Aug 6– “Locksley Hall” by Lord Alfred Tennyson (1842)

Off the shoulders of Orion...

Aug 6– “Locksley Hall” by Lord Alfred Tennyson (1842)

Summary: Sad rejection, pretty nature, and some (satirical?) sexism

Commentary: What a contrast with last night's disaster. I think I've identified one of the things that separates a "good" poem from a "bad" one, at least for me. (Besides sappy imagery, awkward forced rhymes, etc.) A good poem (much like good fiction) shows how someone struggles and aspires to something. The speaker "Locksley Hall" is in love (but rejected by) a woman, then goes and admirers nature for a while, and predicts a brighter future (though I'd prefer more of seeing him work towards that future and less just predicting.)

Aug 5–“Cotters’ Saturday Night” (1786) by Robert Burns

 Illustrated AND read aloud!

“Cotters’ Saturday Night” (1786) by Robert Burns

Summary: Buuurrrrrrnnnnnnsssss

Commentary: The timing on this one is weird. For my part, I just got done promising I'd not rush the readings this week, let them marinate, etc. And then I get a Burns poem. Usually I read the first half page or so of a Burns selection to make sure he still sucks, skim the rest, fill in the blog. I can only tolerate so much non-English/garbage poetry in one night. I soldiered through and read (and listened, since poems are usually better aloud) this one a little more closely. 

I wrote a whole paragraph about how Eliot should've picked this for a Saturday, before realizing that Saturdays shift (unless we go to a fixed calendar!) but he also could've put it in last week on its own publication date. He did note that today is Burns's anniversary. Had I not had a brain fart about the Saturday thing, I'd probably have accepted that as a good enough reason without thinking about the publication date part.

In terms of the actual reading, I still don't "get" Burns. Some of it, I assume, is the language issue. The "Scots dialect"/borderline EME is a pain to read. Even with "translation" it feels pretty straightforward in meaning (quiet country life and family good) and it doesn't have any particular lyricism, clever rhyme, imagery, etc. I feel like, if anything, it'd work better as a straight flash piece (or maybe prose poem) about the evening. I still don't know that it'd be good but I'm imaging it as kind of comfy. In his stronger moments:

But hark! a rap comes gently to the door;

Jenny, wha kens the meaning o the same;

Tells how a neebor lad came o'er the moor,

To do some errands, and convoy her hame.

The wily mother sees the conscious flame

Sparkle in Jenny's e'e, and flush her cheek;

With heart-struck anxious care, inquires his name,

While Jenny hafflins is afraid to speak;

Weel-pleas'd the mother hears, it's nae wild, worthless rake.

He's kind of cute. If it wasn't crammed into an awkward poem, you could get a nice paragraph about a girl bringing a boy home here. Burns would probably still be sloppy but, "A gentle rap comes to the door." would be a bit of an improvement. 

He's like the poetry version of Thomas Kincaid. Everything is pretty and blurry, without anything to think about.

It's got a reference to the famous mouse poem in "The miry beasts retreating frae the pleugh." I guess it's good at least that I learned enough about Burns to recognize his references to himself? 

I really tried on this one, but it's still bad.

Reflections on Week 31 (July 29-Aug 4)

      Link to readings

Looking back a whole week!

Quick review on this week's readings:

July 29 "Stonehenge" by Emerson: 1/5 Who wants to talk about real monuments when you can whine about museums and conspiracy theories?

July 30 “Sir Humphrey Gilbert’s Voyage To Newfoundland” by Haies: 2/5 I've read several of these colony founding pieces, and this was the most drawn out and boring.

July 31 Education of Woman by Defoe: 4/5 Has some good points about education that are still relevant today, but also obviously old fashioned in a way that might make them stand out a bit more..

Aug 1 The Institutes of the Christian Religion by Calvin:1/5 Proves that whiny lunatics haven't changed much in almost 500 years.

Aug 2 Poems by Drummond: 1/5 Generic bad poetry.

Aug 3 The Aeneid by Virgin: 3/5 Can't go wrong with the Trojan Horse

Aug 4 "The Ugly Duckling" by Andersen: 3/5 Long, but I can't fault Eliot for putting in the original version.

Average: 2.14 If this week was a pie, it'd be like 40% tasty pie and 60% gross and weird.

Overall Thoughts on The Project:

The best individual piece for the week is Defoe's. 

The soul is placed in the body like a rough diamond, and must be polished, or the lustre of it will never appear.  And it is manifest that as the rational soul distinguishes us from brutes, so education carries on the distinction, and makes some less brutish than others.

This is some core Liberal Education stuff.  All people have potential, but education and learning to think is what makes you a good person. A few of his other essays look interesting, and I popped him on my read more list. But overall, I think this is one of the best quotes for distilling the whole idea of this project down to a paragraph or less.

Beyond that, last week's "do the whole week at once" experiment wasn't great. My comments are obviously light, and I feel like I didn't have enough time to let stuff marinate. While I could try to stay a week ahead and just rush less (do two or three a night vs four or five), there are some things I like about the more timely arrangement.

1. A lot of the readings are picked to align with a specific event. It's one thing to read the "Declaration of Independence" a couple days early on July 1st, but to push it out a full week loses some of the luster.

2. I like doing the Reflections "in real time." It's a nice way to start/end the week. Doing them too far ahead makes them less significant. Doing them on time (but well after I read the pieces) makes it harder to reflect.

Overall, I think I liked the project best when I was a couple days ahead (so I could miss a night if something happened), but not a full week. I'll try to get back to that point this week.

Aug 4– “The Ugly Duckling” by Hans Christian Andersen (1843)

 As a ballet!

Aug 4– “The Ugly Duckling” by Hans Christian Andersen (1843)

Summary: The duckling is a swan.

Commentary: A very long version of a story that is usually only a few hundred words.

Aug 3– From "The Aenied" by Virgil (19 BC) translated by John Dryden

Virgil was in this show. He's the bird.

Aug 3– From The Aenied by Virgil (19 BC) translated by John Dryden

Summary: The Greeks jump out of a wood horse and kill everyone because they're losing the war.

Commentary: We get one of the few direct accounts of the Trojan Horse (why is it the Trojan Horse? Shouldn't it be the Achaean Horse?) here. There's a few spots in T5FSOB where we get multiple versions of the same story (Faust comes to mind). It'd be cool to see them clustered a little more, as opposed to weeks or months apart when it's hard to compare them. It's interesting how little "first hand" information we have on the horse. It's not in The Iliad at all, and only briefly mentioned in The Odyssey. I think this passage is actually the longest description:

 

And armed hosts, an unexpected force,

Break from the bowels of the fatal horse.

Within the gates, proud Sinon throws about

The flames; and foes for entrance press without,

With thousand others, whom I fear to name,

More than from Argos or Mycenae came.

To sev’ral posts their parties they divide;

Some block the narrow streets, some scour the wide:

The bold they kill, th’ unwary they surprise;

Who fights finds death, and death finds him who flies.

The warders of the gate but scarce maintain

Th’ unequal combat, and resist in vain.’

[...]

And some, oppress’d with more ignoble fear,

Remount the hollow horse, and pant in secret there.

“But, ah! what use of valour can be made,

When heav’n’s propitious pow’rs refuse their aid!

Behold the royal prophetess, the fair

Cassandra, dragg’d by her dishevel’d hair,

Whom not Minerva’s shrine, nor sacred bands,

In safety could protect from sacrilegious hands:

It's  still not very much. A lot of mythology is really like that. You think there'd be a whole novel about Medusa, but she gets a line here, a paragraph there in a half dozen places.

Aug 2– Poems by William Drummond

One of the poems for today

Aug 2– Poems by William Drummond

Summary: Probably better than Burns. Barely.

Commentary: Cliché subjects, forced rhymes, blah blah blah. Generic bad poetry is generic.

Aug 1– Dedication to "The Institutes of the Christian Religion" by John Calvin (1559) translated by John Allen

 Text in various side by side translations

Aug 1– Dedication to The Institutes of the Christian Religion by John Calvin (1559) translated by John Allen

Summary: If people don't like my book, they're evil!

Commentary: This is some quality insane guy screaming without taking a breath. I would totally plug this into some sort of AI Alex Jones rant generator thing. There's no argument or reason here (even by the standards of Christian apologetics) it's just Calvin insulting anyone who disagrees with him, and saying they're evil.