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John Barclay
Poetry as a Sound Medium
March 2014 Meeting
Poetry has been used as a means of conveying thoughts/tales long before anything was written down. It was the expression of life’s experiences and emotions through the spoken word; a form of communication through generations of illiterate people, drawn together around the fireside.
John showed us how the use of the voice can give fuller meaning, depth and character to the words expressed by the poet when read aloud, thus giving the poem a far more powerful impact than just reading the lines. He read several of his own poems, from thought-provoking to very humorous indeed!
We also heard two poems being read by the poets themselves. Laurence Binyon’s ‘For the Fallen’, which was very formal in style, and Philip Larkin’s ‘The Whitsun Weddings’ which he read in his normal speaking voice.
We were talked through the various modes of writing poetry – assonance (use of vowels for emphasis), repetition , (use of repeated lines), alliteration (use of the same letter for effect), parody (changing the words of a well-known poem/song) and, of course, rhyming words at the end of a verse (wall, ball, tall, fall etc). Children have a natural affiliation to poetry and love writing it themselves if encouraged to do so.
A lively questions and answers session followed and everybody enjoyed John’s erudite presentation.
Review by
Denise Broadbent
Denise Broadbent
For Poems from John Barclay’s website CLICK HERE
Dr Yvonne Varley’s presentation shed light on the colourful life and involvement in espionage of her favourite writer, Arthur Ransome, author of Swallows and Amazons.
Yvonne Varley
The Spy from Tisbury
June 2014 Meeting
Review by Sue Sides
Following a libel case prompted by Ransome’s biography of Oscar Wilde, he abandoned his wife and child and fled to St Petersburg where he learnt Russian and socialised with Lenin and Trotsky. He began an affair with Trotsky’s secretary Genia and eventually married her.
After the Russian Revolution in 1917, although sympathetic to the Bolsheviks, Ransome offered his services to the Foreign Office as a spy.
In his calmer later life, he settled in the Lake District, where he was inspired to write his most popular works. Arthur Ransome died in 1967.
Dr Varley’s enthusiasm revealed her love for her subject, and her polished presentation and warm personality was highly appreciated by the audience.
Colin van Geffen
The Red Arrows
September 2014 Meeting
2014 sees the Red Arrows in their 50th Display Season.
But how do they achieve and sustain this brilliance?
But how do they achieve and sustain this brilliance?
In his presentation -
THE RED ARROWS: Selection & Training
Colin (Vice Chairman of the Bournemouth Red Arrows Association) looked at the introduction and development of formation and display flying, then focused on the selection and training of the pilots of the Red Arrows, including briefing and debriefing, plus some less well known activities undertaken by the team members.
Julian Sawyer
The Landscape and Wildlife of Purbeck
October 2014 Meeting
Purbeck Footprints was set up by Julian Sawyer as a way of sharing the natural beauty and abundant wildlife to be found in this part of the Jurassic Coast World Heritage site.
“Every photograph I take tells a story and it is a pleasure to share them with you.”
Julian Sawyer
Bill Moore
The Mary Rose
January 2015 Meeting
The Mary Rose was a warship of the English Tudor navy of King Henry VIII. While leading the attack on the galleys of a French invasion fleet, in July 1545 she sank in the Solent, north of the Isle of Wight.
The wreck of the Mary Rose was rediscovered in 1971 and salvaged in 1982 by the Mary Rose Trust in one of the most complex and expensive projects in history.
Bill Moore was a diver who worked underwater on the Mary Rose. He is on the panel of the Mary Rose Information Group and supports the Mary Rose Trust. He has made many replicas of artefacts found on the ship which he and his wife displayed during the presentation.
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