The Rush

Pillar Point Harbor: north of the jetty.
A rising tide.

Giving Voice To John Keats

Keats! Yesterday I had planned to lecture on John Keats and his poetry,
reading aloud the following poems
in full in the following order:

"To One Who Has Been Long In City Pent" (sonnet)
"On First Looking Into Chapman's Homer" (sonnet)
"La Belle Dame Sans Merci" (ballad)
"Ode on Melancholy" (ode)
"Ode to a Nightingale" (ode)
and
"The Eve of St. Agnes" (narrative verse poem, gothic trappings).

And in the 50 minutes available, well, I almost made it.  I lost a little time when I decided to chart the frame narration of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, our next book, but everything takes a bit longer than I tend to expect.  I had to summarize what I wanted to walk through with "The Eve of St. Agnes"--though I wish I'd had the time to read that long tale aloud.  That's what the poem deserves.

Next time.

The Whales Singing?

If I stick my head under the water--or just slip on in completely--what sounds will I hear these humpbacks making at this time of year and in this place?  (In Hawaii, in December 2009, I could hear the humpbacks singing whenever I went swimming.)  

Or, will I just hear the wailing of the anchovies?