though my heart yearns to beat
© Dr. Jeanne I. Lakatos, Ph.D.
La Fontaine Subé in Reims, France... "Let all your things be done in Love." (1 Corinthians 16:14)
Introduction:

- Dr. Jeanne Iris
- Current: Danbury, CT, United States
- Welcome! A few years ago, I discovered an application that artists employ in their works to bring cultural awareness to their audiences. Having discerned this semiotic theory that applies to literature, music, art, film, and the media, I have devoted the blog,Theory of Iconic Realism to explore this theory. The link to the publisher of my book is below. If you or your university would like a copy of this book for your library or if you would like to review it for a scholarly journal, please contact the Edwin Mellen Press at the link listed below. Looking forward to hearing from you!
Announcements
15 July, 2025
A Long Sentence, Silence is.
though my heart yearns to beat
14 July, 2025
When in France...
A few years ago, I presented a paper at the annual Association of Franco-Irish Studies conference in Reims, France. Ever since I spoke that first French word in my ninth grade French class, I've longed to go to that country. Finally, decades later, my dreams came true but not without the unfortunate realization that there were no washcloths at my hotel. So.....
13 July, 2025
Ekphrasis: My poem, "Haven" and the Church of St. Stephen the Martyr
Haven
Her candle lit,
she takes her usual seat
© Jeanne I. Lakatos
12 July, 2025
Goal: Inspiration
11 July, 2025
From my operetta, Luminescence, Advice from Anne Bradstreet (Represented as the Passion Flower)
In my operetta, Luminescence, a re-write of the 13th century French narrative poem, Roman de la Rose, the spirit of the poet, Anne Bradstreet, as represented by the passionflower, gives the following advice to Rose. I wrote this with Bradstreet's poetic style in mind:
My name was Anne Bradstreet,and I have a story of devotion to tell. My life was dedicated to the sacrifice of one who gave His life, that I might have mine. I saw the need for all people, men and women, to be mindful of the importance of their individual spirits.
My passion for the love of my life is ever-growing even as I speak from the spirit. The seeds one plants in life are carried forth to benefit future generations, bringing into view the truth of love and devotion in a physical manifestation of Divine Ordinance.
One needs to remember always that humility of thought begins with the acceptance of the challenge within one’s heart. Each individual must fulfill that desire in order to fulfill the Will of the Almighty.
Attention to this desire will bring happiness and contentment as a central focus of one’s life, and there will be calm in the heart of any troubled soul.
© Jeanne I. Lakatos
Anne Bradstreet
Note: Anne Bradstreet was an English-American poet who was born in Northampton, England in 1612 and died in North Andover, Massachusetts in 1672.
(To hear my reading of this poem on Pod-omatic, click HERE.)
10 July, 2025
Out of the Fog
Head
09 July, 2025
Inception of a Storm
08 July, 2025
Sydney Owenson (Lady Morgan) and Disparate Characterizations in The Missionary
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07 July, 2025
"Clair de Lune" by Claude Debussy, A Deleted Segment of Walt Disney's 1940 film, "Fantasia"
06 July, 2025
Attack of the Georgia June Bugs
05 July, 2025
Sydney Owenson: Weaving Threads of Culture Together
From my book:
In Sydney Owenson’s national tales, she weaves together threads of disenfranchisement and enchantment, capturing the essence of the politically inspired Romantic era, in which the grand is intentionally written to be grander, where literary characterizations entwine with political forces within a civil society.
04 July, 2025
Declaration of Independence
Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776
03 July, 2025
A Yankee Doodle Dandy
02 July, 2025
Sydney Owenson's 'The Wild Irish Girl' and Revolutionary Thought
Sydney Owenson’s national tales and narrative poetry echo those of the American colonists in regard to humanity’s birth right of freedom, particularly in the way her British characters interact with Irish characters. Owenson sees the Irish used as scapegoats for England’s perceived imperial failure and, through her writing, takes a stand against the British. While she leads her fellow country men and women to awareness of individual and national pride, she also sheds light upon the conditions of the nineteenth century female, that of subjugation to male dominance.
Particularly in The Wild Irish Girl, Owenson reveals eighteenth century societal dictates present within the Irish culture. Her inclusion of Irish speech involves the ‘wild’ Irish instructing the British aristocracy on truths evident to the Irish but virtually unknown by the intruding British. For example, the main female character’s name is Glorvina, the word glor in Irish, meaning voice. In one of her initial conversations with the British character, Horatio, she explains the significance of Irish music:
This susceptibility to the influence of my country’s music, discovered itself in a period of existence, when no associating sentiment of the heart could have called it into being; for I have often wept in convulsive emotion at an air before the sad story it accompanied was understood: but now- now- that feeling is matured, and understanding awakened. Oh! You cannot judge-cannot feel- for you have no national music; and your country is the happiest under heaven! [1]
Audaciously, Owenson configures historical and linguistic elements of Ireland within this foundational national tale and juxtaposes these elements with those of Great Britain through her two main characters, illustrating a cultural fantasy of an Anglo-Irish coalition.
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[1] Sydney Owenson, The Wild Irish Girl, Boston: Joseph Greenleaf, 1808, p. 92.
01 July, 2025
Thunder and Lightning, Then the Flood
emptied tears
30 June, 2025
Guided Steps through the Mountains
"How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation..." (Isaiah 52:7) kjv
29 June, 2025
Arachnid's Aim
Once, I observed a lovely spider, busily spinning her web, and I proceeded to write the poem below.
28 June, 2025
In God's Time
moving through a daily routine,
I've come to that moment
when I become anxious
for answers to questions unresolved.