And yes, it seems we are moved by similar poems.

The guy who reads the Patrick O’Brian novels is terrific.

Astonishing: Simon Winchester did a book on the origin of the Oxford English Dictionary. Can you believe it, it was fascinating. I heard it read, presumably by him. Really great.

Various people have read or put Kipling to music on youtube. See Gunga Din by Michael Farrow. He tells it as prose, and you can barely hear the rhyme and scan. Excellent.

Millay knew a lot about heartbreak, from both sides.

Here’s another sonnet of hers that I like:

What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why,
I have forgotten, and what arms have lain
Under my head till morning; but the rain
Is full of ghosts tonight, that tap and sigh
Upon the glass and listen for reply,
And in my heart there stirs a quiet pain
For unremembered lads that not again
Will turn to me at midnight with a cry.
Thus in winter stands the lonely tree,
Nor knows what birds have vanished one by one,
Yet knows its boughs more silent than before:
I cannot say what loves have come and gone,
I only know that summer sang in me
A little while, that in me sings no more.

https://libertyunyielding.com/2018/03/02/facebook-fact-checks-threatens-christian-satire-site-babylon-bee-know-satire-post/

“The Babylon Bee, often called a sort of Christian-themed Onion, has been making people laugh for the last two years (as of Thursday, 1 March), with — in Wikipedia’s words — “over-the-top fake stories focusing on well known pastors, celebrities, and politicians.”

Much of the fun comes simply from Christian doctrine, framed for a chuckle.
…
So when it posted the following story on 1 March 2018, it was a pretty good bet it was, you know, satire.

CNN Purchases Industrial-Sized Washing Machine To Spin News Before Publication

…
But it comes off as just a little over the top for Facebook to warn Babylon Bee that the “CNN washing machine” post had been fact-checked by Snopes.com*, and was disputed by same, and if Babylon Bee became a “repeat offender,” the site would see its “distribution reduced” and its “ability to monetize and advertised [sic] removed.”
…
another user posted a screen cap of the warning he received from Facebook when he clicked on the “CNN washing machine” post.”

* *
Snopes does know that the BB is a satire site, but the fact that they would even give a fact-check rating instead of just saying, “Dude, get a life” is ridiculous.
* *
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/cnn-washing-machine/
CNN invested in an industrial-sized washing machine to help their journalists and news anchors spin the news before publication.

RATING
FALSE
ORIGIN
On 1 March 2018, the Babylon Bee web site published an article reporting that CNN had made a significant investment in heavy machinery to assist their journalists “spin” the news they report:

…
Although it should have been obvious that the Babylon Bee piece was just a spoof of the ongoing political brouhaha over alleged news media “bias” and “fake news,” some readers missed that aspect of the article and interpreted it literally. But the site’s footer gives away the Babylon Bee’s nature by describing it as “Your Trusted Source For Christian News Satire,” and the site has been responsible for a number of other (usually religious-themed) spoofs that have been mistaken for real news articles.”

MainStreamMedia: why nobody believes you are “trusted news” any longer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_98m4Vod6_8

How learning German taught me the link between maths and poetry | Harry Baker | TEDxVienna

THE MATH LESSON

I studied my tables over and over,
and backward and forward too,
But I couldn’t remember “6 times 9”
and I didn’t know what to do.

‘Til Sister told me to play with my doll,
and not to bother my head.
“If you call her “Fifty-four” for awhile,
you’ll learn it by heart,” she said.

So I took my favorite, Mary Ann,
(though I thought ’twas a dreadful shame,
to call such a perfectly lovely girl
such a perfectly horrid name),

And I called her “my dear little Fifty-four”
a hundred times, ’til I knew
the answer to “6 times 9” as well
as the answer to “2 times 2.”

Next day, Elizabeth Wigglesworth
(who always acts so proud)
said, “Six times nine if fifty-two,”
and I almost laughed aloud.

But I wished I hadn’t when Teacher said,
“Now, Dorothy, tell if you can.”
For I thought of my doll,
and sakes alive!
I answered, “Mary Ann!”

This was easily my favorite book as a middle-grader, and for many years afterword. It seems a bit simplistic now (because I am decades older) but I would love my grandkids to read it.

http://thefederalist.com/2018/03/06/a-wrinkle-in-time-stripped-of-christianity-can-only-disappoint/

“Are ideas and stories, books written by other people, just a jumping off point for a story that is adjacent to the story that Hollywood wants to tell? This isn’t a critique reserved specifically for “A Wrinkle in Time.” There are incredibly detailed lists for other franchises, like “Harry Potter” or “The Lord of the Rings” (and “The Hobbit”), where fans and even scholars dissect why and what the movies left out and changed. When a movie is written and created based on a story contained in a book, it’s a fair assumption that the story will resemble the book.

There are also fans who are willing to tolerate and overlook changes as long as the essence of the story is preserved. They’ll love the movie as much as the book, as long the feelings and the best and most vital parts of a story are carried into the movie. The concerns coming out about “A Wrinkle in Time” are that it very well might alienate not only the fans who crave and seek story telling perfection, but also those who desire the thematic and structural elements of a story to be left alone.

If a movie can’t tell a story that is lovable and recognizable to the people who have cherished and dissected the story in book form, it’s entirely possible that it’s strayed too far. These qualms have nothing to do with the cast, which looks entirely fantastic and talented, but rather with the decision to strip away the deeply interwoven Christianity of the story and leave behind instead a generic universalist moralism.
…
It’s a little astonishing to see Lee in one breath say that L’Engle’s Christian faith, which was a vital and formative part of her life, that she used it to express her ideas of frustration about how the world treats people in her novels was just an element, but then in the next explain the the story is actually about good vs. evil without seeing the disconnect. A story by a Christian author who made deliberate choices to incorporate Christian themes in a story about good vs. evil is a story with Christianity as a central theme, not just some minor element to be shrugged off.”

Mrs Whatsit: You’re welcome. We seem to share a similar taste in poetry.

Do you have any inside dope on the new “Wrinkle in Time” movie?