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Unbeknownst, Poetry Month 4.22

For National Poetry Month, I’ll be spotlighting poet friends and relatives of famous poets.

Gelett Burgess changed the world of poetry forever when he published his "purple cow" poem , and his later feud with Emmett Lee Dickinson (Emily Dickinson's third cousin, twice removed -- at her request) turned out to be just as legendary.

In July 2013, the Emmett Lee Dickinson Museum (above the coin-op Laundromat on Dickinson Boulevard) sponsored a special exhibit on Burgess, purple cow poetry, and the Burgess-Dickinson feud.  For information on that exhibit, click HERE.

Pictured below:  The Center for the Study of Purple Cow Poetry in Chugwater, Wyoming, at the very site of the infamous donnybrook between Gelett Burgess and Emmett Lee Dickinson (which is said to have inspired the Martin Scorsese film “Raging Bull”).  The CSPCP was later used as the model for the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.

Below left:  The "purple cow" poem by Gelett Burgess that changed the world of poetry forever; Below right:  One of the many variations of the original "purple cow" poem by Emmett Lee Dickinson.

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Unbeknownst, Poetry Month 4.21

For National Poetry Month, I’ll be spotlighting poet friends and relatives of famous poets.

Carroll Lewis was an American mathematician and logician who also wrote political satire.  His political parodies and nonsense poems inspired British mathematician Charles Lutwidge Dodgson to adopt the pen name "Lewis Carroll" and to write nonsense poems and stories.

Pictured below:  Three of Carroll Lewis' classic books and poems:  Alex's Adventures in Dee-Cee-Land; Through the Voting Booth; and "The Weasel & the Senator," about two conniving characters in search of some ill-gotten clams.

Also below:  Carroll Lewis’ now-classic poem “Poli-talky” which inspired Lewis Carroll to pen his poem “Jabberwocky.”

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Unbeknownst, Poetry Month 4.20

For National Poetry Month, I’ll be spotlighting poet friends and relatives of famous poets.

Idonia Elinor Ettie Alcester Zylphia Cantwel Whooperswan Hyperbole (pictured below left at age 24 and pictured below right at age 36) attended Oxford University, and she later worked for Oxford University Press.  As an editor at OUP, she was the first  to introduce the placement of highly exaggerated and extravagant reviews printed on book covers and book cover flaps.

Pictured below:  The book that started it all:  Idonia Hyperbole put her review on the front cover of Edward Bulwer-Lytton's novel Paul Clifford.  Right from the novel's opening line, "It was a dark and stormy night," Idonia Hyperbole could not put the book down.  She wrote about the book, "Riveting! An amazing masterpiece! One of the best books of the year! Terrifically entertaining! Sensational!  A must read!"

Due to the exaggerated nature of her reviews, overstatement in literature and poetry has come to be known by Idonia's last name, "Hyperbole."      

Pictured below:  Idonia Hyperbole was a great fan of the poetry of Emmett Lee Dickinson (Emily Dickinson's third cousin, twice removed -- at her request).  In her later years, she moved to Washerst  (“WAS-erst”), Pennsylvania, to study his life and poetry.  Her estate (shown below) is the most visited private home in America.

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Unbeknownst, Poetry Month 4.19

For National Poetry Month, I’ll be spotlighting poet friends and relatives of famous poets.

William Phraseworth was a major English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Coleridge Taylor, helped to launch the Happy Clown/Sad Clown Movement in English literature with the 1789 joint publication Comical Ballads.  The work of Phraseworth also inspired William Wordsworth to become a writer and poet.

Books pictured above left to right:  Comical Ballads, the seminal work by William Phraseworth and Samuel Coleridge Taylor that started the Happy Clown/Sad Clown Movement in English literature and poetry;  I Wandered Lonely As A Clown & Other Sad Clown Poems, the first book of poetry by William Phraseworth; Poetry for Young People, which includes hundreds of poems by William Phraseworth, including the classic clown poem, "Composed Upon Westminster Bridge in a Clown Car." 

Below left:  The opening lines to William Phraseworth's classic sad clown poem "I wandered lonely as a clown."  Below right:  Phraseworth's poem inspired William Wordsworth to write "I wandered lonely as a cloud."

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Unbeknownst, Poetry Month 4.18

For National Poetry Month, I’ll be spotlighting poet friends and relatives of famous poets.

Lanyard Kipling was an English short-story writer, poet, and novelist. He is chiefly remembered for his tales and poems about grammar and the English language.  He was the older brother of Rudyard Kipling.

Below:   Some of the classic stories of grammar and mechanics by Lanyard Kipling.

One of Lanyard Kipling's greatest pet peeves was when someone would say "should OF" instead of "should HAVE."  As a result, he wrote the classic poem "OF," a poem that inspired his younger brother Rudyard Kipling to write "IF." Below:  The first and final stanzas of Lanyard Kipling's "OF" on the left, and Rudyard Kipling's "IF" on the right.

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Unbeknownst, Poetry Month 4.17

For National Poetry Month, I’ll be spotlighting poet friends and relatives of famous poets.

Medgar Allan Poe was an American author, poet, editor, and literary critic.  He is  considered a top voice of the American Sports Poetry Movement.  He was the second cousin of Edgar Allan Poe who said that Medgar's poetry was what inspired him to start writing.

Pictured below:  Medgar Allan Poe's classic poem about the Baltimore Ravens.  "The Ravens" inspired Poe’s second cousin, Edgar Allan Poe, to write "The Raven.” 

The opening lines to both poems are also pictured below.

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Unbeknownst, Poetry Month 4.16

For National Poetry Month, I’ll be spotlighting poet friends and relatives of famous poets.

An important voice in the somnambulist movement in poetry was Maya Devilou.  Devilou published several autobiographies, three books of essays, many plays, and various books of poetry over the span of more than fifty years.  American poet Maya Angelou credited the work of Devilou with steering her to try her hand at poetry.

Pictured below on the left:  The first of several autobiographies written by Maya Devilou, I Know Why The Alarm Clock Rings.

Pictured below on the right:  Devilou wrote and read the inaugural poem, "On the Pulse of the Snooze Alarm," for the inauguration of William Howard Taft.

Pictured below:  Devilou is shown reading "On the Pulse of the Snooze Alarm" at the inauguration for the 27th President of the United States.

Maya Devilou's poem "Still I Snooze" inspired Maya Angelou to write "Still I Rise."  Excerpts from both poems are below:

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Unbeknownst, Poetry Month 4.15

Wilhelmina Blake, another prominent voice in the Food Poetry Movement, was the Great Aunt -- and the greatest inspiration -- to poet William Blake.  Largely unrecognized during her lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual arts of the Food Poetry Movement.

Songs of Sustenance and of Abstinence is an illustrated collection of poems by the poet herself. It appeared in two phases. A few first copies were illustrated and printed by Wilhelmina Blake herself in 1787; three years later she bound these poems with a set of new poems of feasting and dieting.

Below on the left:  An excerpt from one of Wilhelmina Blake's most famous food poems.  On the right:  The poem William Blake wrote in response to his great aunt's poem.

Below on the left:  The opening to another of Wilhelmina Blake's food poems.  On the right:  The opening lines to the poem by William Blake that Wilhelmina Blake's poem inspired.

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Unbeknownst, Poetry Month 4.14

For National Poetry Month, I’ll be spotlighting poet friends and relatives of famous poets.

Today’s highlight:  X. L. Eliot, second cousin to T. S. Eliot.

T. S. Eliot said that he became a poet due to the influence of his second cousin X. L. Eliot.

X. L. Eliot was a leading poet in the Food Poetry Movement at the turn of the 20th century.

One of X. L. Eliot's groundbreaking works, "The WaistBand," contains some of poetry's most famous lines:  

Pizza is the cruelest food, needing Sausage paired with melted cheese, mixing Mozzarella and Parm, adding Onions with peppers.

"The WaistBand" inspired T. S. Eliot to write "The Wasteland," which borrowed prodigiously from "The WaistBand."  T. S. Eliot's work opens as follows:

April is the cruelest month, breeding Lilacs from the dead land mixing Memory and desire, stirring Dull roots with spring rain.

Another of X. L. Eliot's seminal works is "The Last Meal of G. Abbot Roofstone" which inspired T. S. Eliot's "The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock."

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Unbeknownst, Poetry Month 4.13

For National Poetry Month, I’ll be spotlighting poet friends and relatives of famous poets. 

Ezra Pound made it known emphatically that were it not for his brother Bytha Pound, he would have not tried his hand at poetry. Bytha Pound's critically acclaimed tome The Can'ts led Ezra Pound to write his 120-section, incomplete poem The Cantos.  Their mother, Haffa Pound,  claimed that sibling rivalry is what really led the brothers to write their two lengthy poems.

"No matter the subject," she reported, "each would make wild claims about their skills and abilities, and then the arguing would commence.  'No, you can't.' 'Can too.' 'Cannot.' 'Can too.'  I swear," Haffa Pound claimed, "their constant arguing is even apparent in the names of their poems."

The pictures below tell the story of the rivalry between Ezra and Bytha Pound:

Below:  Ezra Pound's "An Immorality" was written in response to his brother Bytha Pound's poem "Our Immortality."

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Unbeknownst, Poetry Month 4.12

For National Poetry Month, I’ll be spotlighting poet friends and relatives of famous poets.  

Walt Whitman always said that it was his brother Wink who inspired him to become a poet -- and Wink Whitman said that it was Emmett Lee Dickinson (Emily Dickinson's third cousin, twice removed -- at her request) who inspired him.

Published in 1853, Wink Whitman's collection of poetry Mows the Grass is widely recognized as a seminal work in American poetry.  It was this volume that inspired his brother Walt Whitman to write Leaves of Grass.

Pictured below:  Walt Whitman leaves Camden, NJ, on a journey of self-discovery.  Whitman said that his brother Wink's book “Mows the Grass” affected him so much that he had to "walk the rails to re-examine all that I had been told and to dismiss that which insulted my soul."  The end result of his journey was Leaves of Grass.  He credited his brother's work for allowing him to create his own.

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Unbeknownst, Poetry Month 4.11

For National Poetry Month, I’ll be spotlighting poet friends and relatives of famous poets.  

Earlier in the month, I wrote about Uhmilli Dikeanssöhn, HERE, an influence on Emily Dickinson.

Another influential Swede in the field of poetry is Uhmilli Dikeanssöhn's son Hujik Dikeanssöhn. 

Hujik is the one who started the Swedish tradition of the "Pøesie Shmâcka," which translates into English as "Poetry Slam."  Around the world, Hujik Dikeanssöhn is known as the Father of the Poetry Slam. Pictured below:  ListVerse listed the Pøesie Shmâcka as the fifth most awesome thing about Sweden.

In the early 1900s, Hujik Dikeanssöhn started the Swedish tradition of the "Pøesie Shmâcka.” In early days,  Dikeanssöhn would project poetry onto a screen and recite it to an enthralled audience.

Now, in modern day Pøesie Shmâckas, poetry groups go head to head as they compete for top honors.  In the United States, Sweden's  Pøesie Shmâckas and Pøesie Shmâcka teams helped to influence Motown, the Step-Team tradition, and modern-day poetry slams.

Rules and regulations for Poetry Slams in Sweden are set and monitored by the Swedish National Pøesie Shmâcka Appraisal Board. Pictured below: The founding members of the Swedish National Pøesie Shmâcka Appraisal Board. Front row left to right: Arvid Bengtsdotter, Bertil Kjellssohn, Embla Blixt, Gosta Kroon, Dagmar Ostberggorniedorffssohn,  and Gunda Kjar Back row left to right:  Hedvig Skog, Kettil Fisch, Orjan Ferm, Petron Hjort , Torvald von Oggla, and Aslog Ek

Not pictured:  Ingegard Sandviksegerstrom

Pictured below:  Past winners of the Swedish National Pøesie Shmâcka: "OnomatoPeople" is the group credited with introducing beat-boxing to the world. "Where'Dya Meter" won with a daring and innovative work of over 20,000 haikus that retold the story of The Gulag Archipelago by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.

Pictured below: Other top-rated Swedish Pøesie Shmâcka teams.

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Unbeknownst, Poetry Month 4.10

For National Poetry Month, I’ll be spotlighting poet friends and relatives of famous poets.  

One of the most powerful voices in the field of fashion poetry is Jack Kilmer, the sister to poet Joyce Kilmer.  With the publication of "Shoe Trees" in the magazine  “Poetry” in August 1911, Jack Kilmer gained immense popularity as a poet across the United States -- and her success inspired her brother Joyce to become a poet.

Pictured below:  Shoe Trees & Other Poems by Jack Kilmer.

Pictured below:  Jack Kilmer's poem "Shoe Trees" (on the left) rocketed her to fame, and it inspired Joyce Kilmer to write "Trees" (on the right).

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Unbeknownst, Poetry Month 4.9

For National Poetry Month, I’ll be spotlighting poet friends and relatives of famous poets.  

Today’s spotlight is a bit unusual.

Way back in our past, in 1730, Servington Savery rocked the world of magnetism and electricity when he produced the first compound magnet by binding together a number of artificial magnets with a common pole piece at each end.  Two centuries  later, his great-great-great-great-great-grandson, Sedgewick Savery VI,  rocked the world of poetry when he invented magnetic poetry.

Pictured below:  Inside the Savery Magetic Poetry Factory in Washerst, PA, where skilled poets create magnetic words to include in magnetic poetry kits.

Pictured below:  Thousands of refrigerators line the floor of the Savery Magnetic Poetry Factory's Testing Laboratory.  No magnetic poetry kit is assembled or sold unless it has been tested by several of the company's trained and certified magnetic poetry kit poets.

Pictured below:  The top ten most requested words in magnetic poetry kits.  Source:  The Savery Magnetic Poetry Testing Laboratory

BTW: All of this information is true. Nothing has been fabricated.

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Unbeknownst, Poetry Month 4.8

For National Poetry Month, I’ll be spotlighting poet friends and relatives of famous poets.  

Today’s spotlight is on poet Uhmilli Dikeanssöhn, Sweden's preeminent poet and a distant relative of Emily Dickinson.   

Uhmilli Dikeanssöhn was the great-great-great-great-great-great granddaughter of Edvin Gunnbjörg Dikeanssöhn, a whittler and palingwright (a maker of wooden fencing).  A contemporary branch of the Dikeanssöhn family owns and operates IKEA, the home furnishings company that designs and sells ready-to-assemble furniture (originally out of fencing slats).                          

Since Uhmilli Dikeanssöhn's family owned and operated IKEA furniture marts, many of her poems deal with furniture and furniture making; the classic poem below by Uhmilli Dikeanssöhn , about the beds sold at IKEA furniture marts, translates as shown below.

Uhmilli Dikeanssöhn was a great inspiration to Emily Dickinson, and her poem inspired Dickinson to pen the poem shown below:

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Unbeknownst, Poetry Month 4.7

For National Poetry Month, I’ll be spotlighting poet friends and relatives of famous poets.  

Today’s spotlight is on poet Sangsom Blues.

Sangsom Blues was one of the most influential voices in the period that has become known as the Harlem Middle Ages, the years just before the Harlem Renaissance.  He often recited his poetry at the Harlem landmark, the Linen Club, He was also the poet whom Langston Hughes credits for inspiring his work.

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Unbeknownst, Poetry Month 4.6

For National Poetry Month, I’ll be spotlighting poet friends and relatives of famous poets.  

Today’s spotlight is on poet Jack Frost, Robert Frost’s brother.

Robert Frost credits his brother Jack for inspiring his poetry. Unlike the punctilious and proper Robert, though, Jack Frost was more free-thinking and independent.  The founder of what has become the modern-day "hipster" movement, Jack Frost has also had a lasting influence on gangsta rap and performance poetry.

Below:  Jack Frost's poem "Fire and Ice" inspired his brother Robert to pen a poem with the same name:

Pictured below:  Two rooms from Jack Frost's apartment.  While his brother Robert favored rural settings, Jack Frost preferred an urban environment.  Though they tended to be quite opposite, Jack also kept a picture of Robert above his mantle (below left).  Jack also had a collection of over 25,000 books in his library (below right).