Tuesday, November 29, 2016

Hwaet!






Or, aids to the imagination.

A good phrase, a good book, a figure in metal or clay or the mind.

Friday, November 25, 2016

Thursday, November 24, 2016

Idiomatic

Glenmorangie, a Scottish word for giving-thanks, I think.

Sunday, November 20, 2016

"Time's Winged Chariot" . . . Turbo?


Or, getting older is weird.

I used my epee as a visual aid while teaching the dueling scene in "Hamlet" a couple of days ago, yet I fenced my last serious bout 24 years ago. I opened a pint bottle of Salvator Doppelbock a moment ago with my Swiss Army knife . . . purchased in Switzerland 29 years ago.

"Time's winged chariot" seems turbocharged these days.



All due respect--and definite recommendation--to Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress":


TO HIS COY MISTRESS

Had we but world enough, and time,
This coyness, lady, were no crime.
We would sit down and think which way
To walk, and pass our long love's day;
Thou by the Indian Ganges' side
Shouldst rubies find; I by the tide
Of Humber would complain. I would
Love you ten years before the Flood;
And you should, if you please, refuse
Till the conversion of the Jews.
My vegetable love should grow
Vaster than empires, and more slow.
An hundred years should go to praise
Thine eyes, and on thy forehead gaze;
Two hundred to adore each breast,
But thirty thousand to the rest;
An age at least to every part,
And the last age should show your heart.
For, lady, you deserve this state,
Nor would I love at lower rate.

        But at my back I always hear
Time's winged chariot hurrying near;
And yonder all before us lie
Deserts of vast eternity.
Thy beauty shall no more be found,
Nor, in thy marble vault, shall sound
My echoing song; then worms shall try
That long preserv'd virginity,
And your quaint honour turn to dust,
And into ashes all my lust.
The grave's a fine and private place,
But none I think do there embrace.

        Now therefore, while the youthful hue
Sits on thy skin like morning dew,
And while thy willing soul transpires
At every pore with instant fires,
Now let us sport us while we may;
And now, like am'rous birds of prey,
Rather at once our time devour,
Than languish in his slow-chapp'd power.
Let us roll all our strength, and all
Our sweetness, up into one ball;
And tear our pleasures with rough strife
Thorough the iron gates of life.
Thus, though we cannot make our sun
Stand still, yet we will make him run. 

--Andrew Marvell

Saturday, November 19, 2016

Play-Time: From the Medieval to the Renaissance


The manuscript poster--
Spring 2017:
English 46A
Come join the fun!
I'll make it as memorable as I can.

Saturday, November 5, 2016