The song settings of Guillaume Apollinaire's ideographic Calligrammes demonstrate Francis Poulenc's exceptional ability to unite poetry and music, without compromising the integrity of either medium. The graphical notation of the poetry presents a formidable challenge to Poulenc, requir...

There is a definite likeness between these poems, as they are all thematically linked. An example of this is that in each, there is some sort of conflict between man and natures representations i.e. the knight and the faery, the boy and the rat, and also the man and the deer. Beyond the words of the...

BackgroundGary Soto was born on April 12, 1952, in the farming community of Fresno, California, to Mexican-American parents. In his essay "Being Mean" he talks of how his father and grandfather worked at the Sun Maid Raisin Factory and his mother peeled potatoes at Reddispud. Soto's father faced an ...