5 Places for Augmented Reality Poetry [European Edition]

As promised, here is the second installment to yesterday's article on poems that should be associated with certain places via Augmented Reality. Here are five new places, this time in Europe, where it would be great to have accompanying poetry:

[n.b.: My knowledge of languages is, unfortunately, limited to English, Latin, and a small amount of Greek and French. Feel free to clue me in to great poems and places I may be missing out on because of language barriers!]

1. The Place: Westminster Bridge
The Poem: William Wordsworth's "Composed Upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802"

This reflection of looking out on the Thames from one of London's landmark bridges is a very contemplative approach to England's capital. Among the hustle and bustle of modern Westminster, it would be nice to stop and reflect with this poem.

"Ne'er saw I, never felt, a calm so deep!
The river glideth at his own sweet will:
Dear God! the very houses seem asleep;
And all that mighty heart is lying still!"

2. The Place: Majorca, Spain
The Poem: Gertrude Stein's "Tender Buttons"

As you may know, Stein was a member of and coined the phrase "The Lost Generation," which was a group of American authors and artists who roamed Europe in the early 20th century. Though Gertrude Stein spent most of her life in France, her wandering led her to Majorca in 1915 and 16. This work, which describes and celebrates mundane, every day objects is one of her more interesting experiments with word sounds. I can just imagine taking a smartphone and running it over objects in Majorca that Stein may have seen, only to find her own words describing those very objects.

"A single image is not splendor. Dirty is yellow. A sign of more in not mentioned. A piece of coffee is not a detainer. The resemblance to yellow is dirtier and distincter. The clean mixture is whiter and not coal color, never more coal color than altogether."

3. The Place: The Aegean Sea
The Poem: Homer's "Odyssey"

For me this one is a no-brainer. Who wouldn't want to sail the Aegean as Odysseus did, catching snippets of Homer's poem along the way?

"Now reddening from the dawn, the morning ray
Glow'd in the front of heaven, and gave the day
The youthful hero, with returning light,
Rose anxious from the inquietudes of night."

4. The Place: Thoor Ballylee [West Ireland]
The Poem: William Butler Yeats' "The Winding Stair"

Yeats' picturesque tower in the west of Ireland served as the home for him and his family for much of the poet's later life. Inside is the actual winding stone staircase on which this poem is based. While we're at it, there are few more poems based on life at Thoor Ballylee that could be included.

"My Soul. I summon to the winding ancient stair;
Set all your mind upon the steep ascent,
Upon the broken, crumbling battlement,
Upon the breathless starlit air,
Upon the star that marks the hidden pole."

5. The Place: Dover Beach
The Poem: Matthew Arnold's "Dover Beach"

This haunting and beautiful poem extends the metaphor of the beach and its waves to the opposing cultural forces that Arnold dealt with in his lifetime. The picture makes clear that the beach itself can have the same haunting quality. Clearly the two were meant to go together!

"Listen! you hear the grating roar
Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling,
At their return, up the high strand,
Begin, and cease, and then again begin,
With tremulous cadence slow, and bring
The eternal note of sadness in."

Thanks for sticking with us on this two-day adventure! Once again, feel free to comment with your suggestions for other places and poems, or just tweet them to me. Clearly the opportunities for pairing Augmented Reality with good poetry are endless. Let's hope someone comes out with a workable way to make this possible very soon.