Her Words, Poet Maya Angelou

When I Think Of Death 

Maya Angelou (1924-2014)

When I think of death, and of late the idea has come with alarming frequency, I seem at peace with the idea that a day will dawn when I will no longer be among those living in this valley of strange humors.
I can accept the idea of my own demise, but I am unable to accept the death of anyone else.
I find it impossible to let a friend or relative go into that country of no return.
Disbelief becomes my close companion, and anger follows in its wake.
I answer the heroic question 'Death, where is thy sting? ' with ' it is here in my heart and mind and memories.'

Maya Angelou

Source: When I Think Of Death - Maya Angelou - A Popular Funeral Reading

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Chaucer and Shakespeare

"What Bach and Beethoven are to music, Chaucer and Shakespeare are to English poetry."

"Shakespeare was a towering romantic genius,....

Chaucer on the other hand, was a sort of medieval, well-tempered Bach."

Some writers major on emotion, while others place the mind ahead of everything. The best poets and writers in general combine the two in the necessary balance for the work, cheating neither feeling nor thought. 

The Life and Times of Chaucer by John Gardner, Alfred A. Knopf, 1977