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World's Longest Poem  

Meghna , , , , 238 comments

World's Longest Poem

While surfing the net, I recently came across the world's longest poem.


Ever thought of who wrote the longest poem in literature?

If yes, I give you your answer.

World's longest poem in English literature is written by Nigel Tomm who is a writer and artist.

Here's an excerpt from the first page:

Blah me. Blame you.
Blah you. About you. You blame me. Blah you.

I blah as you or blah by blah,
You know. You blah. You blah it out of blah.
Blah blah. Blah blah.

His book "The Blah Story, Volume 8" consists of one poem which contains 98,728 words, 449,441 characters (with spaces), 23,161 lines, 728 pages. This becomes the longest published poem in English. The poem is called 'My Blah Story'. The book was published in February 9, 2008.

Intrigued, I searched more about this incredible author. Nigel Tomm is a writer/artist who time and again pushes the limitations of literature. His novel "The Blah Story" is a clear example of that.


"The Blah Story" is based mostly with sturdy beat with over usage of the word 'blah'.

Isn’t this really interesting? Have you ever imagined writing a poem more than 1000 words? And think of this incredible author sweating over writing a poem almost 1,00,000 words long.

Other known long poem "Pieces of Hope" by Patrick Huet, has nearly 7,600 verses written on a roll of fabric that stretches to almost one kilometer. The poem is not published. Other really long poems were written by ancient Persia or India poets and an example is, Mahabharata.

So here’s your turn. Don’t shy away from sharing your longest piece of poetry with me. I’d be pleased!

Langston Hughes  

Meghna , , , 3 comments

Langston Hughes


Do you all know who Langston Hughes is? Langston Hughes was a poet and great writer whose works have been admired and looked upon by many amateurs. To read more on this famous African -American author and poet, please visit Wikipedia

The great poet, playwright, novelist, essayist or all-rounder in literary luminary, Langston Hughes achieved fame during the Harlem Renaissance. But do you know how or what he did earlier than that? I bet you do not, so I come here today to share some interesting tit-bits with you!

Before he became famous, Hughes was a common struggling writer, doing some or the other small job to support his promising poetry.

A common day in the year 1925, while working at a restaurant in Washington D.C., something got into him and Hughes arranged some of his poems under the dinner plate of then potent poet, Vachel Lindsay. The mesmerized and pleased Lindsay, shared the poems during his reading that night, and in the morning, Hughes was crowned Lindsay's new discovery, the "busboy poet."

By his hard work and talent, Hughes went on to become one of America's most prolific authors.


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Improve Your Writing By Keeping A Rotten Apple!!  

Meghna , , , , , 8 comments

Goethe and the Rotten Apple


“It only takes one rotten apple to spoil the basket!” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe would certainly disagree with this saying. I suppose he adheres to the saying, “Old is Gold”.

Goethe was so addicted to the saying that he could not write if he had no rotten apple in his desk. He says thoughts emerged in his mind only after he looked at the rotten apple!

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, the renowned writer, is a German poet and novelist. Some of the renowned works of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe include Faust; The Sorrows of Young Werther and Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship. To read more about him you can visit this great article. Reading some famous quotes by Goethe at John Petrie's Collection is a must. For more information about this great author, visit Wikipedia.

Goethe's works span the fields of poetry, drama, literature, theology, humanism, and science. Goethe's magnum opus, lauded as one of the peaks of world literature, is the two-part drama Faust.


Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Maybe it was just a hallucination by the writer to think that keeping a rotten apple in his desk helped in improving his writing; but why not give it a try?

Goethe has revealed this astounding secret of his success of the rotten apple, now it’s time to share yours! I would love to know what you do to bear sweet fruits!

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Meghna

Do Some Gambling and Become A Great Poet!  

Meghna , , , 17 comments

Here's good news for every child who gets a scolding from his parents every time he is playing or having fun. Are your parents asking you to study all the time?? So here's news for you all.

Edgar Allan Poe was a renowned American poet. For more information about him, click here. At the age of seventeen he went to the Virginia University after getting a scholarship. Poe was addicted to gambling and so in the first year itself he gambled all his scholarship money.

It is also said that Edgar owed around $2500 to the local gamblers. Gambling addiction led to alcoholism, which is still debated by many of Poe's followers. And what was more, it was reported that Edgar showed up drunk in class even during the examinations.

But the interesting fact is that Edgar Allan Poe finished with highest grades in his class and became the best student of his generation and even one of the best American poets! Now, isn't that something? I would really love to know what you all have got to say about this, eh!

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Poetry For All  

Meghna , 14 comments

I have seen people shying away from writing poems because they believe they cannot do it. They think it is very difficult and do not even try their hands at it. Poetic expressions come from within oneself, but writing poetry is not really difficult!

There are many different forms of poetry but I think that the two simplest forms of poetry are Haiku and Acrostic poetry. In this post, I have tried to explain how you can write them!

Haiku is a Japanese form of poetry. It is also called Nature or Seasonal Poetry. It is an un-rhymed verse consisting of three lines of five, seven and five syllables (5,7,5) and 17 syllables in total. It is written in the present tense and usually based on the theme, nature!

This form of poetry was created for young students to understand and write poems. For more information about this form of poetry visit, Shadow poetry for there is much more to haiku than the 5/7/5 version.

My own example of haiku:

The first soft snow
And everything is hidden
Even the plane, so low!

The other simple form of poetry is Acrostic Poetry. You can find more information about it here. It is a form of poetry in which the first letter of the first word of every line together, spells out a word.

For example :

Blogging is all about having fun
Lying down too you can have it done
Oh! It’s very amusing
Glad that you all are joining
Guys if you don’t do it
I can’t help you a bit
Now that this poem is ending
Got to tell you it forms blogging!

In the above example you will notice that the first letter of the first word of each line together, forms blogging.

 Now that you have read this post, I am sure that those who believe they are not good at poems will at least try their hands at it! I would love to read an example of your poem in the comments too, if possible. So get ready, let the pen be your brush and a plane sheet of paper, your canvas and let your imagination fly!


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