The Power of Poetry

“Thank you for leading us to these places of comfort,” one participant said. “It helped me feel connected to a greater sense of being, which is so needed during these times.” Her words echoed (和……共鸣) many of the participants’ feelings in Finding Comfort, the first installment of the Hope Storytelling Project.

We were inspired to create the project, a series of virtual poetry workshops held in partnership with the Cambridge Public Library and the Las Vegas-Clark County Library District, for a simple reason: to create     1     through poetry.

In this time of social isolation and uncertainty, the need for meaningful connections is more apparent than ever. The longer the pandemic continues, we, as a nation, are quickly realizing how there is a(n)     2     of tools to fight the growing feelings of loneliness. Therefore we decided to use poetry as a(n)     3     for connection: to cultivate a safe space where free expression is     4    , different opinions are tolerated, and sharing stories offers therapeutic reflection. Through the combination of introspective writing and open group discussions, we have built a model in which poetry can directly     5     feelings of loneliness.

One of the most powerful and simple ways of dealing with emotional issues is communicating and listening to others with our undivided attention and open minds. Therefore, in designing the Hope Storytelling Project, we     6     designing our workshops for that particular purpose—to use poetry as a way to heal through individual reflection and group discussion. Divided into five parts (Finding Comfort, On Perspective, Approaching Emotion, Being a Witness and A New Hope), the Hope Storytelling Project seeks to guide participants through different forms of writing poetry, and finally, to uplift each other and create a sense of unity.

In our first workshop, participants shared childhood stories, memories about loved ones, and about the things they missed, such as hiking, going to work or simply hugging a friend. In the span of an hour, the virtual space felt     7     more tight-knit, warmed by shared poems and experiences. As we closed, many participants noted how this workshop     8     offered the space to simply write, listen and connect.

It is time to recognize how powerful creative expression, through mediums such as poetry, can be in times of despair, and we believe all aspects of poetry—reading, writing and sharing—can serve as an incredible cure for loneliness. In times like these, poetry will     9     us to imagine and to consider our journeys within the collective landscape, and we can use this to heal and to create meaningful connections. Poetry can be a(n)     10     medium of comfort and beauty, reminding us of how we were all closely connected, even in isolation.

3 . We could not go for a walk that _______. There was such a freezing cold wind, and such heavy rain, that we all stayed indoors. I was glad of it. I _______ liked long walks, especially in winter. I used to hate coming home when it was almost dark, with ice-cold fingers and toes, feeling miserable because Bessie, the nursemaid, was always scolding me. All the time I knew I was different from my cousins, Eliza, John and Georgiana Reed. They were taller and stronger than me, and they were _______.   

These___________usually spent their time crying and quarrelling, but today they were sitting _______ around their mother in the sitting-room. I wanted to join the family circle, but Mrs Reed, my aunt, refused. Bessie had complainted about me.   

“No, I’m sorry, Jane. _________ I hear from Bessie, or see for myself, that you are really trying to behave better, you cannot be treated as a good, happy child, like my children.” “What does Bessie say I have done?” I asked.   

“Jane, it is not polite to___________me in that way. If you cannot speak pleasantly, be quiet.”

I_________ out of the sitting-room and into the small room next door, _______ I chose a book full of pictures from the bookcase. I ________ to the window-seat and drew the________, so that I was completely hidden. I sat there for a while. Sometimes I looked out of the window at the grey November afternoon, and saw the rain pouring down on the leafless garden. But most of the time I studied the book and stared, fascinated, at the pictures. Lost in the world of imagination, I forgot my sad, lonely existence for a while, and was happy, I was only afraid that my secret hiding-place might be discovered.

________ the door of the room opened. John Reed rushed in.

“Where are you, rat?” he shouted. He did not see me behind the curtain. “Eliza! Georgy! Jane isn’t here! Tell Mamma she’s run out into the rain—what a bad________ she is!”

“How ________I drew the curtain,” I thought. He would never have found me, because he was not very intelligent. But Eliza guessed ________ where I was. “She’s in the window-seat, John,” she called from the sitting-room. So I came out immediately, as I did not want him to pull me out.

4 . Four Amazing Books for Kids

The World’s Most Amazing Places

Ages 8+

£20

Discover 100 of the world’s most amazing places with this fun-filled book! Featuring colourful hot springs, giant trees and explosive volcanoes, you will be surprised by 1,000 unbelievable facts.

Infopédia 2022

Ages 8+

£12.99

The book has more than 350 pages and is divided into 12 parts. which are common themes in monthly magazines . such as exploration, animals, nature, earth, science and technology. culture and so on. Each column is represented by a colour. which is as easy to identify and locate as a bookmark from the side.

Kids will love keeping up with our rapidly changing planet with this bestselling Infopédia, packed with unbelievable photos, facts, crafts, activities and features!

Animals Riddle (谜语) Book

Ages 6+

£5.99

Entertain your family and friends with this book of brain-teasing riddles that will have everyone scratching their heads!

Big Quiz Book

Ages 8+

£9. 99

An addictive quiz book for all the family featuring 10,000 questions, The Big Quiz Book has something for everyone. With 10 different general knowledge categories — from Science & Technology. Art & Literature, and Natural History, to Food & Drink, Film & TV, and Sport & Leisure — and three increasing levels of difficulty. it offers a fresh and up-to-the-minute quizzing experience that will educate and entertain all the family.

5 . At last Soapy stepped before an old church on a quiet corner, where the organist played a Sunday anthem. Through the window a soft light glowed. The moon was above; vehicles and pedestrians were few; sparrows twittered sleepily under the roof. The influences of the music and the old church aroused a sudden and wonderful impulse in Soapy’s soul, driving him to battle with his desperate fate. He would make a man of himself again.

Soapy felt a hand on his arm.

“What are you doing here?” A cop asked.

“Nothing.”

“Then come along!” said the policeman.

“Three months on the island,” said the Judge the next morning.

6 . Internet Genealogy (族谱) is your guide to successful genealogy research using the World Wide Web. We also recognize, however, that the internet isn’t necessarily the only source for research, so Internet Genealogy will also tell you what to do if you cannot find the records you need and how to confirm your findings. The magazine also covers advanced genealogical methods such as DNA analysis, as well as software and technology reviews, case studies, databases and other internet-related family history topics.

$ 27.95 Print 1 year (6 issues)

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Your Genealogy Today is a how-to genealogy magazine. People who are trying to discover their family roots know that there is no “master plan” that tells you how to conduct your research. While some ancestral lines can be traced back several generations with relatively little effort, others can only be discovered after painstaking research. Your Genealogy Today recognizes that there are hundreds, maybe thousands, of different records and methods that may apply to your own research.

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History Magazine opens a window on the past, providing believable stories about how our world became the place it is today. Written from a North American perspective (视角), History Magazine’s articles are clear, informative and insightful and come supported by beautiful images and maps. History Magazine breathes life into stories of the past, telling tales of both critical moments and everyday life with passion and spirit.

$ 24. 95 Print 1 year (6 issues)

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9 . Kate Wilson, a 16-year-old girl from England, holds up a book and smiles. “This is Day One of my reading The Little Prince,” she says. Then the video jumps forward. “And now”, she sighs deeply, her face covered with tears, “I end up crying so much that I have to change my shirt”.

This is BookTok, a collection of TikTok book-related videos on the short video platform. It has been an official reading community since April 2020. Bookworms gather on the platform to share their reading experiences by editing a video carefully at the length of less than 3 minutes. They “play”, “read” and “recommend” their favorite books, or recommend treasure writers who have never been discovered. It may sound like a simplified way to talk about books, but the most appealing point is that they can visually record videos to share the feelings of reading moment, and arouse a strong emotion, which written reviews cannot express instantly. So BookTok offers book lovers special reading experiences.

It has also driven a wave of old book sales in the market. A list of bestsellers from 20 years ago has been dug out, which most readers have never heard of. In fact, many of the books like It Ends With Us should not have been forgotten. On Amazon, BookTok is so influential that it has been added into the titles of books themselves. For instance, the novel It Ends With Us: BookTok made me buy it! is now riding high in the top 100. Under its influence, old titles were returning to the bestseller charts. Therefore, BookTok is devoted to bringing these classic books back.

Eventually, a great book finds its faithful readers. Thanks to BookTok, not only can more original works be appreciated, but the authors can attach more importance to literary creation. It is BookTok that offers such books “a second lease of life”.

10 . The sonnet (十四行诗) was introduced into English poetry by Sir Thomas Wyatt the Elder and Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, during the first half of the sixteenth century. It originated, however, in Italy three centuries earlier, with the earliest examples known being those of Giacomo da Lentini, a Sicilian poet. The form was taken up by the two most famous poets of the Italian Renaissance, Dante Alighieri and Francesco Petrarch, and indeed the latter is regarded as the master of the form.

The Petrarchan sonnet form in English poetry includes fourteen lines. Each line is ten syllables long and divided into five pairs of syllables. In each pair, the first syllable is unstressed and the second stressed. This can be seen if we look at the first line of one of

William Wordsworth’s sonnets, “After-Thought”: “I thought of Thee, my partner and my guide”. If we break down this line into its syllabic parts, we can see the five pairs and the stress pattern (in this example each stressed syllable is underlined), thus: “I thought/of Thee/my part/ner and/my guide.”

The rhyme scheme for the Petrarchan sonnet is equally as strict. The poem is generally divided into two parts, the octave (8 lines) and the sestet (6 lines).

Early on, however, English poets began to vary and experiment with this structure. The first major development was made by Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, and was taken up and perfected by William Shakespeare. The Shakespearean sonnet also has fourteen lines with each line containing five pairs of syllables, but rather than the division into the octave and sestet, the poem is made up of three quatrains (四行诗) and a final rhyming couplet (对句). And each quatrain has its own rhyme scheme; thus a Shakespearean sonnet would rhyme abab cdcd efef gg. Such a structure naturally allows poets greater freedom to develop ideas.

These, then, are the two standard forms of the sonnet in English poetry, but it should be recognized that poets rarely follow rules exactly and a number of other sonnet types have been developed.