This page is an archive of the 'Did you know ...' sections featured on the Poetry Portal. This is Week 44 2024
Archives: 2006
- ...that Percy Bysshe Shelley's poem Ozymandias was written in competition with another on the same subject by his friend Horace Smith?
- ...that one theory for the origin of the word Dada, meaning hobby-horse, is that it was randomly chosen from the dictionary by a group of artists?
- ...that many of the medical writings of Avicenna were written in verse?
- ... that English novelist Thomas Hardy, after the overwhelmingly negative reaction to his novels Tess of the d'Urbervilles and Jude the Obscure, published his first collection of poetry at the age of 58 and devoted the remaining 30 years of his life solely to poetry?
- ... that Russian lyrical poet Alexander Blok, a key figure in the Russian Symbolist movement, was married to the daughter of chemist Dmitri Mendeleev, primary creator of the first version of the periodic table of elements?
- ... that one unintended side-effect of the British Army presence in Egypt in World War II was the creation of the loose groups known as the Cairo poets, which included such figures as Lawrence Durrell and Keith Douglas?
- ... that the painter Jules Adolphe Aimé Louis Breton also published a volume of poetry?
- ... the Polish novelist, dramatist and poet Stanisław Przybyszewski's turbulent and troubled life included a marriage to Dagny Juel, a model for several of Edvard Munch's paintings, whose life ended tragically, shot by her lover in a small hotel in Tbilisi??
- ... the French poet Charles Cros almost invented the phonograph?
- ... that American poet and editor Alfred Kreymborg also played chess at a professional level, losing on two occasions to world champion José Raúl Capablanca?
- ... that German poet Eduard Mörike was also a Lutheran pastor?
- ... that publisher Thomas Thorpe might have published Shakespeare's sonnets without his permission?
- ... that Andrew Marvell convinced King Charles II not to execute John Milton for his antimonarchial writings?
- ... that the first American Poet Laureate was Joseph Auslander?
- ... that the current American Poet Laureate is Donald Hall?
- ... upon Emily Dickinson's death, her family found 800 poems in 40 handbound volumes of her poetry?
- ... that Virgil's The Aeneid was used to glorify Rome and assert the legitimacy of the Julio-Claudian Dynasty?
- ... that Albanian poet Aleksander Stavre Drenova wrote the Albanian national anthem?
- ... that William Cowper suffered from severe depression?
- ... that Nobel laureate Joseph Brodsky was one of four Saint Petersburg poets known as Akhmatova's Orphans?
- ... that Bengali poet Kaykobad had his first work published at the age of 13?
- ... that G. K. Chesterton was nicknamed the "prince of paradox"?
- ... that Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's wife died after her dress ignited from an ember in the fireplace? Longfellow wrote a poem about this, The Cross of Snow, which is this week's selected poem.
- .... that Samuel Johnson is probably the man who coined the term Metaphysical poets?
- ... that the Black Mountain poets, sometimes called the Projectivist poets, were a group of mid 20th century American avant-garde or postmodern poets centered around Black Mountain College?
- ... that Ern Malley was an apocyphal Australian poet invented by the poet James McAuley and his friend Harold Stewart, and was the author of a series of poems. The victim of the hoax was Max Harris?
- ... that English poet Fulke Greville was murdered (somewhat illogically) by one of his servants who was disappointed at not being included in his will?
... that Denise Levertov was born in England, and only moved to the United States in her mid 20's?
... that Serbian epic poetry typically has unrhymed lined of 10 syllables with a caesura after the fourth syllable?
... that poet James Laughlin wrote a poem called Experience of Blood after discovering his son's dead self-slain corpse in the bathtub? One of Laughlin's other, more positive poems is featured this week.
... that Torquato Tasso was kept in a hospital for the insane for more than 7 years?
... that T. S. Eliot won the Nobel Prize for Literature?
- ... that William Ernest Henley had his foot amputated as a result of Tuberculosis?
- ... that Rudyard Kipling's poem If— is the most anthologized poem of all time in the English Language?
- ... that at least two of Shakespeare's plays have been lost? They are Love's Labour's Won and Cardenio.
- ... that P. G. Wodehouse wrote some light verse?
- ...that many of the medical writings of Avicenna were written in verse?
... that the title of Maya Angelou's book I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is taken from the poem "Sympathy" by Paul Laurence Dunbar?
... that Francis Scott Key, who wrote the United States National Anthem, was principally a lawyer?
... that Zbigniew Herbert advocated 'semantic transparency' in poetry?
... that Sengalese poet Léopold Sédar Senghor served as the first president of Senegal?
- ... that German poet Eduard Mörike was also a Lutheran pastor?
- ... that publisher Thomas Thorpe might have published Shakespeare's sonnets without his permission?
- ... that Andrew Marvell convinced King Charles II not to execute John Milton for his antimonarchial writings?
- ... that Alexandre O'Neill was also a writer of advertising slogans?
- ... that Robert Herrick was also a vicar?
- ... that Donald Hall published a book of poetry on the 15th anniversary of Jane Kenyon's death?
- ... that the first American Poet Laureate was Joseph Auslander?
- ... that the current American Poet Laureate is Donald Hall?
- ... upon Emily Dickinson's death, her family found 800 poems in 40 handbound volumes of her poetry?
- ... that English novelist Thomas Hardy, after the overwhelmingly negative reaction to his novels Tess of the d'Urbervilles and Jude the Obscure, published his first collection of poetry at the age of 58 and devoted the remaining 30 years of his life solely to poetry?
- ... that Russian lyrical poet Alexander Blok, a key figure in the Russian Symbolist movement, was married to the daughter of chemist Dmitri Mendeleev, primary creator of the first version of the periodic table of elements?
- ... that one unintended side-effect of the British Army presence in Egypt in World War II was the creation of the loose groups known as the Cairo poets, which included such figures as Lawrence Durrell and Keith Douglas?
- ... that William Ernest Henley had his foot amputated as a result of Tuberculosis?
- ... that Rudyard Kipling's poem If— is the most anthologized poem of all time in the English Language?
- ... that at least two of Shakespeare's plays have been lost? They are Love's Labour's Won and Cardenio.
- ... that Hart Crane is reported to have called out "Goodbye, everybody!" as he jumped overboard into the Gulf of Mexico?
- During the movement for abolition of slavery in the United States, poetry was often read at rallies. Among the prominent authors of abolitionist poems were Phyllis Wheatley, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Ralph Waldo Emerson.
- Hu Shih's program of reform for Chinese literature was inspired by Ezra Pound's "A Few Don'ts by an Imagiste", which was in turn inspired by Classical Chinese Poetry?
- That Latin, Greek, and Anglo-Saxon poetry did not use rhyme, but poetry written in Old Irish and Arabic did?
- That Latin, Greek, and Anglo-Saxon poetry did not use rhyme, but poetry written in Old Irish and Arabic did?