The Romantic Poetry session is one that all KRG members look forward to, for it is a perfect time in Kerala to read poetry with a cup of tea or have hot pakoras with coffee – your favourite romantic poet is to hand and the rain is pattering outside.
All the big names of the Romantic Period – Keats, Wordsworth, Shelley, Southey, Byron and Blake – were selected. Shobha chose to spring a surprise on us with Polish poet Adam Mickiewisz, reciting excerpts from his epic poem Pan Tadeusz, a sort of a Polish Romeo and Juliet story about two warring families. The portion Shobha read was a description of the breakfast laid out in the Soplica household. The description had the KRG members in splits and a few stomachs were rumbling and the delights being described! The epic, which is compulsory reading in Polish schools has been made into film twice – in 1928 and 1999.
Another surprise was Priya’s selection of The Orphan Boy’s Tale by Amelia Opie, née Alderson, a poet and radical novelist who was a staunch abolitionist in Norwich, England. She has not been read before in KRG and was a welcome change.
How can we have a poetry session without Thommo’s songs! He chose Thomas More’s The Minstrel Boy, sung to the tune of an old Irish melody. Since Moore was an Irish poet and a lyricist of the Romantic period, it was most appropriate.
Joe read to us excerpts from John Keats letters where he sets out his philosophy about poetry. With Kumkum, you can be sure it would be John Keats; Devika and Pamela also chose Keats, making him the most popular poet of the session.
This session of KRG poetry reading covered a wide range – of poetry, song and letters, of five of the “big six” among the male romantic poets, a female poet as well as a Polish poet, making it a very interesting evening.
Pre-Birthday Celebration visit to our Grande Dame KumKum by Shobha and Arundhaty on August 13th
