Behold This Dreamer

Bartlett, Elizabeth, 1911-1994Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.7

Word count: 17K words
Chapters: 2

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Behold this Dreamer by Elizabeth BartlettAuthor: Bartlett, Elizabeth, 1911-1994,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Oct 30, 2018

Editor's review

This poetry collection comes from the American poet Elizabeth Bartlett and falls under the category of American literature. The free electronic edition from Project Gutenberg makes this early and rare work accessible again. Bartlett's writing is often noted for its delicate observation and restrained lyricism; this collection is suited to slow reading aloud in a quiet setting, to feel the rhythm of the language and the layers of imagery. Because it is a public-domain e-book, the text preserves its original form without modern annotations, so readers need a little patience to attune to the poetic idiom of the early twentieth century. Its value lies not in plot but in offering an entry point into the tradition of twentieth-century American women's poetry; it works well as supplementary poetry reading and as casual browsing for readers interested in public-domain literary resources. The overall length is short, suitable for fragmented reading, but to truly appreciate its flavor, rereading a few poems is recommended.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who enjoy English poetry and want to broaden their reading of American women poets
Literature enthusiasts interested in early twentieth-century American literature
Teachers who need short poems for reading aloud or as supplementary teaching material
Readers accustomed to public-domain e-books who can accept unannotated original texts

Not a good fit for

Readers hoping for a complete plot or narrative work
Beginners with limited English reading ability who need line-by-line annotations
Readers seeking contemporary poetic style and modern expression

Reading tips

First read through once to feel the overall tone, then pick two or three poems to read aloud repeatedly, paying attention to line breaks and pauses.
While reading, jot down recurring images, and afterward review how these images connect.
Read alongside background material on early twentieth-century American poetry for a deeper understanding.
If reading the English is difficult, first consult a reliable Chinese translation for comparison, then return to the original to feel its rhythm.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book a novel or a poetry collection?

This is a poetry collection by Elizabeth Bartlett, categorized under American literature. It is not a novel and has no continuous plotline; it is better suited to slow reading and rereading individual poems.

Does the electronic edition include annotations or an introduction?

The Project Gutenberg edition basically preserves the original text and usually contains no modern annotations or introduction. Readers who need background explanations must consult relevant literary materials themselves.

How difficult is the English?

The work was written in the first half of the twentieth century. The vocabulary is not especially obscure, but poetic language relies on omission and rhythm, posing some challenge for non-native readers. Reading with reference tools or a translation is recommended.

Comments

Find this book

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Bartlett, Elizabeth, 1911-1994 Author

Elizabeth Bartlett (Bartlett, Elizabeth, 1911–1994) is the author of four works held in this collection. Because public information is limited, details of her life—such as nationality, education, and professional career—cannot be confirmed, and her writing can only be sketched from the works themselves. The four titles are It Takes Practice Not To Die, The House of Sleep, poems of yes and no, and Behold this Dreamer. Their titles suggest themes of sleep, dreams, life and death, and the dialectic of yes and no, giving her writing a clearly introspective and philosophical bent; one of the works is presented directly as a collection of poems. These titles indicate a writer who treats abstract experience in spare, resonant language, seeking expression between life and death, dream and waking. As relevant materials have not yet been systematically gathered, reception of and research on her work in the Chinese-speaking world remain limited, and further understanding must await more documentation.