Now, I know many of you would rather watch just about anything rather than rewatch Beckett’s Play, but I’m posting it here just in case. (You might at least watch a couple of minutes if you didn’t catch the love triangle aspect the first time. You should also have better sound quality than we had …
Category: Uncategorized
Nov 23
Illustrating Prufrock
I wanted to share this beautiful graphic novel (graphic poem?) edition of Eliot’s The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock. You can tell that the artist has invested a good deal of time in making his interpretation clear visually. Eliot’s writing here is so imagistic that it seems made for such treatment. I know I …
Nov 07
Democracy Lab Assignment
This week, we’ll be posting on the English department’s Democracy Lab blog (https://blogs.baruch.cuny.edu/democracylab/). For your assignment, which will contribute to your participation grade, write a short (300-500 word post) that reflects on what you see as the urgency of one of the texts we’ve read for our present moment. First, you’ll log in to the …
Nov 04
The Great War
For Thursday’s class, we’ll be entering the twentieth century, beginning with the poetry of World War I. First, watch this short video to refresh your memory about the war. Even if you’re familiar, watch for the argument made here about WWI, literature, and disillusionment. Be sure to read the poems listed on the syllabus …
Nov 03
Met Museum Visit
After a quick visit to the Frick, I made my way to the Met. I spent a generous amount of time in the Greek and Roman parts of the museum. After wandering around for a while, I was lost and stumbled upon the picture posted below. It is the death of Socrates depicted by Jacques-Louis …
Nov 03
My Met Visit: Experience as a Whole
With the faint echoes of the cheering outside for the New York City Marathon, I entered the Greek and Roman section of the Met. I love walking into each different section of the Met, because I believe the building itself truly sets up the entire experience of appreciating the art. When you walk into the …
Nov 01
The Seclusion of Women Throughout Time – Found in the MET
When visiting the MET this past week, I was blown away! I had visited many times when I was younger, as I went to public school here in the city, and the MET was always a popular class trip. Yet I hadn’t been to the museum in so long that I forgot how wonderful the …
Oct 14
Ode to Competition
Dozens of 6tth century vases live at the Metropolitan Museum Greek & Roman Wing. Your early steps reveal Athenian pride; images of athletes and musicians are introduced as icons of the Athenian culture. The main hallway holds the largest vases in terms of mass but for artistic content they are lacking depth. Javoline, diskus and …
Oct 14
The Lost Poems of Frances Ellen Watkins Harper
Following up on our conversation about Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s “The Runaway Slave at Pilgrim’s Point,” I wanted to share with you this important recent discovery. Long thought lost, the earliest poems by Frances Ellen Watkins Harper—an African-American woman writer writing before the Civil war—were just found and authenticated by a researcher. If you’re interested in African-American …
Oct 06
Sublime in “On Seeing the Elgin Marbles” by John Keats
“My spirit is too weak; mortality Weighs heavily on me like unwilling sleep, And each imagined pinnacle and steep Of godlike hardship, tells me I must die…” -John Keats (Lines 1-4) According to the passage on the sublime, in the Oxford English Dictionary, the sublime is described as “‘things in nature’ that affect the mind with …