Canada’s Walk of Fame/What Makes Great Poetry/Bronte Post Box – Poetry News Roundup July 26th

Today here on My Poetic Side we take a look at this year’s inductees onto the Canadian Walk of Fame, we also take a brief look at a study conducted to find out what makes good poetry and finally the Bronte post-box.

Canada’s Walk of Fame Inductees for 2018 Announced

The Walk of Fame in Canada is now entering its 20thyear, and they have just released the names of all their 2018 inductees

The Walk of Fame honours those individuals who have shone in their field and honours those in the fields of Athletics and Sports, Philanthropy and Humanities, Business and Entrepreneurship, Space and Technology and finally Arts and Entertainment.

Amongst those individuals who will be inducted is the poet, singer and songwriter Leonard Cohen who sadly passed away in 2016. He is to be honoured for his lifetime’s achievements in the fields of poetry, music and novels with the title “Legend Inductee”.

Other inductees include the Gold medal Olympic skaters Tessa Scott and Scott Moir, Dr Joanne Liu the international president of Doctors Without Borders and Col. Chris Hadfield the Canadian spaceman.

A ceremony will take place on December 1stat the Sony Centre in Toronto at which the inductees will be toasted. CTV will broadcast the ceremony.

What Makes Good Poetry?

If you have ever sat and pondered about what makes good poetry, then you are not alone. Scientists at New York University set up a study to ponder that very question.

They wanted to know what made poetry most appealing to a group of participants and see if there were a few factors that influenced them. Using a field of 400 people they asked them to read and rate two different types of poem; haikus and sonnets. They were then asked to rate the poems on the vividness of the imagery, effect on the emotions, emotional valence (pretty poems about pretty things, dark poems representing darker emotions), and finally the overall aesthetics of the poem. The poems that were chosen for the study ranged from 16thcentury poetry to contemporary ones.

Vivid imagery was the strongest factor that influenced people, followed by the emotional depth of the poem. Of course, of the 400 participants there was plenty of disagreement over what constituted the best poem, but overall, personal taste was outweighed by the factors that were under consideration.

The Brontë Post-box

A special post-box has appeared in the village of Thornton in Yorkshires to mark the bicentenary of the birth of the author and poet Emily Brontë. Emily was born on the 30thJuly in 1818 in the village but spent much of her life living in nearby Haworth.

The post-box was unveiled by the Royal Mail with help from pupils from the village primary school. There are quotes on the post-box from some of Emily Brontë’s most famous works, including some of her poetry and Wuthering Heights.

Royal Mail says that they are delighted to be involved in the bicentenary celebrations. The post-box is just one thing that has been planned by Brontë200 who have planned a five-year programme to celebrate the bicentenaries of the births of all four of the Brontë siblings, the three sisters and their brother Branwell.



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