Reeta Chakrabarti reads 'On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer' by John Keats for Keats-Shelley200
#KeatsShelley200 #KS200
Celebrations for the bicentenaries of John Keats and Percy Bysshe Shelley's deaths started at the beginning of 2020 and will continue for the next two years. Here's another video from our Launch Party for Keats-Shelley200 in February this year, in which Reeta Chakrabarti reads 'On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer' by John Keats.
-----------------------------
Le celebrazioni per il bicentenario delle morti di John Keats e Percy Bysshe Shelley sono iniziate all'inizio del 2020 e continueranno per i prossimi due anni. Ecco un altro video del nostro party per il lancio di Keats-Shelley200 a febbraio di quest'anno, in cui Reeta Chakrabarti legge "On First Looking into Chapman's Homer" di John Keats.
La Belle Dame Sans Merci
As we approach the bicenteneries of the deaths of Keats and Shelley in Italy, actor and Keats-Shelley200 Ambassador Julian Sands joined us in Rome to commemorate the bicentenary of Keats's voyage with an intense intimate reading from the Essential Poems of John Keats and Percy Bysshe Shelley published by the Keats-Shelley House in Rome.
We're so looking forward to the release of Human OAK, a short film inspired by Percy Bysshe Shelley's Ode to the West Wind, which this year celebrates the bicentenary of its publication.
The film stars Anna Valle and is an Indian/Italian collaboration conceived, written and directed by filmmaker Ulisse Lendaro, and co-produced with Jitendra Mishra of Cinema4good, a production company based in India.
Human OAK was shot and edited during the Covid-19 lockdown, and is the only Italian-Indian co-production made during that time.
We can't wait to see it soon, but in the meantime here's the trailer and an article (in the comments below) which appeared in Il Giornale di Vicenza this weekend.
#RomanticFacts #KeatsShelley200
In the several memoirs that Joseph Severn wrote to remember and pay tribute to his late friend John Keats, Severn always maintained that Keats wrote the final version of the sonnet 'Bright Star' in September 1820 on a blank leaf in a folio volume of Shakespeare's 'Poems', aboard the schooner Maria Crowther which would take them to Italy the following month.
It is unclear when Keats actually started working on the poem but in 1917 the English curator and literary critic Sidney Colvin found a copy of the poem transcribed by Charles Brown and dated 1819. After this discovery critics and scholars speculated on the actual date of the composition and on whether the sonnet was initially meant to be for Fanny Brawne, with some even saying that the poem was probably at first inspired by Isabella Jones, a former crush of Keats, and eventually adapted by him for Miss Brawne.
Nevertheless, whether Ms.Jones was the initial muse who inspired the poem or not, 'Bright Star' will forever be associated with Miss Brawne's name, as 'a declaration of Keats's love to her', to use Robert Gittings words. In fact, Keats had already referred to her as 'a Bright Star in a letter dated 25 July 1819.
Rosie Cavaliero reads 'When I have Fears That I May Cease to Be' for Keats-Shelley200
#KeatsShelley200 #KS200
As many of you know in the following two years we will celebrate the bicentenaries of John Keats and Percy Bysshe Shelley's deaths, who died in 1821 and 1822 respectively.
We already started our celebrations by posting some videos of readings from our launch party of Keats-Shelley200 on 6 February 2020, but we will soon post more from other events as well so keep following our page as well as our News section on our website (https://ksh.roma.it/) for all the latest news and videos. Meanwhile we'd like to share with you another video from our launch party, with actress and Keats-Shelley200 Ambassador Rosie Cavaliero reading Keats's beautiful sonnet 'When I have Fears That I May Cease to Be.'
------------------------------
Come molti di voi sanno, nei prossimi due anni celebreremo i bicentenari delle morti di John Keats e Percy Bysshe Shelley, morti rispettivamente nel 1821 e nel 1822. Abbiamo già iniziato le nostre celebrazioni pubblicando alcuni video delle letture tenutesi durante la nostra festa di lancio di Keats-Shelley200 il 6 febbraio 2020, ma presto ne pubblicheremo altri riguardanti altri eventi, quindi continuate a seguire la nostra pagina e la nostra sezione News sul nostro sito web (https://ksh.roma.it/) per tutte le ultime notizie e gli ultimi video. Nel frattempo vorremmo condividere con voi un altro video della nostra festa di lancio, con l'attrice e ambasciatrice di Keats-Shelley200 Rosie Cavaliero mentre legge il bellissimo sonetto di Keats "Quando la paura di morire mi prende''.
Reeta Chakrabarti reads 'Ozymandias' by Percy Bysshe Shelley for Keats-Shelley200
#KeatsShelley200 #KS200
This week we're sharing a video of our Keats-Shelley200 Ambassador Reeta Chakrabarti reading Percy Byshe Shelley's poem 'Ozymandias', one of her favourites from the 'Essential Poems of John Keats and Percy Bysshe Shelley' published by the Keats-Shelley House. The poem was read at the launch party of Keats-Shelley200 on 6 February 2020.
---------------------------------------------
Questa settimana vogliamo condividere un video della nostra ambasciatrice Keats-Shelley200, Reeta Chakrabarti, mentre legge la poesia di Percy Bysshe Shelley 'Ozymandias', una delle sue preferite dalla raccoolta 'Essential Poems of John Keats and Percy Bysshe Shelley' pubblicata dalla Keats-Shelley House. La poesia è stata letta alla cerimonia di lancio di Keats-Shelley200 il 6 febbraio 2020.
Richard Holmes reads from 'The Mask of Anarchy' by Percy Bysshe Shelley for Keats-Shelley200
#OnThisDay #KeatsShelley200 #KS200
On 16 August 1819, an estimated 60,000 working-class people marched in Manchester, England, in a revolt against the political elite, and all because they wanted the right to vote. The peaceful protest turned bloody and the tragedy - which came to be known as the Peterloo Massacre - was immortalised by Percy Bysshe Shelley in his poem 'The Mask of Anarchy'.
Here's Shelley biographer and Keats-Shelley200 Ambassador Richard Holmes reading an extract from this chilling, scathing masterpiece.
----------------------------------------------
Il 16 agosto del 1819, circa 60.000 persone della classe operaia marciarono in protesta a Manchester, in Inghilterra, in rivolta contro l'elite politica per rivendicare il diritto di voto. La pacifica protesta si trasformò in sanguinosa e la tragedia - che divenne nota come il massacro di Peterloo - fu immortalata da Percy Bysshe Shelley nella sua poesia "La maschera dell'anarchia".
Ecco qui il biografo di Shelley e ambasciatore di Keats-Shelley200, Richard Holmes, mentre legge un estratto di questo capolavoro agghiacciante e sprezzante.
bit.ly/3kMysN7
#Shelley200 #KS200
In June 1820, 200 years ago, Percy Bysshe Shelley completed his famous poem ‘To a Skylark.’
Shelley was inspired to write the poem after an evening walk he took with his wife Mary. As Mary later described: ‘It was on a beautiful summer evening while wandering among the lanes whose myrtle hedges were the bowers of the fire-flies, that we heard the carolling of the skylark.’
The poem is a search for an ideal world, and Shelley plays throughout the poem with the idea of the bird being both real and unreal at the same time. The Skylark is in fact a real bird as Shelley makes continuous references to bird's flight, song and physical attributes, but it is also a symbol of pure joy, a 'blithe spirit'. In this way Shelley explores the relationship between opposites such as the attainable and unattainable, the ideal and the real, the transience of life and immortality.
Shelley's Skylark, like John Keats's Nightingale, despite being a mortal creature is also a symbol of immortality through its timeless song. However, unlike the Nightingale, whose joy produces 'heart aches', the Skylark makes Shelley aspire to at least 'half the gladness' that the bird must know. In this sense the Skylark is also a double of the poet, whose hymns are like the bird's melody. The only difference is that the bird lives in a state of bliss while the poet, and by extension all mankind, cannot achieve pure joy without also experiencing pain.
When Shelley composed the poem he was experiencing some difficulties related to his financial situation and personal relationships. Therefore, the poem is not just an expression of joy but a nostalgic longing for an idealised joyous existence.
Mick Jagger reading Percy Shelley’s ‘Adonais’
#OnThisDay
On this day in 1821, Percy Bysshe Shelley wrote a letter to his friends John and Maria Gisborne regarding a poem he had just started composing, which turned out to be ‘a highly wrought piece of art’:
‘I have been engaged these last days in composing a poem on the death of Keats, which will shortly be finished; and I anticipate the pleasure of reading it to you, as some of the very few persons who will be interested in it and understand it. It is a highly wrought piece of art, and perhaps better, in point of composition, than anything I have written’.
Rumour has it, that when Shelley died his heart (or liver, as the case may be), which had resisted burning during the cremation of his body, was removed and donated to his wife Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley who wrapped it in silk and placed it between the pages of Adonais. The story goes that Mary believed the final stanza to be a prophecy of Shelley’s destiny, as it eerily alludes to being out at sea in a tempest.
Mick Jagger read some stanzas of Adonais in London’s Hyde Park, on 5 July 1969, in a memorial concert to Brian Jones, founder member of The Rolling Stones, who had died a few days earlier from drowning in his swimming pool. After Jagger finished reading his poetic tribute, the Stones began to play and thousands of white butterflies were released from cardboard boxes.
The Keats-Shelley House Poetry Prize for Schools 2020 - Announcement of this year’s winners live from the House in Rome
Unveiling of a statue to Lord Byron
To Autum / All’autunno
‘E i canti di primavera? Dove sono?’ / 'Where are the songs of Spring? Aye, where are they?'
Un viaggio nella poesia di John Keats il cui ricordo è ancora oggi custodito dalla Keats-Shelley House di Piazza di Spagna a Roma: per ricordare quanta bellezza ci aspetta.
Le nostre porte sono chiuse, è vero, ma la memoria è sempre in movimento.
Grazie all’Associazione Nazionale Case della Memoria per averci realizzato questo filmato animato da Lisa Capaccioli.
The second part of the procedure on William Wetmore Story’s portrait bust of Shelley - a highly delicate work that we hope our restorer will soon be able to resume.
Good morning to all our supporters.
In this video, shot last week, our restorer Rita Canneori shows us the first part of a cleaning procedure with agar agar gel which she’s using on our portrait bust of Shelley, by William Wetmore Story, 1876 c.
Our reopening will be an occasion to celebrate all of the restored busts, as well as the life and death masks of Keats and the portrait cameos from our collection, together with the restoration of our historic ceilings, completed a few weeks ago.
Julian Sands reads Ode to Melancholy at the Keats-Shelley House
Here is another video from the same performance of Julian Sands. This time it's Keats's turn: his 1819 'Ode on Melancholy' comes back to life thanks to Julian's passionate, powerful voice.
No, no, go not to Lethe, neither twist
Wolf's-bane, tight-rooted, for its poisonous wine;
Nor suffer thy pale forehead to be kiss'd
By nightshade, ruby grape of Proserpine;
Make not your rosary of yew-berries,
Nor let the beetle, nor the death-moth be
Your mournful Psyche, nor the downy owl
A partner in your sorrow's mysteries;
For shade to shade will come too drowsily,
And drown the wakeful anguish of the soul.
But when the melancholy fit shall fall
Sudden from heaven like a weeping cloud,
That fosters the droop-headed flowers all,
And hides the green hill in an April shroud;
Then glut thy sorrow on a morning rose,
Or on the rainbow of the salt sand-wave,
Or on the wealth of globed peonies;
Or if thy mistress some rich anger shows,
Emprison her soft hand, and let her rave,
And feed deep, deep upon her peerless eyes.
She dwells with Beauty—Beauty that must die;
And Joy, whose hand is ever at his lips
Bidding adieu; and aching Pleasure nigh,
Turning to poison while the bee-mouth sips:
Ay, in the very temple of Delight
Veil'd Melancholy has her sovran shrine,
Though seen of none save him whose strenuous tongue
Can burst Joy's grape against his palate fine;
His soul shalt taste the sadness of her might,
And be among her cloudy trophies hung.
Julian Sands reads Ozymandias at the Keats-Shelley House
Much-loved English actor dropped by the Keats-Shelley House last month to read a selection of poems from our beautiful anthology 'John Keats and Percy Bysshe Shelley, Essential Poems' which is exclusive to the House and can be bought online at http://www.keats-shelley-house.org/en/shop/john-keats-and-percy-bysshe-shelley-essential-poems--2
In this video, Julian reads 'Ozymandias', the renowned sonnet penned by Shelley in 1818.
I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: “Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert . . . Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed:
And on the pedestal these words appear:
‘My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.”
Manuela Mazza legge un passo di Shelley che racconta la dichia...
Per chi parla italiano tra le persone che ci seguono, un breve video tratto dall'evento di ieri, "Tradurre Shelley: l'essenza della violetta", in cui Manuela Mazza ci racconta, attraverso le parole di P. B. Shelley, la dichiarazione d'amore della giovane Mary al cimitero di St. Pancras.
Actress Caterina Murino reads Mary Shelley at the Keats-Shelle...
La favolosa e talentuosa Caterina Murino legge Mary Shelley alla Keats-Shelley House.
Grazie all'attrice e alla curatrice Madeleine Nieddu Fresi.
Actress Caterina Murino reads Mary Shelley at the Keats-Shelle...
Villa Diodati & Beyond: Reading teatrale con Caterina Murino
26/01/2017 alla Keats-Shelley House, Piazza di Spagna, Roma
A preview of the Keats-Shelley House
Discover Rome's hidden secret.
