theaelizabet 2010

It is with great trepidation that I join. An erudite group, this is. I shall try to be worthy!

Books Read in 2010

Miss Lonelyhearts by Nathanael West
The Quickening Maze by Adam Foulds
I Am: The Selected Poetry of John Clare edited by Jonathan Bate
Across the Endless River by Thad Carhart
Light in August by William Faulkner
Summertime by J.M. Coetzee
Posthumous Keats by Stanley Plumly
Copper Sun by Countee Cullen
Color by Countee Cullen
The Code of the Woosters by P.G. Wodehouse
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
The Best American Poetry 2009 ed. David Wagoner
An Introduction to English Poetry by James Fenton
Food Rules: An Eater's Manual by Michael Pollan
The Ode Less Travelled by Stephen Fry
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (reread, and on an Ipod Touch)
Quartet in Autumn by Barbara Pym
Final Harvest by Emily Dickinson
John Keats: A Longman Cultural Edition edited by Susan Wolfson
Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson
Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke
Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Women by Harriet Reisen (audiobook)
Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder
Henry D. Thoreau: A Life of the Mind by Robert D. Richardson Jr.
The Vagabond by Colette
Where the God of Love Hangs Out by Amy Bloom
Excellent Women by Barbara Pym
Fidelity by Grace Paley
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell
Shadow Tag by Louise Erdrich
Different Hours by Stephen Dunn
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larson
Don Juan by Lord Byron
The Man in the Queue by Josephine Tey
Freedom: A Novel by Jonathan Franzen
Never Let Me Go Kazuo Ishiguro
C by Tom McCarthy
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
Recollections of Virginia Woolf by her Contemporariesedited by Joan Russell Noble
The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson
The Best of It: New and Selected Poems by Kay Ryan
130868::Virginia Woolf (Penguin Lives) by Nigel Nicolson
Great House by Nicole Krauss

Starred! I'll be following you like Javert follows Jean Valjean! (Ok, I'll be following you in a nicer way.)

Oh, Medillia, so good to see you! I'm going over to "star" you!

> 1: You cannot hide your light under that bushel basket--I have seen your posts in Le Salon!

You're kind! I running over to "star" you!

You're all stars in my book.

By way of introduction, I'll post my Top Ten favorites from last year, in no particular order:

Woodsburner by John Pipkin
Brooklyn by Colm Toibin
Zeitoun by Dave Eggers
The Hour of the Star by Clarice Lispector
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
Keats by Andrew Motion
The Children's Book by A.S. Byatt
My Antonia by Willa Cather
Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
Love and Summer by William Trevor

And my very, very preliminary reading list for 2010:

Le Miserables I'm already halfway through it
The Booker shortlist and perhaps a few from the longlist
Lord of the Rings Trilogy
Light in August and likely more Faulkner
In Search of Lost Time Proust (began last year, but set aside)
Emma
Anna Karenina
Lolita
Middlemarch
Some George Sand
More Goethe, next up Iphigenia in Tauris. Then Faust?
Burr by Gore Vidal
Much, much more poetry

Nonfiction

Essays Before a Sonata by Charles Ives
The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science by Richard Holmes
The Metaphysical Club: A Story of Ideas in America by Louis Menand
The Chinese in America: A Narrative History by Iris Chang

If I managed only the books listed here I'd be a happy reader. It probably won't happen because something else will catch my fancy and off I'll go!

Right now, I'm reading Les Miserables, The Quickening Maze and have almost completed Miss Lonelyhearts a novella by Nathanael West, which I began this morning for a group read and have almost finished.

A happy reading year to everyone!

Great stuff! Three of your top 10 (Wolf Hall, Children's Book, Hour of the Star- which I never got to, for shame) are possibilities for me this coming year. And Proust, Emma, Les Mis, & Middlemarch were my top 4 reads of last year! Woohoo!

I see Ives on your list. Are you musical?

Hooray, Teresa has her own thread finally!

If I managed only the books listed here I'd be a happy reader. It probably won't happen because something else will catch my fancy and off I'll go!

You know, I'm coming to realize that this is half the fun of making lists. It feels so delightfully wicked when you jump off the wagon and read something unplanned :)

Hello theaelizabet;
So good to see you and know that you will be easy for me to find this year. I am so happy about that. I have you starred and will be following your reading.
I have moved over from the 50 book gig. I just want more challenging reads this year, but also more kind and gentle books as well. And more reading and less chatter. I am hoping this will be a perfect fit.
Happy New Year and good reads to you.
hugs,
belva

7> I forgot how powerful Miss Lonelyhearts is, as I've dipped into it some today.

Starred, and looking forward to your 2010 reads!

kidzdoc! Good to see you! I starred you the minute I saw your thread!

Belva! Glad you're here! This is like a reunion!

Enrique, Lonelyhearts is powerful indeed. West is like that. I'm off to that thread to post more.

#8--Medillia, I'm really hesitant, given your background, to say that I'm musical. I did consider majoring in music (background in vocal work, choirs, madrigals etc.) before deciding on theater. My husband plays several instruments and my daughter plays flute/piccolo at school, studies privately and actually locks herself in her room every day for an hour of practice without her parent's nagging. So there's a lot of music around, of all kinds, let's say that!

As to Ives, I came to him through playwright Horton Foote. Ives was one of his major influences. I only recently found out about Essays Before a Sonata, which he frames as a preface to his Concord Sonata, which is one of my favorites.

hey... a familiar name. nice to see you here. i've got you starred and hope you have a great year.

Hi Banoo! I'm going over to star you, too.

Thea, I share your love of Keats, and am looking forward to reading your thoughts on the Longman reader. It sounds like an excellent book.

Divine Keats.

I just read the Durrell quote on your site. Wonderful.

>1 theaelizabet: are you still reading Keats? My husband (dukedom_enough) and I dug out our editions of Keats after seeing "Bright Star" for a brief and passionate Keats jag.

Exactly! I saw the movie a couple of months ago and realized I hadn't read any Keats since college, save for one time a few years back when I hauled out Endymion and reread it. Then I read an article by director/screenwriter Jane Campion where she discussed her inspiration for the movie--Andrew Motion's biography, Keats--which led her to spend another five or so years studying Keats' poetry. So then I read Motion's book, which led me to reading/rereading Keats' poetry and his letters, which I had never read and which are really quite incredible, and then dipping into some lit crit and so on and so on.

What I most liked about Motion's book was that it largely related everything back to the work and work method. If one was looking for the complete story of Keats and Fanny Brawne, this book wouldn't be the best place to go. Interesting then, that Campion decided to tell the story through Brawne's perspective, I thought. What did the two of think of the movie?

Miss Lonelyhearts by Nathanael West

This might not have been the best book (at 59 pages, a novella) with which to begin the New Year. It’s a bleak, bleak, tale. From the story, this tidy (and self-serving) summary provided by the titular character:

“A man is hired to give advice to the readers of a newspaper. The job is a circulation stunt and the whole staff considers it a joke… He too considers the job a joke, but after several months at it, the joke begins to escape him. He sees that the majority of the letters are profoundly humble pleas for moral and spiritual advice, that they are inarticulate expressions of genuine suffering… For the first time in his life, he is forced to examine the values by which he lives. This examination shows him that he is the victim of the joke and not its perpetrator.”

But there’s nothing tidy about this story. The advice columnist, Miss Lonelyhearts (he’s never named), exists, barely, in a world where gang rapes are casually discussed, and people cheat, beat and defile. Hollow religious symbolism flits around the edges and only mockingly offers the possibility of redemption, and the clichéd love-of-a-good woman is of no help

And yet there are over-the-top moments where West seems to be teasing readers, testing us, as if to say, “Just how ridiculous are you going to let things get before you wake up?” My favorite of these comes during a pastoral jaunt taken by Miss Lonelyhearts and the “good woman.” After being told by a local gas station attendant that it’s “the yids,” not the hunters, who are driving out the area deer, Miss Lonelyhearts goes for a walk in the woods:

”Although spring was well advanced, in the deep shade there was nothing but death—rotten leaves, gray and white fungi, and over everything a funereal hush.”

So, things are bad, friends. Really, really bad.

Of course times were bad in 1933, when this was published, but West is taking on much more here than the just the Depression era. Six years later, he will publish The Day of the Locust where he will further hone his apocalyptic vision. The next year he will die in a car crash.

Happy New Year.

Whoa. I'm thinking it's good this one is short or it would break my heart.

LOL, happy new year to you too. That made me laugh. :)

Glad I'm not participating in that particular Salon read.

Hi you two! It's too bad that West died so early in his career. As great writers go, I think he "coulda been a contender."

>20 theaelizabet:, I enjoy Keats, but I thought Bright Star was lacking. I thought it was just a rather drippy period love story. I spent most of my time in the theater wondering (a) what it was that those two characters even liked about each other, and (b) whether the next of Keats' many illnesses would prove to be the fatal one, so I could go home.

Full disclosure: I saw the film with my fiancee, who thought it was wretched for most of the same reasons I did, and a girlfriend of hers who thought it was magnificent, and straightaway predicted Oscar buzz for the lead actress.

I will say that the actor who played Mr. Brown was phenomenal in that role.

Edited for spelling.

Polutropon, we basically agree. I got no sense of who Keats was. I did enjoy hearing Whishaw recite the poetry, though. Here is Keats biographer Andrew Motion's take, which is actually quite positive: http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/oct/24/keats-jane-campion-bright-star

>26 theaelizabet:, Weirdly, I think that Motion's retelling of the story of Bright Star is more intriguing than than the film itself was.

You're right about Whishaw's recitations; while I didn't care particularly for the scene where he recites to Fanny on the sofa, his first recitation, to the family at dinner, was exquisite. The way his eyes darted throughout--he looked like a man haunted by the power of his mind, and it was the only time the film seemed to me to capture even a sliver of Keats' genius.

It was interesting that Motion brought up the butterfly scene, and calls it a triumph. I'm conflicted about it. Undoubtedly it was visually striking, and it generated its own minor plot and its own pathos. But within the context of the film, it was just spectacle and heavyhanded symbolism. For all the effect the events of that scene had on the ongoing thread of the plot, Fanny might as well have just dreamed it. It would have made a stellar short film.

Actually, to a lesser degree, I feel the same way about Whishaw's recitations. They were triumphs of acting as an art form, but they didn't help the film. They just made the surrounding scenes look smaller by comparison.

I am worried.

I now realise that this is a Jane Campion movie. I do not like her movies at all. Portrait of a Lady was a ham-fisted hatchet job, and the Piano, apart from some striking images, was tedious and totally inept musically.

What shall I do? Please advise.

Great review of Miss Lonely hearts, BTW, Thea, thank you.

#21... this sounds like something i would enjoy. i'm going to add some nathanael west to my library. and congrats on that 'hot review'.

>28 tomcatMurr: Ha! Well, then! No Keats for you!

I've only seen The Piano, which I think I enjoyed, but don't really remember. As for Bright Star, I liked it fine, initially, but because of the poetry and the depiction of the period. (Polutropon, I also wondered what those two people saw in each other.) I was familiar with Keats' poetry, but knew nothing of his life, except that he died young. Then I read the Motion book and liked the movie less.

But hey, I'm over all of that. Now rereading the the Eve of St. Agnes and thinking Les Mis may have to take a wee bit longer so that I can read Posthumous Keats, which I've just picked up from the library. So Murr, don't watch Bright Star. Let's all get together for a poetry reading instead. (And thank you for the thank you.)

>29 Banoo: Then you might enjoy The Day of the Locust, too, Brian. If you read either of them, please let me know what you think. Thanks for the congrats!

Uh-oh. Where did Janurary go?

The Quickening Maze by Adam Foulds

In The Quickening Maze, Adam Foulds dramatizes the real-life events surrounding the 1840 stay of “celebrity” inmates and visitors at an asylum located in England’s Epping Forest. Foulds renders the area so well that you can almost smell the damp soil and finger the lace ferns. Here delusional inmate and “peasant poet” John Clare sneaks away to roam the countryside, camps with the local gypsies and tries to return to his imagined wife, Mary, actually a childhood sweetheart who has been dead for years. Alfred Tennyson lodges nearby to visit his inmate brother, walks the woods in contemplation and castes his financial lot with the asylum’s owner, Dr. Matthew Allen. Allen stakes his, and his family’s, future on a risky business venture to overcome hidden past failures. His teenaged daughter, Hannah, attempts, through an imagined relationship with Tennyson, to pull herself out of adolescence.

These well-drawn characters swirl around each other in scene after well-crafted scene…but to what end? (**The following is mild spoiler.**) A few days after finishing the book I reread several passages and noticed a moment, a minor realization made by one of the characters, buried in the last ten pages or so: “To love the life that was possible: that was also a freedom.” This is likely the crux of Foulds’ story. This isn’t my favorite of the 2009 Booker Shortlist—I thought it needed more of a narrative push—but it’s compelling enough for me to look for more of Foulds’ work.

“I Am” The Selected Poetry of John Clare edited by Jonathan Bates

By accident and luck, I stumbled on “I Am” The Selected Poetry of John Clare at the library while looking for the work of another poet. This collection is edited by his recent biographer, Jonathan Bate, who provides an interesting, albeit brief, introduction. I’d never heard of Clare until I read The Quickening Maze by Adam Foulds. In the 19th century, on and off for 40 years, Clare wrote more than three and a half thousand poems, only about ten percent of which are represented in this collection. He was often published and quite popular in his time. I thought I would read a few of the poems to get an idea of his work, but found I couldn’t put the book down.

Many of the poems, especially the early ones, are paeans to nature (and not in a nature-as-an-existential-metaphor kind of way)—and not my favorite kind of poem. Clare surely loved birds, especially their nests and he wrote veeeerrrry many poems to celebrate and contemplate them. And his “To Autumn” is…well…nice, but it hardly rivals Keats’ poem of the same name. Yet he is not a one-note poet. He deals with love; lust, gypsy life, the changing environment and somewhat surprisingly, politics (particularly in a poem titled “The Progress of Cant”). Overall, his work is so personal and earnest, and later so plaintive, that it’s hard not to get pulled into his world. Sadly, his world included stays at two asylums (at one he wrote versions of Byron’s poetry since he believed himself to be Byron) and an unrequited love for his childhood sweetheart, Mary. Mention of her can be found throughout his work.

This collection is named after a poem Clare wrote toward the end of his life (he lived into his 70s). It’s powerful (I am—yet what I am, none cares or knows;/my friends forsake me like a memory lost:/I am the self-consumer of my woes—), but I prefer the sonnet he wrote by with the same title, also toward the end of his life:

“I feel I am—I only know I am
And plod upon the earth as dull and void:
Earth’s prison chilled my body with its dram
Of dullness and my soaring thoughts destroyed,
I fled to solitudes from passion’s dream,
But strife pursued—I only know who I am,
I was a being created in the race
Of men disdaining bounds of place and time—
A spirit that could travel o’er the space
Of earth and heaven like a thought sublime,
Tracing creation, like my maker, free—
A soul unshackled—like eternity,
Spurning earth’s vain and soul-debasing thrall.
But now I only know who I am—that’s all.

Love the poem! Thanks, thea.

The last four lines especially. Had I not known who'd written that, I'd swear it was Emily Dickinson.

I love John Clare. He is a nature poet without parallel in English. I strongly recommend the Shepherd's Calendar.

About 30 years ago a TV station in the UK (I forget which one) made a movie about Clare, featuring scenes from his life and readings of his work. The actor who played Clare was my uncle, who also loved Clare's work all his life. He was not a professional actor, just a mad enthusiast for Clare, and who happened to share a facial resemblance. All gone now.

Wow Teresa, it must have been awesome to stumble across the poems just after reading about him in The Quickening Maze. Sounds fascinating. I will also keep an eye out for Shepherd's Calendar.

>34 absurdeist: Enrique, you're right!

>35 tomcatMurr: tcM, this collection contains several pieces from Shepherd's Calendar: the whole of "January" and excerpts from several of the other months. The editor has also placed "The Moor" here (increasingly one of my favorites) as it came from this time period, thought it wasn't published in Clare's lifetime. Clare is really growing on me, as such I've ordered my own copy of this collection.

Fascinating about your uncle! You're familiar, I'm sure with the Hilton portrait. Less so, maybe, with this photograph ca. 1860, when Clare would have been about 67.

yep, spitting image of my late Uncle Bert.

>32 theaelizabet: - I felt exactly the same about The Quickening Maze. Nicely written but too many characters, too many subplots, and not enough forward motion for such a short novel. I wasn't surprised to learn that he had published a book of poetry - his grasp of language was stronger than his grasp of structure/narrative.

Same for me - I loved the prose but got the feeling he would much rather be writing poetry. I do think he has a lot of talent though and will look out for his stuff in the future.

Oh wow, I love Keats too. I hadn't heard of that edition at all. //adds to huge wishlist

“To love the life that was possible: that was also a freedom.”

I love that idea. I think the best historical novels get this... their female characters don't run around acting like modern feminists, but live within the framework of their historical period. When they are able to reconcile what they want with what is possible in their world, that is a satisfying read. It feels real.

That's incredibly cool about your uncle, tomcat!

*needs to read Clare* Beautiful poem.

I thought Murr's uncle would have a bit more fur.

Thea - nice reviews, and thanks for posting that wonderful sonnet by Clare. There seem to be a number of great poems appearing around this group lately.

>43 dchaikin: Yes, it does seem we've all been reading a great deal more poetry. I had noticed that, too. Are you aware of Atlantic Monthly's Soundings where three or four poets read/interpret the same poem? For example, David Barber, Carolyn Kizer, and Christopher Ricks each interpret John Clare's "I Am" (the longer poem, not the sonnet I posted). Sven Birkerts, Emily Hiestand, Stanley Plumly, and C. K. Williams read Keats' "To Autumn." Gail Mazur, Robert Pinsky, Lloyd Schwartz, and Mark Strand reads Elizabeth Bishop's "Sonnet" and so on. You can find the site at http://www.theatlantic.com/a/soundings.mhtml

Thea - Thanks, I'll be checking that out.

Thea, I just subscribed to Atlantic Monthly! Thanks for the link to this at the site. *hugs*

I am behind on my postings. Ah, well, I'll catch up eventually. Right now we're in Texas visiting family. A couple of days ago we went to Larry McMurtry's Booked Up in Archer City, Texas. Booked Up consists of four, large storefronts filled with thousand of used/antique books. I managed to explore two buildings over an afternoon and came away with some goodies, all reasonably priced and all meaningful to me for various reaons: an 1843 first edition of Life in the Wilds by Harriet Martineau, Bolts of Melody: New Poems of Emily Dickenson edited by Mabel Loomis Todd and Millicent Todd Bingham, Poems by Emily Dickenson, edited by her niece, Martha Dickinson Bianchi and Alfred Leete Hampson.

I was especially happy to find a lovely first edition of Copper Sun by Countee Cullen, his second book of poetry and a second printing of his first book, Color. I discovered and began to love the Harlem Renaissance writers when I was in high school. How appropriate for me that Color contains the following poem:

TO JOHN KEATS, POET, AT SPRING TIME
by Countee Cullen

I cannot hold my peace, John Keats;
There never was a spring like this;
It is an echo, that repeats
My last year's song and next year's bliss.
I know, in spite of all men say
Of Beauty, you have felt her most.
Yea, even in your grave her way
Is laid. Poor, troubled, lyric ghost,
Spring never was so fair and dear
As Beauty makes her seem this year.

I cannot hold my peace, John Keats,
I am as helpless in the toil
Of Spring as any lamb that bleats
To feel the solid earth recoil
Beneath his puny legs. Spring beats
her tocsin call to those who love her,
And lo! the dogwood petals cover
Her breast with drifts of snow, and sleek
White gulls fly screaming to her, and hover
About her shoulders, and kiss her cheek,
While white and purple lilacs muster
A strength that bears them to a cluster
Of color and odor; for her sake
All things that slept are now awake.

And you and I, shall we lie still,
John Keats, while Beauty summons us?
Somehow I feel your sensitive will
Is pulsing up some tremulous
Sap road of a maple tree, whose leaves
Grow music as they grow, since your
Wild voice is in them, a harp that grieves
For life that opens death's dark door.
Though dust, your fingers still can push
The Vision Splendid to a birth,
Though now they work as grass in the hush
Of the night on the broad sweet page of the earth.

"John Keats is dead," they say, but I
Who hear your full insistent cry
In bud and blossom, leaf and tree,
Know John Keats still writes poetry.
And while my head is earthward bowed
To read new life sprung from your shroud,
Folks seeing me must think it strange
That merely spring should so derange
My mind. They do not know that you,
John Keats, keep revel with me, too.

Just wanted to let you know that I have been enjoying your thread.
--BJ

Lovely poem; thanks for sharing it with us.

Teresa, are you still with us? It's been a while...

Nice poem and I'm not a big fan of poetry. *smile*

To jump in late on the Keats bandwagon: I also was underimpressed with 'Bright Star,' which was one of the most oddly paced films I've ever seen. There were some interesting costumes, great period sets, a few moments that captured my imagination, but, overall, meh. And I'm a long-time Keats fanatic (Keats having been the first poet with whom I fell in love at about the age of 14). Fanny's hysteria in the final scene was overwrought and reeked of "I wanna be an Oscar nominee." She didn't make it.

I have a wonderful audio version of selected Keats poems, read admirably by Samuel West. Highly recommended!

I like Samuel West. West reading Keats sounds delightful!

Thanks to everyone for stopping by! I've been bad about posting, I know. Cuing off of avaland's "guilt" thread, my guilt would involve being a poor member of the Club Read community. Lately, it's been due to some early spring weather here in northern New Jersey. Lovely, sunny 60 degree days made it hard to come inside and go anywhere near my computer. Yard work was a lot more fun. Right now, it's rainy, chilly and windy, so here I sit.

The other reason for my poor participation is my current reading. I'm immersed in the reading and studying of poetry in a not very linear, book-after-book way. It began with, and remains centered on Keats. Cariola, how great that you discovered him at 14. (I have the West CD. "Realms of Gold." Right? And it is wonderful.) I'm studying Keats' poetry and letters and reading plenty of lit crit (some good, some not) and am branching out to other poets.

When I was in high school, my reading was centered mainly around poetry and plays. I wrote reams of awful poetry, but now it seems as though I've forgotten more than I ever knew about poetic forms, so I'm studying that, too.

So what am I reading now? The short, uncomplicated answer is Infinite Jest. At more than a thousand pages, I know that I won't be finishing it any time soon, but I am intrigued by it and too many people whose opinions I respect (and you all know who you are) hold this book in high regard. I'm also reading The Best American Poetry 2009, and will weigh in on that soon.

What did you think of Posthumous Keats? It has been on my shelf for a few months now, but I may not get to it until the semester ends. Have you read Andrew MOtion's biography?

Posthumous Keats was okay, but I thought Plumly basically rehashed a lot of what was already out there. He does provide some interesting insight on the dealings of Keats' friends' after his death that affected the poet's immediate reputation. Motion's bio is terrific. He tells Keats' story while keeping the work at the center of the tale.

Help, please? I'm confused. What is the difference between a catalectic and a feminine ending? I know there are English professors/student among us. Any help appreciated.

A feminine ending is where the last syllable in the line is unstressed:

Example from Keats's Endymion Book 4

These words awoke the stranger of dark tresses
her dawning love look, rapt Endymion blesses

These two lines are both feminine, as the last syllable is unstressed. A feminine ending may best be understood as belonging to rhyme. in contrast, the next two lines are masculine, as the last syllable is stressed:

With 'haviour soft. Sleep yawned from underneath.
"Thou Swan of Gangees, let us no more breathe...

If Keats had written:

These words awoke the stranger of dark tresses
her dawning love look, rapt Endymion bless...

...then the last line would be a catalectic line, as the scheme set up by the poem (rhyming couplets) leads us to expect another feminine ending at this point.

A catalectic is best understood if you assume that every line of a poem is going to have exactly the same rhythm, and that the rhythm and rhyme schemes are highly regular.

A catalectic line is any line where the rhythm is not complete (or not what is expected in the scheme set up by the other lines), a syllable is dropped from the end of the line. it's usually found in dactylic or trochaic verse, and not very often in iambics.

I hope this helps.

What prompted this question, can I ask?

(btw, fwiw, i am not an English professor, just an interested cat.)

Ahhhh, okay, thanks. I understood the feminine ending, but the catalectic was confusing me. I'm working from Introduction to English Poetry by James Fenton, for my edification. In a chapter on longer lines he uses a passage from Tennyson's "Locksley Hall" as an example and writes, "This is a trochaic line of eight feet, of which the last is catalectic (to avoid continual feminine endings)," then moves on with no further explanation or definition. I found the term in the glossary, but in the context of the aforementioned, it wasn't very helpful.

I suppose I could have "googled" the term and eventually figured it out, but knew that several people here had the knowledge and might be willing to better explain it, and, frankly, my dear cat, I thought it might be you. Thank you ever so much for your willingness to help.

you are most welcome. glad to be of use.

ah what a nice lesson to pop into! Thanks for asking and answering the question.

I've been a poor LT member of late. There's been just too much real life going on: a work project, an active young teenage daughter who oft needs to be ferried about (and who, chosen as part of their young ensemble program, is playing at Lincoln Center tomorrow and I'm terribly proud of her), a new puppy (he fourth animal in the house. Egads, what were we thinking?) and a bout with crutches that made all of the aforementioned much more difficult (I'm fine now). Whew! I hope to be better at updating my reading log in the coming days and weeks, and to find more time for more reading. Best to all and thanks to those who have asked about me.

Ooh -- enjoy and indulge in the talented teenage daughter! Glad you're off the crutches. I have no advice about puppies. Life is far important than LT -- though we like you here too.

Yay, welcome back, Teresa! Sounds like things have been full-on, but at least pleasant apart from the crutches!

Look forward to seeing you around again. :)

Congrats to your daughter for playing at Lincoln Center! Whew! I was once in a university theatrical production (as a guest artist ... they needed kids) and we were entered in a contest to go there. I was half excited, half terrified, because I always opened the show singing a capella. Can you imagine doing that in Lincoln Center? Anyway, we didn't make it, which is too bad, because then I might have been famous and busy and too important for you people here on LT. :P

/off-topic

Glad to see you drop in, Teresa!

So happy you popped in, what a lot going on!

How was the Lincoln Center experience (for mom or daughter)?? Completely thrilling, I'm imagining :))

Just popping by to say, "hi!"
--BJ

I know how you feel with offline life busyness! Hope to see you (and me) around more often soon :)

Glad to see you back and know that you're well. (New puppy, awwwwwww. :) Congrats to your daughter! That must've been a great experience.

Thanks, Jane, Rena, Nathan, detailmuse, Billiejean, Amy and Medillia! Life is slowly getting back to some sort of normal and I'm going to begin updating my thread later today.

Happy to report that our daughter performed (beautifully) at Lincoln Center (Rose Studio, to be more precise) after a having rehearsed with her trio since September, auditioned in February, and worked with a Lincoln Center Chamber Music musician in April. Quite a year for her and one in which she is rightfully proud.

Still no thread update, but inspired by my mate, ChocolateMuse, who is sharing my voyage to find the Great White, I've invited Queequeg along for the journey. Never hurts to have a great harpooneer onboard.

"Queequeg was George Washington cannibalistically developed."
Ishmael
Moby Dick

Yay! Melville's tolerance, nay, respect, of all cultures and differences is one of the things that's amazing me in this book. I think (some erudite friend might help me out here) that the noble savage was quite idealised (and exploited) at around that time - I think they took an Aboriginal Australian back to meet the Queen, but it might have been earlier. Hmm. My ignorance is showing.

Here's another pic for us:

Moby Dick inspires gorgeous illustrations. Wow!

Nice to see you back and to hear everything is slowly getting back to normal. We all have our lives outside of LT that keep us busy and away from the internet at times.

"For God's sake, be economical with your lamps and candles! Not a gallon you burn, but at least one drop of man's blood was spilled for it."

Herman Melville
Moby-Dick

Woke up really early to read before company comes today. Hard to put down.

Awesome. That quote stood out to me too.

We seem to be keeping about the same pace, which is perfect! :)

>74 crazy4reading: Hi crazy! Thanks for stopping by.

>76 ChocolateMuse: You'll likely pull ahead of me this week. Family visiting and such, not much time to read. Never fear, come the weekend, I'll be back onboard!