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conversations.value: What is a description for a book titled The Complete Poems about Turkish, George, Messo with the genre: Literature & Fiction, Poetry?
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conversations.value: George Messo is a poet, editor and teacher, and one of the world's leading translators of Turkish poetry. His many books include From the Pine Observatory (2000), Aradaki Ses (The In-Between Voice, 2005), Entrances (2006), Avrupa'n n Kucuk Tanr lar (The Little Gods of Europe, 2007), and Violades and Appledown (2012). Shearsman published his ground-breaking anthology kinci Yeni: The Turkish Avant Garde in 2009, and his translation of two major volumes of the poetry of lhan Berk in 2016. His other published translations include the poetry of Gonca Ozmen and Birhan Keskin.
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conversations.value: Delete the first sentence.
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conversations.value: His many books include From the Pine Observatory (2000), Aradaki Ses (The In-Between Voice, 2005), Entrances (2006), Avrupa'n n Kucuk Tanr lar (The Little Gods of Europe, 2007), and Violades and Appledown (2012). Shearsman published his ground-breaking anthology kinci Yeni: The Turkish Avant Garde in 2009, and his translation of two major volumes of the poetry of lhan Berk in 2016. His other published translations include the poetry of Gonca Ozmen and Birhan Keskin.
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conversations.value: What is a description for a book titled The Complete Poems about Bawdy, Mistress, Willis with the genre: Literature & Fiction, Poetry?
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conversations.value: "'Bawdy in thought, precise in words.' the author's description of the court prostitute in the poem 'On Mistress Willis' might equally describe himself. The earl's mind is never far from 'love's theatre,' as he calls bed. His love poems are tender, explicit, funny... If this guy was living today, I'd be camping out at the gates to his castle." -- Kathleen Ferguson, Irish Times
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conversations.value: Delete the last sentence.
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conversations.value: "'Bawdy in thought, precise in words.' the author's description of the court prostitute in the poem 'On Mistress Willis' might equally describe himself. The earl's mind is never far from 'love's theatre,' as he calls bed. His love poems are tender, explicit, funny... If this guy was living today, I'd be camping out at the gates to his castle.
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conversations.value: What is the first four paragraphs for this book?
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conversations.value: The Complete Poems
  The comma after 'said' is potentially confusing, for it gives the momentary signal that the 'two-handed engine' is something that the bad shepherds said. I have printed a full-stop. In this instance I have the support of the 1638 edition, which also has a full-stop. John Creaser has argued for the virtues of eclecticism in choosing between variants such as these. Convinced by his arguments, I have drawn on the punctuation of all the texts produced in Milton's lifetime. Occasionally I have modernized against all early texts.
  Many editors change the comma after 'we' to a semi-colon and so remove a suggestive ambiguity. William Empson discerns 'a natural embarrassment' in the fallen Satan's implied doubt as to whether 'he could go to Heaven himself'. It is not always easy – and is sometimes impossible – to decide when a poet is being deliberately ambiguous, but it is an editor's responsibility to make difficult decisions.
  Variations of punctuation are too numerous to be recorded in the notes (though I have drawn attention to a few cases). I have recorded more verbal variations between the early texts, though constraint of space has forced me to be selective – especially with the early poems, which are extensively reworked in the Trinity manuscript.
  Even when the traditional analogues are far from dull, they can present a one-sided perspective. Satan utters the following lines in a soliloquy when he first sees Adam and Eve:
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conversations.value: Add another sentence about Zachary, Pearce, Satan's, noted, placed.
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conversations.value: The Complete Poems
  The comma after 'said' is potentially confusing, for it gives the momentary signal that the 'two-handed engine' is something that the bad shepherds said. I have printed a full-stop. In this instance I have the support of the 1638 edition, which also has a full-stop. John Creaser has argued for the virtues of eclecticism in choosing between variants such as these. Convinced by his arguments, I have drawn on the punctuation of all the texts produced in Milton's lifetime. Occasionally I have modernized against all early texts. 
  Many editors change the comma after 'we' to a semi-colon and so remove a suggestive ambiguity. As Zachary Pearce noted in 1733, Satan's 'as we' is placed so as to refer either to 'Ascend to Heav'n' or 'in the air'. William Empson discerns 'a natural embarrassment' in the fallen Satan's implied doubt as to whether 'he could go to Heaven himself'. It is not always easy – and is sometimes impossible – to decide when a poet is being deliberately ambiguous, but it is an editor's responsibility to make difficult decisions. 
  Variations of punctuation are too numerous to be recorded in the notes (though I have drawn attention to a few cases). I have recorded more verbal variations between the early texts, though constraint of space has forced me to be selective – especially with the early poems, which are extensively reworked in the Trinity manuscript. 
  Even when the traditional analogues are far from dull, they can present a one-sided perspective. Satan utters the following lines in a soliloquy when he first sees Adam and Eve:
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conversations.value: What is five more paragraphs? End with the sentence '73'.
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conversations.value: And you, who are greater than your pupil Apollo, you who were given rule over the gowned tribe, you whom leafy Cirrha31 now mourns, and Helicon amidst its streams, you would now be presiding over Pallas' flock,33 joyful, still living, and not without glory; you would not have crossed over the horrid deeps of the abyss in Charon's35 boat. But Persephone37 broke the thread of your life, angry when she saw that by your arts and powerful potions you had snatched so many from the dark jaws of death. Reverend Chancellor, may your limbs rest peacefully in the soft turf, and from your grave may roses and marigolds and the purple-lipped hyacinth grow. May Aeacus45 judge you mildly, may Sicilian46 Proserpine smile, and may you walk for ever among the blessed in the Elysian fields.
  Now the devout James, coming from the far north, began his reign over the Troy-descended people2 and the wide realm of Albion, and now an inviolable league had united the sceptres of the English and the Caledonian Scots. Happy and wealthy, the bringer of peace was sitting on his new throne, fearing no enemy or secret plot, when the fierce tyrant who rules Acheron's fiery waves,7 the father of the Furies, the wandering exile from heavenly Olympus, had chanced to be roaming the earth's vast globe, counting his companions in crime, his faithful slaves by birth,10 who were destined to share his kingdom after their miserable deaths. Here he stirs up wild storms in the middle air;12 there he instigates hatred between loving friends. He arms invincible nations for a death-struggle, and overturns kingdoms that were flourishing under the olive of peace. Wherever he sees lovers of pure virtue, he seeks to add them to his empire. A master of fraud, he seeks to corrupt the heart that is closed to wickedness. Silently he sets his traps, and stretches hidden nets to catch the unwary, as when a Caspian tigress pursues its trembling prey through a pathless desert, under a moonless night, while the stars wink drowsily. With such horrors, and girt with a smoking whirlwind of blue flame, Summanus23 infests cities and people. And now appear the white cliffs and wave-resounding rocks of the land loved by the sea-god and named of old after Neptune's son,27 who did not fear to cross the sea and challenge Amphitryon's terrible son28 to furious battle, before the cruel days of the sack of Troy.
  But as soon as he caught sight of this land, blessed with prosperity and joyful peace, its fields rich with Ceres' gifts, and-what grieved him more – its people worshipping the sacred divinity of the true God, he broke into sighs that stank of Tartarean fire and yellow sulphur; such sighs as the ferocious monster Typhoeus, imprisoned by Jove under Trinacrian Etna, breathes from his infectious mouth.37 His eyes flash fire, and he gnashes his rows of steel-hard teeth so they make a din like clashing weapons, like the grating of spear against spear. 'I have wandered over the whole world,' he said, 'and have found only one cause for tears: this nation alone rebels against me, is scornful of my yoke, and stronger than my wiles. Yet if my efforts are of any avail, these people will not carry on with impunity, will not go unpunished.' This said, he swam through the liquid air on pitch-black wings. Wherever he flies, a multitude of warring winds rush before him, clouds gather, and countless thunderbolts flash.
  And now he had swiftly crossed the snowy Alps and reached the borders of Italy. To his left were the cloud-capped Apennines and the ancient land of the Sabines; to his right, Etruria, infamous for witchcraft. Nor did he fail to see you, Tiber, giving furtive kisses to Thetis.52 Thence he alighted in the citadel of Quirinus,53 son of Mars. Now, when evening dusk brought dubious twilight, the wearer of the triple crown55 makes a circuit of the whole city, carrying his gods made of bread,56 and he himself is carried on men's shoulders. Before him go kings on bended knee, and a long line of mendicant friars. They carry wax candles in their hands, for they are blind. They were born in Cimmerian60 darkness, and in darkness they still lead their lives. They enter temples gleaming with many torches (it was the eve62 sacred to St Peter), and their cacophonous chanting repeatedly fills the hollow cupolas and empty spaces. They sound just like Bromius64 and his rout, when they raise their Bacchanalian cries on Echionian Aracynthus,65 while astonished Asopus66 trembles beneath his glassy waves, and distant Cithaeron67 itself echoes from its hollow cliff.
  When these rites had at last been performed according to custom, Night silently quit the embrace of old Erebus,69 and drove her swift steeds with the goading whip: blind Typhlon, fierce Melanchaetes, torpid Siope, born of a hellish sire, and shaggy Phrix with bristling mane.73
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conversations.value: What is the last two paragraphs?
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conversations.value: An autograph copy of these verses was discovered in 1874, along with M.'s Commonplace Book, a short Latin essay on early rising, and the Asclepiad verses on the same theme (see next poem). The two poems are probably grammar-school exercises written when M. attended St Paul's.
  See headnote to previous poem. This poem (written in the lesser Asclepiad metre) is untitled in M.'s autograph copy.
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conversations.value: What is the first five paragraphs for this book? End with the sentence ' The four chief cities are Canterbury–Verulam, Edinburgh, London and York.'.
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conversations.value: The Complete Poems
  The design at the foot of the text shows a figure rising from Abel's body, inscribed 'The Voice of Abels Blood'.
  THE ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION: A Biblical phrase signifying unutterable heathen idols (Old Testament) and the ANTICHRIST (New Testament).
  ABRAM: The first Hebrew Patriarch. A native of CHALDEA, he was led to CANAAN by God, who changed his name to Abraham ('father of multitudes') and promised blessing to his seed.
  ADAM: Heb. 'red earth'. The 'limit of contraction' created at a late stage of the Fall to prevent further degeneration of the Universal Man. See SATAN.
  ALBION, FRIENDS OF: The twenty-eight cathedral cities of the Church of England (Edinburgh is included to represent Presbyterian Scotland), acting as Albion's conscience. The four chief cities are Canterbury–Verulam, Edinburgh, London and York.
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conversations.value: What is four more paragraphs?
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conversations.value: JORDAN: River forming the eastern boundary of the Promised Land; the place of Jesus' baptism; traditionally, to 'cross the Jordan' means to die and enter Paradise.
  JOSEPH: See ISRAEL, SONS OF. Because he was his father's favourite, his jealous brothers stripped his 'coat of many colours', sold him as a slave into Egypt and pretended he was dead.
  JUDAH (JUDEA): See ISRAEL, SONS OF. Judah's lands formed the Southern Kingdom, whose capital was Jerusalem. He was also the ancestor of David and Jesus.
  LAMBETH: Beth is Heb. 'house'; hence for B., 'house of the Lamb'. London district containing B.'s home, 1791–1800.
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conversations.value: What is the last paragraph?
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conversations.value: On the Great Encouragement given by English Nobility & Gentry to Correggio Rubens Rembrandt Reynolds Gainsborough Catalani Ducrowe & Dilbury Doodle
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conversations.value: What is the first paragraph for this book?
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conversations.value: The Complete Poems
  Gorgon There were three gorgons, Medusa being the chief. They had serpents in place of hair, and Medusa's face was so hideous that anyone who saw it was turned to stone. She was slain by Perseus.
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conversations.value: What is another paragraph?
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conversations.value: Midas A king of Phrygia, whose avarice led him to ask Bacchus for the ability to turn everything he touched to gold. The wish was granted with disastrous results.
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conversations.value: What is the last five paragraphs?
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conversations.value: Leda Wife of Tyndarus, king of Sparta, who was visited by Jupiter in the form of a swan. She gave birth to two eggs, from which came Pollux and Helena, and Castor and Clytemnestra.
  Midas A king of Phrygia, whose avarice led him to ask Bacchus for the ability to turn everything he touched to gold. The wish was granted with disastrous results.
  Ops A daughter of Coelus and Terra. Often identified with Cybele, as the wife of Saturn and mother of Jupiter, hence known as mother of the gods.
  Orpheus A Thracian shepherd, son of Calliope and Apollo, who was given a lyre by the latter. The power of Orpheus's music was such that it could move even inanimate things. When his wife Eurydice died, he went down to the infernal regions, and so charmed Pluto that she was released, on condition that Orpheus would not look back until they reached the earth. He was just about to put his foot on the earth when he looked back. Eurydice vanished.
  Syrinx An Arcadian nymph fled to the River Lodon to escape the attentions of Pan, and was metamorphosed into a reed from which Pan made his flute.