Books, RattleBag and Rhubarb

Judy Blume to W. B. Yeats

It’s that time of the month – #6degrees again. Read about it here and join in.  Play the animation and the book chain will appear! Our start point is Judy Blume. Her Are you there God? It’s Me Margaret (1970) was a bit of a sensation in the children’s lit world because it shockingly dared to mention the unmentionable (menstruation!…

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Poetry, RattleBag and Rhubarb, WW1

The Irish Airman and Time for a Flu Shot

Yeats wrote the poem “The Wild Swans at Coole” (see Game of Swans) in 1916 /17 when he was staying with Lady Gregory at her home in Coole Park, Galway and feeling lovelorn. In 1919 he used the title for a collection of poems  that he dedicated to her son –  Major Robert Gregory – the Royal Flying Corps fighter…

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Poetry, RattleBag and Rhubarb

Game of Swans

A group of swans is a wedge when they’re in flight, likely because of the shape a group of swans takes in flight. And while we can call a group of swans a bevy, a herd, a game, or a flight, they can only be a bank when they’re on the ground. Merriam-Webster But there’s more:  a gaggle of swans  a whiteness of swans  a herd of swans…

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City and Country, Poetry, RattleBag and Rhubarb

The Lake Isle of Innisfree

Did you have a special place as a child? Perhaps somewhere secret and magical? A corner of a city park, a place in the garden, somewhere under the trees or behind the shed?  Do you have one now? For the artist Paul Nash his first special place was Kensington Gardens, in west London, near where he was born in 1889.…

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