defend himself. He once set the school on fire... but let me get more of my facts straight before I go on.

I chose Kipling because he wrote to be read. He wrote for the widest audience possible, without assuming they were idiots.

Kipling's life held joy, loss, tragedy, and a hope so founded in realism that people mistake it for fatalism. Kipling wrote about the everyday in terms the populace could embrace and his work spanned the interest of the most common to the most powerful.

Anyone who has not read Kim and Captains Courageous is doing themselves a disservice. For the workshop, I will chose one of his poems, but, probably, not the one most people know.

post titled "Frost" was a response to Wes' query about Frost's birth day. I did not mean for it to be taken for my choice but I'll gladly take Frost because I think I've heard of him before lol..........stan

as Jonathon has taken my pick.... :(
I'll be quick :)
possibly Tennyson....
xxx

Masaoka Shiki was the pen-name for Masaoka Noboru who was born in Matsuyama City in Iyo Province to samurai class family of modest means. He was a Japanese poet, author, and literary critic in the Meiji period. He was called Tokoronosuke when he was a child before his name was changed to Noboru. At 15yrs old, he got involved in politics, involving himself with the Freedom and People's Rights Movement and was banned from public speaking by his school's principal. In 1883, he moved to Tokyo.

His works -
In 1892, serialized works Dassai Shooku Haiwa or "Talks on Haiku from the Otter's Den".in 1895, "A Text on Haikai for Beginners", Haikai Taiyō in 1896 Meiji Nijūkunen no Haikukai or "The Haiku World of 1896" where he praised works by disciples Takahama Kyoshi and Kawahigashi Hekigotō, Haijin Buson or "The Haiku Poet Buson" (1896-1897) expressing Shiki's idea
In 1898 Utayomi ni Atauru Sho or "Letters to a Tanka Poet" where he urged reform of the tanka poetry form. Before he died he wrote 3 sickbbed diaries entitled Bokujū Itteki or "A Drop of Ink" (1901), Gyōga Manroku or "Stray Notes While Lying On My Back" (1901-1902), and Byōshō Rokushaku or "A Sixfoot Sickbed" (1902).

Alid

Seems the ladies all want the guy known for his love poems lol

In 1814 Shelley and his future wife Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin were traveling through Europe along the Rhine in Germany with a stop in a town close to Frankenstein Castle where two centuries before an alchemist performed experiments. Later in Switzerland with their friends Lord Byron and John Polidori on Halloween they dared each other. Who could write the best horror story? A drunken evening produced nothing from all but Mary who, thinking for days, began work on what is now entitled “Frankenstein”.

Okay, that's done.

Percy Bysshe Shelley was born in 1792 at Field Place in Sussex, England to Sir Timothy Shelley, a Member of Parliament of the Whig party.

Shelley began his education at Eton College where he was subjected to what later were called “Shelley baits”. His books would be thrown, his clothes torn.
Ever subtle and crafty, Shelley turned to the practical joke as his means of defense. Often he would use a frictional electric machine to hot wire door knobs, but it was when he blew up a tree on Eton’s South Meadow that he was expelled.

After a period of poor performance at Oxford, Shelley published his first novel entitled “Zastrozzi” (1810) in which he expressed his atheistic view of the world.
That year he also published “Original Poetry by Victor and Cazire” with his sister Elizabeth.
“The Rosicrucian” was published (along with “The Necessity of Atheism”) in 1811.
Due this publication he was called to see the College Fellows, including the Dean, George Rowley. Shelley would not repudiate his authorship and was expelled.

Shelley was not well known or read in his lifetime, but his works slowly become popular after his death.

Percy Bysshe Shelley drowned in a storm on the Gulf of Spezia. He was returning after having set up “The Liberal” with Leigh Hunt. The boat, named Don Juan, went down in 1822. Shelley did not live 30 years.

Shelley’s most important poem was written on a dare with Horace Smith to see who could write the best poem about Ozymandias (Ramses the second). It has now become a staple of the repertoire of the Romantic Era.

It is this poem I will attempt to mimic.

Ozymandias
I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed:
And on the pedestal these words appear:
'My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away

I'm working on my "Ozymandias" mimic and it's proving difficult. I WOULD choose one of the greatest lyric sonnets of all time to emulate.
But I will succeed! It will be awful, but I will learn and that's all I care about. The bios are informative.

I wonder if the different time zone is the factor.

Alid

Several things are going on right now...company issues...I'll probably be late on this. And I don't know what poem I'll take. :(

This workshop is a marvelous idea and an informative one and Chrys' idea. But a workshop only works with participation. Where are my poets in this intimate workshop. Alid and I should not be alone.
I think so much of this idea of Chrys' that I'm considering running it every season. There are so many poets living and dead that I know nothing about.
Let's rectify that.
If even one poet has had their mind opened to something new (that would be me) the shop has served its purpose, but I would like to see the rest of the participants benefit from this workshop now.

Come on people! We need your co-operation. If you are facing problem in your exercise, seek help from the mentor.

Alid

Per Dr's orders I've been limiting use of right arm until it stops being as numb as my skull lol. Will try to post poem tomorrow as well as a limited bio of Frost.......stan

I've submitted my poem....
Hope to find time over the next couple of days to review/comment on others, but sorry, am caught up with things atm
xxx

to attempting a write about the poet, in the poet's style :) so I hope you will extend....
xxx

Robert Frost first beheld this world in San Francisco which disappointed chin enough to make him wail without having to have his bottom spanked. Thus he worked as hard and studied as much as he could to escape to Dartmouth and Harvard Colleges as soon as he could. He attended both then graduated and promptly used his education to become a farmer in New Hampshire (Likely where he thought he Should have been born). After about a decade of toiling the stoney New England soil he left for Old England where he lived from 1912-1915 with his wife and 2 children. It was here that he met such renowned poets as Ezra Pound and Edward Thomas whose favorable reviews of Frost's poetry established his reputation.

He then came back to the States and taught at various places but he spent the longest stretch at Amherst College. (See, back in New England again. The fact he apparently considered himself a Yankee instead of settling in the South is one of his few flaws). During this time he published his second book "North of Boston" which made him one of the best known American poets. He read "The Gift Outright" at John Kennedy's inauguration.

Most of his poems were rooted in the New England landscape. He used plain speech in metered form in such a way as to make it sound like normal sentences instead of song. During his time of writing many "intellectuals" dismissed his poetry as "conventional" and dated. They often missed the buried subtext floating beneath the surface of his writings.

Many of his contemporaries assumed him to be a mere throw back to the earlier ages of strictly metered rhyming poetry. They apparently often over looked the fact that he also wrote in free verse and seldom hesitated to "break form" id doing so led to a better conveyance of what he wanted the reader to "see." He once equated free verse to playing tennis without nets. It's my opinion that he meant there were still rules to this new free verse just not quite as many.

He was a perfect poet for his time. A time during which both the world and poetry were undergoing abrupt changes.
His poetry often embraced simpler times just passed but also delivered themes which are pertinent whether one lives in an agrarian society or a modern hight tech urban one such as today's.

Alidzain is so kind to stay in touch with me. I sorry I haven't been around much. My MS has me too tired to funtion properly on here. It's really hard to see and focus. Now I have cataract in my glaucoma stricken right eye and I'm totally blind in it. I be on vacation end of next month on hawaii for two weeks then will be having surgery on my eye two days we return home on August 3. I can't read all here but I'll read alidzain poem and comment bc it's all I can do

I don't see, in the syllabus, that we need to give a biography of the poet - I understand it to be that we write a poem, in the style of the poet, re this later..... so I'm not doing as the others have here - am I wrong?

I understand that the next stage is to discuss the poet's reason and meaning....
where do you want us to do this?

Love judy
xxx

I think rewriting another poets poetry goes a long way toward understanding the intent of the poem. Trying to really Know the writer himself based on one or two rewrites is a different matter. Imagine somebody trying to really know me by just rewriting say......."The Delivery" and "Season of Miracles"..........stan

Now, to the biographies. One of the tenets of the workshop was to expose us to as many different poet's lives as well as their poetry. The life makes the poetry. I for one am fascinated by what I have learned of these poets.
Some of it I knew, much I did not.
Thank you to all who posted extensive bios.

Now, does someone want to write my last poem for me? Like an idiot I'm to imitate Shelley. What was I thinking?

I got busy preparing for investor pitches for my new company, and the changes that come with financing have taken their toll. Also, post pitches, I fell into depression and haven't written anything since the 6th.

But I'll do this. I realise I don't have a favourite Hardy poem, so I'll pick one at random, fall in love with it, and rewrite it. Today.

My poem is only biographical if you really stretch it. It's based on Hardy's The Darkling Thrush, and it is informed by Poetry Foundation's essay on his life, notably his somewhat bleak outlook coloured with hope. Read more about it here: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/thomas-hardy