March 2011
148 posts
Leda and the Swan
- by W. B. Yeats
A sudden blow: the great wings beating still
Above the staggering girl, her thighs caressed
By the dark webs, her nape caught in his bill,
He holds her helpless breast upon his breast.
How can those terrified vague fingers push
The feathered glory from her loosening thighs?
And how can body, laid in that white rush,
But feel the strange heart beating where it lies?
A shudder in the loins engenders there
The broken wall, the burning roof and tower
And Agamemnon dead.
Being so caught up,
So mastered by the brute blood of the air,
Did she put on his knowledge with his power
Before the indifferent beak could let her drop?
February 2011
132 posts
1930s Slang of the Day
“Tin can”
Definition: A car.
Sorry if I sound somewhat creepy, but your blog is amazing. I came across turofthecentury a few days ago, and now you - I had no idea that there were people who loved Belle Époque/modernism/the 20s and 30s/everything on your tumblr as much as I do.
Not creepy at all! Thank you so much. It’s comments like yours that give bright spots to my day. Again, thank you.
“To be a surrealist means barring from your mind all remembrance of what you have seen, and being always on the lookout for what has never been.”
—Rene Magritte (via billyjane)
1930s Slang of the Day
“Ickie”
Definition: Someone who does not like popular music.
What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why (Sonnet XLIII)
- by Edna St. Vincent Millay
What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why,
I have forgotten, and what arms have lain
Under my head till morning; but the rain
Is full of ghosts tonight, that tap and sigh
Upon the glass and listen for reply,
And in my heart there stirs a quiet pain
For unremembered lads that not again
Will turn to me at midnight with a cry.
Thus in winter stands the lonely tree,
Nor knows what birds have vanished one by one,
Yet knows its boughs more silent than before:
I cannot say what loves have come and gone,
I only know that summer sang in me
A little while, that in me sings no more.
He would not stay for me, and who can wonder?
He would not stay for me to stand and gaze.
I shook his hand, and tore my heart in sunder,
And went with half my life about my ways.
- by A. E. Housman
Play
1930s Slang of the Day
“Stool pigeon”
Definition: Someone who informs to the police.
