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Stephen Evans

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Stephen is a playwright and author of The Marriage of True Minds, The Island of Always, Painting Sunsets, A Transcendental Journey, and Funny Thing Is: A Guide to Understanding Comedy

Limerosity

I have three books coming out next month, and thought I would share them with my Green Room friends.

The first, The Laughing String is a collection of my thoughts on writing, interspersed with some quotes on the art and craft that I found either inspiring or enlightening (or both). 

 

The Laughing String 5x8 ebook cover 6282020 4

 

The second is called Two Short Novels, and if you think that it contains two short novels, you would be almost right. Actually it contains two short comic romances, but that doesn't roll off the tongue quite the same way. The first one, The Marriage Gift, is I still think the funniest thing I have ever writen. 

 

 

TSN ebook cover

But the last one, Limerosity, is my favorite. If you have been hanging out in the Green Room for a while, you might have noticed my fondness for limericks, and perchant for having literary figures as subjects. I have collected some of them and present them here. 

Limerosity ebook cover 522020

 

 

It's a short book now, but I hope it will grow in future editions, my light-hearted version of Leaves of Grass. Who knows? Maybe some of this talented community will end limerickly commemorated in there one day. A consummation possibly not to be wished. 

 

 

 

 

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Generations

I have a bunch of books coming out this year, so I thought I'd profile a few here for my Green Room friends. The first is Generations: Three One Acts.  

A few years ago I had just finished a one act play about the last journey of Ralph Waldo Emerson with his daughter Ellen. I encouraged two old  and talented friends to write plays on the same general lines. No one was more surprised than I was when they took me up on it, writing not just two plays but two very different, funny, and moving plays about the complex relationship between generations. 

The plays were produced in Annapolis, Maryland, last year for a short run. The response was enthusiastic and our experience deeply memorable, so we decided to publish.  The book is available now online, and can be ordered through many bookstores. 

 

 

 

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Invictus

 
 
 
 
 
Out of the night that covers me,
      Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
      For my unconquerable soul.
 
In the fell clutch of circumstance
      I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
      My head is bloody, but unbowed.
 
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
      Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
      Finds and shall find me unafraid.
 
It matters not how strait the gate,
      How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate,
      I am the captain of my soul.
 
WILLIAM ERNEST HENLEY
 
Recent Comments
Monika Schott PhD
Beautiful ?
Wednesday, 26 August 2020 01:18
Rosy Cole
Loving Shepherd of Thy sheep, Keep Thy lamb, in safety keep; Nothing can Thy power withstand, None can pluck me from Thy hand. Ja... Read More
Sunday, 30 August 2020 12:52
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The Lessons of Gurnemanz

 

From Parzifal by Wolfram von Eschenbach, Twelth Century poet and Minnesinger, for whom Wolfram in my novel The Marriage of True minds is named. Gurnmanz teaches the young foolish Parzifal the ways of knighthood. 

'And thus I begin, do thou hearken—From true shame shalt thou never flee,

A shameless man, bethink thee, what place in the world hath he?

As a bird that moulteth ever so his honour doth fall away,

And hereafter he hath his portion in the fires of Hell for aye.'

'So noble methinks thy bearing, a folk's Lord thou well mayst be;

If high be thy birth, and yet higher the lot that awaiteth thee,

Then see that thy heart hath pity for the poor and needy man

And fight thou against his sorrow with free gifts as best thou can,

For a true knight must aye be humble—A brave man who need doth know

Full often with shame he battles, and sore is that strife I trow,

For him shall thy help be ready—(Who lighteneth his brother's need

From Heaven he winneth favour as rewarding for righteous deed.)

For in sooth his case is harder than theirs who as beggars stand'

Neath the window, and succour seeking, for bread shall stretch forth the hand.

Thou shalt learn in a fitting measure both rich and poor to be,

Who spendeth as lord at all times no lordly soul hath he—

Yet who heapeth o'er-much his treasure he winneth methinks but shame,

But give thou unto each their honour, so best shalt thou guard thy fame.'

I saw well as thou earnest hither that thou hadst of my counsel need—

Yield not unto ways discourteous but give to thy bearing heed,

Nor be thou so swift to question—Yet I would not that thou withhold

An answer good and fitting to the speech one with thee would hold.

Thou canst hear and see, I wot well full five shalt thy senses be,

An thou use them aright, then wisdom it draweth anear to thee.

'In thy wrath remember mercy, and slay not a conquered foe,

He who to thine arms shall yield him take his pledge and let him go;

Unless he such ill have wrought thee as sorrow of heart doth give,

An my counsel thou fain wouldst follow, then in sooth shalt thou let him live.'

'Full oft shalt thou bear thy harness—When thy knightly task is sped

Thy hands and face thou shalt cleanse them from the rust and the iron red,

For such is in truth thy duty, so thy face shall be fair and bright,

And when maiden's eyes behold thee they shall deem thee a goodly sight.

Be manly and of good courage, so shalt thou deserve thy fame;

Hold women in love and honour, it shall be to thine own good name;

And be ever steadfast-minded as befitteth good man and true,

An with lies thou wouldst fain deceive them much harm can thy dealings do.

If true love be repaid with falsehood then swift shalt the judgment be,

And a speedy end to all honour and renown shall it bring to thee.

As beneath the stealthy footsteps of the thief the dry stick breaks,

And the slumbering watcher, startled, to his danger swiftly wakes

So false ways and dealings crooked in their wake bring but strife and woe;

Prove this by true love, for true women have skill 'gainst the hidden foe,

And their wiles can outweigh his cunning—An thou winnest from women hate,

Then for ever art thou dishonoured, and shame on thy life shall wait.'

'So take thou to heart my counsel—And more would I tell to thee;

Husband and wife united as one shall they ever be,

As the sun that this morning shineth, and this morn that we call to-day,

So the twain may be sundered never but one shall be held alway.

As twin blossoms from one root springing e'en so shall they bloom and grow;

With wisdom receive my counsel that its truth thou hereafter know.'

 

Translated by Jessie L. Weston

 

Recent Comments
Rosy Cole
I read this today in Eliot's notes on The Wasteland: Not only the title, but the plan and a good deal of the incidental symbolism... Read More
Thursday, 06 August 2020 16:22
Stephen Evans
Interesting -thank you! have to see if I can find those books. The Osiris story is in my Emerson play, though I use the version ... Read More
Friday, 07 August 2020 00:23
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Writing For Life

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Latest Comments

Stephen Evans The Art Of Life
16 March 2023
No doubt!
Rosy Cole The Art Of Life
16 March 2023
Inclined to think, though, that canvas will outlast film and digital in memory and in fact.
Stephen Evans The Art Of Life
15 March 2023
Yes there is a completely different feel about it - that is one of the aspects if his work that impr...
Rosy Cole The Art Of Life
14 March 2023
A magnificent accomplishment, technically more so than the one above, I feel. We can zoom in digital...
Stephen Evans The Art Of Life
13 March 2023
I like his rural paintings, but I also like his Paris paintings, like this one:https://www.metmuseum...