A poem by Thomas Thornburg from Ancient Letters
His is a pose one seldom sees these days,
Right shoulder forward in a togaed pose,
The left hand togaed there, welding the lace
Like an inverted goblet lightly chased
(Above the wine-dark robe run from its rim)
To the translucence of the swan-like stem
Sweeps neck to crown of that crushed velvet [...]
Entries Tagged as 'Italy'
Bindo Altoviti
June 10th, 2008 · No Comments
Tags: History · Italy · Literature · Poetry · art
Homage to Catullus
May 29th, 2008 · No Comments
A poem by Thomas Thornburg from Ancient Letters
1
SWEET Lesbia, would you know the half
of all my pleasure when your husband laughs
delighted at your flyting and the flashing spite
that lights your countenance when we two fight?
watch out, my girl, your fat fool’s treasure,
I may absent myself and rob the only pleasure
he takes in both of us. [...]
Tags: History · Italy · Literature · Poetry · art · comedy · daily living · myth and mythology
Death in Venice on the Half Shell
April 16th, 2008 · No Comments
by John Goggin
Foot-sore and ‘mazed on Venetian streets, my Clytemnestra points;
“I see the dragon’s tongue… just there, beneath the Lion Gate!”
“How cute,” I think. Of course, she has her axe to grind;
once more I’ve made her miss her monthly maenadic tryst
with the Women’s Will to Power Club. Just so we can wander
aimlessly in the [...]
