Poetry

Cold in the earth — and the deep snow piled above thee

7 Jul 2012

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Cold in the earth — and the deep snow piled above thee,
Far, far removed, cold in the dreary grave!
Have I forgot, my only Love, to love thee,
Severed at last by Time’s all-severing wave?

Now, when alone, do my thoughts no longer hover
Over the mountains, on that northern shore,
Resting their wings where heath and fern leaves cover
Thy noble heart forever, ever more?

Cold in the earth — and fifteen wild Decembers,
From those brown hills, have melted into spring;
Faithful, indeed, is the spirit that remembers
After such years of change and suffering!

Sweet Love of youth, forgive, if I forget thee,
While the world’s tide is bearing me along;
Other desires and other hopes beset me,
Hopes which obscure, but cannot do thee wrong!

No later light has lightened up my heaven,
No second morn has ever shone for me;
All my life’s bliss from thy dear life was given,
All my life’s bliss is in the grave with thee.

But, when the days of golden dreams had perished,
And even Despair was powerless to destroy,
Then did I learn how existence could be cherished,
Strengthened, and fed without the aid of joy.

Then did I check the tears of useless passion –
Weaned my young soul from yearning after thine;
Sternly denied its burning wish to hasten
Down to that tomb already more than mine.

And, even yet, I dare not let it languish,
Dare not indulge in memory’s rapturous pain;
Once drinking deep of that divinest anguish,
How could I seek the empty world again?

~Remembrance, Emily Bronte

By: Shannon Category: Poetry, Victorian Tags: , ,

~ Reading Journal ~

8 Mar 2012

4 Comments

Notes from my Reading Journal…..

3-2-12 Have a free day today, so I am indulging in a mini read-a-thon. From 10:30 to 3:30 I hope to read as much as I can and get caught up on some partially read books.

10:40 Reading: Rules for the Dance by Mary Oliver
started pg24….
Finished chapter 3 and there was just too much poetry structure info all at once; I can’t even absorb it all.
End pg 29

10:50 Taking a break to open my mail which includes my new math book from The Art of Problem Solving…
Holy mother, that is a big algebra book!
After flipping through: I’m going to love this math book. It gives a full explanation backed up with mathematical rules, rather than just saying: This is how you solve the problem..the end.
Instead is says: This is how you solve because X and Y and here again in Z.

11:00 Okay back to poetry book. Goal to read ch. 4 & 5
start pg 29, ch. 4 Design: Line length
Re: line length in poetry “What works, works for profound and understandable reasons.”

11:12 End ch. 4
Oliver’s favorite line length is the pentameter because it is the perfect length to contain a thought without leaving the reader out of breath.

11:20 Ch. 5 Design Rhyme
Punctuation is used at the end of a line that forms a complete thought. Or mid-line when the poet wants you to hesitate, ” to verify and intensify that pause”.
Seems obvious but I had not purposely thought about that before. Some lines are so short yet include a comma at the end..Is this a complete thought masked in few words?

‘A true rhyme leaves a sense of cheerfulness and resolution. A slant or off-rhyme feels darkened and disturbed by complexity.’ See Emily Dickinson for ex. of latter.

Re: the complete thought punctuation, Oliver was referring specifically to the Heroic couplet. So must evaluate other poem styles on an individual basis, if the punctuation is meant to illustrate a complete thought (or simply rhythm?)

11:45 end pg 56 thru ch. 7
I could probably finish Rules of the Dance quickly if I stick to reading it in the AM; instead of the afternoon when I am wore out.

Have Byron’s So, We’ll go no more a roving stuck in my head now.

So we’ll go no more a-roving
So late into the night,
Though the heart be still as loving,
And the moon be still as bright.

For the sword outwears its sheath,
And the soul wears out the breast,
And the heart must pause to breathe,
And love itself have rest.

Though the night was made for loving,
And the day returns too soon,
Yet we’ll go no more a-roving
By the light of the moon.

Break for lunch
Meanwhile googled Byron’s poem, Wiki describes as “the fatigue of age conquering the restlessness of youth”.
I initially thought of the poem as being about two lovers, exhausted after the first flush of falling in love. I can see how it is also about an individual or group of friends wearing out their bodies with partying. Could also transfer theme to a higher level of the individual worn out and ready for death. Or the human race wearing out its potential, quickly using up and running out of new possibilities. Floundering through the darkness in search of knowledge and the thrill of discovery but how many things are left to be discovered…

12:30 Am recharged after lunch and a pop-tart ;)
Reading: Knowing and Teaching Elementary Math. Start pg 9
Would like to at least finish the chapter, maybe 2.

Reading about teaching double digit subtraction with borrowing. I love the Chinese teacher’s term of “composing and decomposing’ (composing 10 ones into 1 ten and alternately breaking or decomposing back into ones) vs the term borrowing. Because “it is fundamental to a variety of math computations” vs a lone idea.
Chinese teachers also emphasize “the rate for composing a higher value unit” i.e 10 ones composes 1 ten, 10 tens composes 1 hundred, etc. A good term to teach because it applies to all higher #s but is there a better way to phrase it? Composing, rate, and higher value are an intimidating list of words for a child.

1:10 end on pg 23
Very interested in this book but taking a reading break. That Benadryl from earlier today is putting me into a comma. I only took half a children’s benadryl and still in a daze.

1:30 Reading The Tenant of Wildfell Hall pg 679 on ipad

2:15 Finished Wildfell Hall
Have to get up and move around a bit; am become one with the couch.

Re: WildFell Hall. I read the short intro after finishing the book and it kind of pissed me off. I was reading the free Gutenberg edition, so I don’t know who wrote the intro or when; but the author of it basically states that Charlotte and Emily Bronte were much more talented than “poor Anne” because they took the pains of life and transformed them into something entirely new and distant from reality, into Art. I can see that, I love Charlotte and especially Emily, but the author goes on to say that clearly Anne is not at her sisters’ level because she merely presents reality as it is. There is no transformation.
I do not think Anne was any less talented than her sisters, she just had a different style. Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights have a distinct fairy tale or fable quality about them. Anne’s Wildfell Hall could easily become fable-tastic but Anne stresses in her own intro that this is reality. That there are people making these errors every day and she hopes to save them from romanticized character flaws. So it is not that Anne cannot achieve the level of fairy tale, she does not want to. Anne Bronte was a realist and that is not a fault. We could even say Anne was more progressive and daring than her sisters since, besides Dickens, few English authors were writing in the realist style when Wildfell Hall was published.

3:00 Time to start my algebra textbook

3:25
Okay the very first problem has me banging my head against the wall. And, it’s not even an algebra problem! It is just a brain warm up, the 24 game. Make 24 total using each of the following #s: 1,6,7,4.
Use addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division. Each # must be used once and only once to equal 24.
So I fail after about 15mins and look up the answer. How did I not think of that combo!? eeeeedeee-it.

3:30
Leaving to pick up my Dd from school. Mentally taking the next 24 game with me, #s 22, 23, 1, 1

3:55
Good news, I was able to solve the second 24 game problem, it was a pretty easy one. Nice to know I am not completely brain dead after all. It’s hard working that left side of the brain when you normally never use it! Well I guess I do, since I analyze parts, make lists, and am typically logical. But that’s all with words, numbers are a whole ‘nother game.

By: Shannon Category: Now reading, Poetry, Reading Journal, Self education Tags: , , ,

Wishing I could somehow cram all these books into my head instantaneously

1 Mar 2012

2 Comments

Right, so you already know about the 200 classic lit books waiting to be read on my shelves. Well somehow they keep multiplying! I don’t know how it happens. There are just SO many books in the world that need to be read. I have been somewhat good in that I have branched out a little on the book topics and I added several books on PDF that I can read on my iPad. Most of the other books are from the library, so I haven’t actually added too many to the physical shelf.
Still there are so many I want to read, simultaneously, that I don’t even know where to start. Here’s what’s been going on in my reading life these last couple weeks…

1- Shirley by Charlotte Bronte
I finished Shirley awhile ago, read as an ebook so no shelf clutter. I don’t know that I am going to post about it.. It was a good book but no Villette or Jane Eyre.

2-The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte
I am almost done with this one, have about 100 pages left. Again an ebook from Gutenberg. I liked this one a little more than Shirley but it is completely different from Anne’s other novel, Agnes Gray. Great plot but the narration structure is kind of questionable lol. It’s written in letters (epistolary) but these are the longest and most detailed letters ever written.

3-The Sun Also Rises by Hemingway
From the library, I read the first 40 pages but didn’t immediately fall deeply into the story like I did with Hem’s other books. I do think I will like the story but I am going to hold off and read this when I am in the Hem. mood.

4-The Complete Short stories Hemingway
Library. I’ve only read Hills Like White Elephants so far and I totally did not get what the ‘unsaid thing’ was. >>>is dense<<<< It probably did not help that I was standing at the stove making dinner while I read it. I want to read all of these stories but no way I can before it’s due back. Better to put this on my To Buy list but on the other hand, I’m not sure if I am a huge fan of Hem’s short stories.. They seem so abrupt! (so I googled abrupt to make sure I spelled it right, I know duh, but it was correct so yay me. And the definition is: Brief to the point of rudeness, which I thought was very funny because it perfectly describes Hemingway’s short stories lol).

5-Classic Myths to read aloud by William Russell
Library. I love this book! I actually checked it out to read to Dd, the stories are abridged for children, but her to be read pile is as long as mine! SoI haven’t had time to read it to her but I am enjoying it myself. The books give you a brief 4-8 pages version of a ton of Greek Myths. I plan on reading the adult versions some day lol, but it’s nice to get the general idea of each story since you come across them so often in other lit. Plus I love that it tells you how to pronounce the Greek and Roman names. Also, the stories have notes at the end about Greek stems and how the names of the Gods in the stories relate to our modern language. I’m on page 90 of about 250. I may have to buy this one too since I still want to read it to Dd.

6-Rules for the Dance by Mary Oliver
Library. This is the poetry book I posted about last month. I’m only on page 26. It’s been hard to find the right time to read this because I need quiet and concentration to really pick up on what she is talking about. It helps to be able to read the poetry examples out loud too. I’m not sure yet if this is THE poetry book for me. I tend to fall asleep while reading it..oops.

7-Decontructing Penguins by Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone
My last library book, I have not even opened this one yet. It is about analyzing literature in a similar method to the one I outlined in my Lit Analysis Elements post, only this book is aimed at children. The idea is to discuss and analyze books with kids in a book group setting.

Now for something completely different….

 

 

8-Knowing and teaching Elementary Mathematics by Liping Ma
This is another book that contributes to understanding of the “Singapore way’ or how mathematics is taught in Asia; but this one actually focuses on the difference in understand and teaching math between teachers in China and the US. Apparently Chinese teachers do not go to school as long or have as much education as US teachers, and yet they do a much better job teaching math. Because they have a deeper understanding of mathematics and emphasize the conceptual with their students. I’m excited to read this one and will probably start it this weekend.

9-Art of Problem Solving Pre-algebra
Alright, now you are not allowed to laugh at me but this math book is for me lol. I decided I want to go back to school, probably for an associates in education…and later a BA in lit?? So I was looking at the college placement test and realized I pretty much have forgotten everything I learned in middle and high school. I am totally clueless about algebra, fractions, etc. The Art of Problem Solving is a curriculum for kids who are gifted in math. I thought it would be perfect for me since it not only goes over the basics, rather quickly which is good, but it also goes much deeper into mathematical understanding and really challenges the student at every level. The website has several video tutorials and I’ve already remembered much of the math I thought was completely gone from my brain. But I decided to go ahead and order the text book because I want to really understand the WHY this time and learn algebra so well it won’t vanish again.

10-Teaching resources, lesson plans, and activity PDFs…. x18
Umm I went a little crazy with the Scholastic teacher express sale.. They have a ton of PDF books on sale for $1. How could I resist that?! I’m most excited about the lesson plans and activities I got for Dd on Greece and Rome. I am going to use these PDFs as well as the book Building Language (a Latin stems book by Michael Clay Thompson) to put together a Greek and Roman curriculum for Dd and I to use this summer. I mentioned the MCT Building Language book awhile ago, when I was talking about ordering his poetry book. I did finally order both (but held off on the Grammar books). Dd and I flipped through the Building Language book already and she really likes it. It’s fun to see a little lightbulb go on in her eyes when she gets the connection between the latin stems and our own language. The MCT poetry book is also beautiful but I need to do quite a bit of work before we use that. There are many references in the book to classic poets, which I love, but I want to pull examples to illustrate the lessons that are more at Dd’s level as well. I imagine reading the classic poems for her so she can HEAR the words instead of focusing on what the poem means and then
using elementary level poems for meaning, metaphor, etc. I have a couple poetry pdfs that will go with that.

So that is what is on my shelf right now. And I haven’t even decided what fiction to read after I finish with Tenant of Wildfell Hall. I should probably pick something from my TBR challenge list…Do I dare start Les Mis?

PS-I’ve included Amazon links to the books so you could read descriptions, reviews, peek inside, etc; not because I think you should buy from them

By: Shannon Category: Add to the shelf, Afterschooling, Non-fiction, Poetry, Self education Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Learning together: Language and poetry

2 Feb 2012

6 Comments

While I was researching afterschooling curriculum for my daughter, I can across the Michael Clay Thompson language arts program. The MCT level 1 series includes: Grammar Island- an intro into the parts of speech, Building Language- teaches Latin stems, Sentence Island- more details about the eight parts of speech, and Music Hemispheres- an intro to poetry.

The Level 1 series is aimed at 7-9 year olds with lots of silly stories and illustrations. But behind the pretty pictures is a very detailed education in language. I wouldn’t expect Dd to absorbed all the info on the first go round but I like giving her an early intro to be built on later. From the Building Language book..

The goal of this book is, in the most profound way, to give elementary kids the right vocabulary start. We want students to know, from their earliest thinking, that their world is not new, and that they did not come from nowhere

I love that bolded bit, it is something we really try to get across to Dd.

As I looked through the lesson books online, I thought “Damn I want these for myself!” Even as an adult I can see there is much I could learn from these books. The poetry book and the Latin stems look particularly fun.

Here is a sample of what is taught with the program. I love that word supercilious and how funny that it means over hair or raised eyebrow!

And excerpt from the Poetry book

(Opening lines from Percy Shelley’s The Cloud)

I bring fresh showers for the thirsting flowers,
From the seas and the streams;
I bear light shade for the leaves when laid
In their noonday dreams.

So, I love these books. BUT…..Dd and I already have a couple afterschooling books we are working through and I don’t want to add anymore subjects making the whole experience overwhelming. Also, buying the complete Level 1 set is quite expensive. What I think I am going to do is save up and buy it for summer. Perhaps make language arts and poetry our main focus for summer with only a little math and spelling on the side to maintain what Dd has learned. She loves books and has a newly developing love of poetry. The MCT curriculum seems very informal, there is very little workbook work, so I think it will make a nice fit for the school break. We can just pull out the books when she gets bored or at the end of the day when she is burnt out on outdoor play.

Now even though I am holding off on adding any language lessons for Dd until summer, that doesn’t mean I can’t buy a little something for myself, right ;) After all the teacher has to know what she’s on about. I am particularly interested in learning how a poem is built. As it stands, I know nothing about poetry. I can appreciate a pretty sentence but that’s as far as it goes. One of my goals for 2012 was to read more, * cough* some, poetry. I had Byron and Shelley in mind specifically. Plus I wanted to read Paradise Lost this year. It makes sense to do a little preparation so I call appreciate these great poets.

So I went to Amazon in search of an adult lesson in poetry. Several of the books (or even online resources) I found looked very dry. But then I came across Mary Oliver’s Rules for the Dance..

“True ease in writing comes from art, not chance, / As those move easiest who have learn’d to dance,” wrote Alexander Pope. “The dance,” in the case of Oliver’s brief and luminous book, refers to the interwoven pleasures of sound and sense to be found in some of the most celebrated and beautiful poems in the English language, from Shakespeare to Edna St. Vincent Millay to Robert Frost. With a poet’s ear and a poet’s grace of expression, Oliver shows what makes a metrical poem work – and enables readers, as only she can, to “enter the thudding deeps and the rippling shallows of sound-pleasure and rhythm-pleasure that intensify both the poem’s narrative and its ideas.

That sounds lovely!

Now I’ll have you know, I went right to my Ipad in search of an Ebook version. But no go. And none of the other poetry books available as ebooks looked remotely interesting, plus most of them were more expensive. Now I really tried hard not to have to buy another book. Next I went to my library’s website. The LIBRARY even! You see how dedicated I am to not cluttering up my shelves. Going to the library might seem completely natural to you but not so for me. And this case is the perfectly example why, they didn’t have the book.

So what can I do? Fate is forcing my hand. One woman against the universe, etc, etc. I’ll probably order Oliver’s book from B&N with a coupon or look for it at Elliott bookstore on Friday.

In the meantime, if you have any understanding poetry resources, I would love to hear them.

By: Shannon Category: Add to the shelf, Afterschooling, Non-fiction, Poetry, Self education, The Classics for Kids, Understanding & Interpretation Tags: , , , , ,

Top Ten Books I want for Xmas

20 Dec 2011

5 Comments

I’m jumping in on my first Top Ten meme by The Broke and Bookish because I have been meaning to post my book wishlist. Here are the top ten books I am hoping to find under the tree!

 

 

 



Faber and Faber’s The Romantics series

“This new series of eight hardback poetry books draws inspiration from the classic designs of Josiah Wedgwood (who had strong links to the poets from the Romantic period) and references the historical origins of the poems themselves. Inside each volume is a set of glorious bespoke endpapers, created especially to point towards the historical technique of marbling.

The eight poets included are Byron, Clare, Coleridge, Wordsworth, Shelley, Blake, Burns and Keats.”

*Dies of happiness*

The Journals of Mary Shelley by Paula R. Feldman

“The definitive account of Mary Shelley’s life from her own pen is now available in a single softcover volume. Here we see even more vividly than in her letters her sympathetic identification with nature and her struggles with–and ultimate surrender to–the lifelong depression that followed her husband’s death. Supplementing the text are extensive annotations, a chronology, a thorough index, maps of the Shelleys’ travels, portraits of acquaintances, appendices giving biographical accounts of the members of Mary Shelley’s social circles in Pisa and London, the Shelleys’ reading lists, and a bibliography.”

Many of the books on my Christmas list this year are either very hard to find or expensive because they appear to be out of print. Good luck Dh!

The journals of Claire Clairmont by Marion Stocking

Here’s another tough find. I couldn’t even find a cover image or description of this book! There are a couple used books kicking around on Amazon but besides those I could only find this book available at University libraries. Claire Clairmont was Mary Shelley’s sister and the mother of Lord Byron’s daughter.


Percy Shelley: a biography by James Bieri

“This major biography of Shelley, England’s most radical and controversial Romantic poet, is the first to appear in thirty years. Informed by the author’s extensive research, psychological insight, and recent scholarship on Shelley and his circle, the biography stresses the intimate relationship between the poet’s writing and his complex personality.”

Soooo yeah, I’m a little obsessed with the Romantics right now…

1943 edition of Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights with illustrations by Fritz Eichenberg

There are quite a few of these floating around online but the prices vary widely, anywhere from $25 to a couple 100. Click HERE to see my post with some of the amazing illustrations.

Arden Shakespeare

“The Arden Shakespeare has developed a reputation as the pre-eminent critical edition of Shakespeare for its exceptional scholarship, reflected in the thoroughness of each volume. An introduction comprehensively contextualizes the play, chronicling the history and culture that surrounded and influenced Shakespeare at the time of its writing and performance, and closely surveying critical approaches to the work.”

I pretty much want all of the Arden Shakespeare books. I’ve flipped through other editions of Shakespeare’s plays and I just don’t like how they are laid out. The Arden versions have all the notes at the bottom instead of  one page play, opposite page notes.


The Art Museum by Phaidon Press

“The Art Museum is the finest art collection ever assembled between two covers. This revolutionary and unprecedented virtual art museum in a book, features 1,000 oversized pages of over 2,500 works of art. It is the most comprehensive and visually spectacular history of world art ever published. Ten years in the making, this unique book was created with a global team of 100 specialists in art history, who have collected together important works as they might be displayed in the ideal museum for the art lover.”

992 pages! 3 inches thick! 20lbs! *swoon* Someone left a review for this book at Barnes and Nobles giving it 2 stars because it was TOO big. Wth! There is no such thing as a book that is too large!

_______________

Well depending on how you count, my list may not be 10 books long, so I am going to include one more set of books that WILL be under the tree, from me to my daughter. I am so excited to share these books with her.


Great Illustrated Classics by Waldman Publishing

“For over 25 years, Waldman Publishing has published this treasury of 66 classic titles, a collection of books beautifully illustrated and adapted for young readers. Boys and girls of all ages can find classic titles such as Sherlock Holmes, Black Beauty, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and Jane Eyre, to name just a few in our series.”

These books are available new in paperback but I bought a collection of hardcovers on Ebay. I am most excited to read Pride and Prejudice and Jane Eyre with Dd since we watched those movies together and she enjoyed them. Also in the set I bought is Moby Dick and Oliver Twist. I bought the Christmas Carol separately. Jane Eyre was the hardest to find but I had to have it for her!

____

Oh I almost forgot lol!

Chronicles of Narnia box set

I completely forgot I bought the Narnia box set for Dd too. It actually just showed up on my porch this morning and I was afraid to open the box because I couldn’t remember what I had ordered! I was worried that it was a gift for me that Dh had accidental ordered on my account lol. After digging through my email I figured out what it was, oh yeahhhhh… Dh is going to lol. When the 15 Great Illustrated classics showed up yesterday he said “Good lord woman! I’m not building ANOTHER book shelf just for Dd.”

By: Shannon Category: Add to the shelf, Classic literature, Cover art, Non-fiction, Poetry, The Classics for Kids, The play's the thing, The Romantics Tags: