2024 WSC LATEST UPDATE
The municipal gallery revisited
This is the poem that describes W. B. Yeats's experience going through the Municipal
Gallery in Dublin and seeing all the historical figures and recalling how they lived. It is
full of nostalgia and thankfulness for the friends he had over the years.
"Brazilian Telephone"
Miriam Bird Greenberg
This is a cautionary poem about the dangers of unintentional accidents and kids just
playing. It describes a mother busy baking and children playing trying to reenact a
science experiment. Although the poem ends before the "electrocution" we assume the
child is injured or dies. The happy and idyllic tone makes the tragedy all the more
surprising. Yet, it seems like an excuse, instead of remorse.
At the Tomb of Napoleon
by Robert G. Ingersoll
Robert G. Ingersoll was a politician and prominent orator. He made an astonishing
$3,500 a night for his brilliant and witty speeches exposing orthodox (religious)
superstitions. His very cool 3 stanza poem talks about going to the grave of Napolean
and imagining the former glory of this military genius. In paragraph one he describes a
"gold and gilt tomb - fit almost for a dead deity." Then in stanza 2, with a series of 13 "I
saw him -" he captures Napolean's achievements and failures. "I saw him walking upon
the banks of the Seine, contemplating suicide. I saw him at Toulon—I saw him putting
down the mob in the streets of Paris—I saw him at the head of the army of Italy—I saw
him crossing the bridge of Lodi with the tri-color in his hand—"
In the final stanza, he reflects about Napolean's personal losses of love and how his
acts resulted in widows and orphans. He compares Napolean to country peasants who
enjoy nature and dies loved by his family and children. In the final lines he exclaims how
all that glory is worthless - "I would rather have been that man and gone down to the
,tongueless silence of the dreamless dust, than to have been that imperial impersonation
of force and murder, known as 'Napoleon the Great."
The Czar's Last Christmas Letter: A Barn in the Urals
by Norman Dubie
The poem takes the point of view of Nicholas II, who addresses his mother, Maria
Fyodorovna Romanova. He is the heir of the Romanov family and the last Czar of
Russia.
The setting is after the royal family is being held by the Bolshevik revolutionaries. The
narrator describes Ilya an imaginary character who assembles a "choir of mutes". This
is an oxymoron and symbolizes the Czar's powerlessness during the revolution and
subsequent World War I. In the poem the Czar regrets Russia going to war with Japan
because Ilya dies and was lost to the family. His account humanizes Nicholas II, as later
he proclaims his newfound happiness now that he is not Czar. He finds happiness in
reconnecting with his estranged wife and teaching fractions to school children. The end
of the poem foreshadows the execution of the Czar's family, hinting that this may be
their last letter.
The theme of the poem shows how the idea of class is as much a psychological as a
social structure and how people’s perception of class is ingrained in their behavior.
There are many conflicts in this poem that strike at your heart, from the revolutionary
soldier calling the Czar "Great Father" to the Czar's daughter flirting with the soldiers
and he sees nothing wrong with it. The paradoxes fill us with confusion and reflection.
A Brief History of Toa Payoh
by Koh Buck Song
Toa Payoh is a town in Singapore and one of the places to go through a dramatic
transformation from village to urban center in the last 100 years. Koh Buck Song is a
prominent Singaporean poet, popular columnist, and political writer with many
achievements. Many of his poems talk about Singapore unique culture and
modernization. In this poem he seems to eulogize the loss of the "good old days" and
how it is hard to keep up with the pace of development
Buffalo Dusk
, a poem by Carl Sandburg
heck it's so short that I'll put it here :
The buffaloes are gone.
And those who saw the buffaloes are gone.
Those who saw the buffaloes by thousands and how they pawed the prairie sod into
dust with their hoofs, their great heads down pawing on in a great pageant of dusk,
Those who saw the buffaloes are gone.
And the buffaloes are gone.
My Castle in Spain
poem by John Hay (1871)
Photograph from September 11
a poem by Wislawa Szymborska that describes a photograph of people falling from the
World trade center during 911
Petroglyphs
They are rock carvings/engravings made by removing part of a rock's surface. Most
either held deep religious significance or were used as maps (they depicted surrounding
terrain along with various symbols), The first ones were created around 40,000 years
ago with the oldest cluster of them thought to be in Iran. From creation, they remained
popular until around 7,000 to 9,000 years ago when the first precursors to writing
systems were introduced. They can be found in every region in the world excluding
Antarctica but are most highly concentrated in parts of Siberia, Scandinavia and Africa.
Nsibidi
A system of pictograms indigenous to the Ejagham peoples of Southeastern Nigeria.
The system consists of several hundred symbols, many of which deal with love affairs,
and is primarily used today by the Ekpe Secret Society. Before the Nigerian colonial
era, there was a sacred and public version (more decorative - mainly used by women)
of the system. Aspects of colonial rule greatly decreased the number of nsibidi-literate
people and the two versions of the language gradually merged. During the Transatlantic
Slave Trade, the system spread to Cuba and Haiti where it developed into the Veve and
Anaforuana symbols. This system is different to the others listed in the sense that it's
still used today.
The municipal gallery revisited
This is the poem that describes W. B. Yeats's experience going through the Municipal
Gallery in Dublin and seeing all the historical figures and recalling how they lived. It is
full of nostalgia and thankfulness for the friends he had over the years.
"Brazilian Telephone"
Miriam Bird Greenberg
This is a cautionary poem about the dangers of unintentional accidents and kids just
playing. It describes a mother busy baking and children playing trying to reenact a
science experiment. Although the poem ends before the "electrocution" we assume the
child is injured or dies. The happy and idyllic tone makes the tragedy all the more
surprising. Yet, it seems like an excuse, instead of remorse.
At the Tomb of Napoleon
by Robert G. Ingersoll
Robert G. Ingersoll was a politician and prominent orator. He made an astonishing
$3,500 a night for his brilliant and witty speeches exposing orthodox (religious)
superstitions. His very cool 3 stanza poem talks about going to the grave of Napolean
and imagining the former glory of this military genius. In paragraph one he describes a
"gold and gilt tomb - fit almost for a dead deity." Then in stanza 2, with a series of 13 "I
saw him -" he captures Napolean's achievements and failures. "I saw him walking upon
the banks of the Seine, contemplating suicide. I saw him at Toulon—I saw him putting
down the mob in the streets of Paris—I saw him at the head of the army of Italy—I saw
him crossing the bridge of Lodi with the tri-color in his hand—"
In the final stanza, he reflects about Napolean's personal losses of love and how his
acts resulted in widows and orphans. He compares Napolean to country peasants who
enjoy nature and dies loved by his family and children. In the final lines he exclaims how
all that glory is worthless - "I would rather have been that man and gone down to the
,tongueless silence of the dreamless dust, than to have been that imperial impersonation
of force and murder, known as 'Napoleon the Great."
The Czar's Last Christmas Letter: A Barn in the Urals
by Norman Dubie
The poem takes the point of view of Nicholas II, who addresses his mother, Maria
Fyodorovna Romanova. He is the heir of the Romanov family and the last Czar of
Russia.
The setting is after the royal family is being held by the Bolshevik revolutionaries. The
narrator describes Ilya an imaginary character who assembles a "choir of mutes". This
is an oxymoron and symbolizes the Czar's powerlessness during the revolution and
subsequent World War I. In the poem the Czar regrets Russia going to war with Japan
because Ilya dies and was lost to the family. His account humanizes Nicholas II, as later
he proclaims his newfound happiness now that he is not Czar. He finds happiness in
reconnecting with his estranged wife and teaching fractions to school children. The end
of the poem foreshadows the execution of the Czar's family, hinting that this may be
their last letter.
The theme of the poem shows how the idea of class is as much a psychological as a
social structure and how people’s perception of class is ingrained in their behavior.
There are many conflicts in this poem that strike at your heart, from the revolutionary
soldier calling the Czar "Great Father" to the Czar's daughter flirting with the soldiers
and he sees nothing wrong with it. The paradoxes fill us with confusion and reflection.
A Brief History of Toa Payoh
by Koh Buck Song
Toa Payoh is a town in Singapore and one of the places to go through a dramatic
transformation from village to urban center in the last 100 years. Koh Buck Song is a
prominent Singaporean poet, popular columnist, and political writer with many
achievements. Many of his poems talk about Singapore unique culture and
modernization. In this poem he seems to eulogize the loss of the "good old days" and
how it is hard to keep up with the pace of development
Buffalo Dusk
, a poem by Carl Sandburg
heck it's so short that I'll put it here :
The buffaloes are gone.
And those who saw the buffaloes are gone.
Those who saw the buffaloes by thousands and how they pawed the prairie sod into
dust with their hoofs, their great heads down pawing on in a great pageant of dusk,
Those who saw the buffaloes are gone.
And the buffaloes are gone.
My Castle in Spain
poem by John Hay (1871)
Photograph from September 11
a poem by Wislawa Szymborska that describes a photograph of people falling from the
World trade center during 911
Petroglyphs
They are rock carvings/engravings made by removing part of a rock's surface. Most
either held deep religious significance or were used as maps (they depicted surrounding
terrain along with various symbols), The first ones were created around 40,000 years
ago with the oldest cluster of them thought to be in Iran. From creation, they remained
popular until around 7,000 to 9,000 years ago when the first precursors to writing
systems were introduced. They can be found in every region in the world excluding
Antarctica but are most highly concentrated in parts of Siberia, Scandinavia and Africa.
Nsibidi
A system of pictograms indigenous to the Ejagham peoples of Southeastern Nigeria.
The system consists of several hundred symbols, many of which deal with love affairs,
and is primarily used today by the Ekpe Secret Society. Before the Nigerian colonial
era, there was a sacred and public version (more decorative - mainly used by women)
of the system. Aspects of colonial rule greatly decreased the number of nsibidi-literate
people and the two versions of the language gradually merged. During the Transatlantic
Slave Trade, the system spread to Cuba and Haiti where it developed into the Veve and
Anaforuana symbols. This system is different to the others listed in the sense that it's
still used today.
