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Poetry is Fun
Mr Ken Willis
10th
June 2010
Ti
Tum Ti Tum Ti Tum.
What a way to start a talk, but to Ken Willis it was an illustration of Iambic
Pentameter the rhythm used in much of poetry up until the beginning of the
1900’s. He told us “Poetry is Fun” and proceeded to prove it with his
readings and recitals of
amusing verse from Shakespeare to Cole Porter and Robert Frost.
We heard the humorous verse of E.B.Rieu , the
change of rhythm in “Paradise Lost”, and Robert Browning’s “How they
brought the Good News from
Ghent
to Aix” without ever finding out what that good news was. Children’s
poetry such as the works of AA Milne was recited along with that of Hilaire
Belloc’s “George” and “Matilda” before
Ken told us about the use of metaphor and alliteration in poetry.
If the English Language is mentioned so should be Churchill,
and his use of poetry by Thomas Moore and Arthur Hugh Clough was illustrated
in his messages to the people at the beginning of the Second World War.
Wit was Ken’s penultimate subject before he finished with that great
composer and lyricist Cole Porter’s wonderful song “Brush up your
Shakespeare” from “Kiss me Kate”.
This was our last meeting of this session. We start again on Thursday 9th
September at 10-00am in The Methodist Church Hall
on Walkergate when Mr H Waring
will tell us about his father in his talk The Life and Career of Eddie Waring.
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