Since class isn't meeting tomorrow,
here is the poem I was planning to spring on you. It was published in 1750 by a poet who appears in your Blackwell anthology: Mary Jones. The texts you'll be working with on ECCO (for the first assignment and your group projects) will look a lot like this one, so you'll get some practice reading the funny-looking s's-that-look-like-f's, as well as grappling with some of the now-familiar challenges of C18 verse. I've already made copies of the poem to distribute in class, so don't print this one out unless you really hate reading on a screen.
Respond to this post with
- questions about this poem,
- provisional/speculative explanations of what it's about, OR
- accounts of your reading process (where do you get stuck/baffled?)
This poem doesn't get you off the hook for the
Northrop Frye essay that you need to read for Friday--but it's short, and relatively straightforward compared to the poems you've been wrestling with.
Your first assignment is still due on Monday. I'll be holding office hours on Friday (3 - 4, 321 English Bldg.) to make up for the missed office hour Wednesday.
Deadline: Friday (2/4), 1pm.
9 comments:
Sorry if this question is redundant (I missed class on Monday), but are we supposed to read Mary Jones's "Epistle to Lady Bowyer" (listed on the syllabus for Wednesday) in addition to the readings that were e-mailed to us?
Mary Jones's "Epistle to Lady Bowyer" is on hold for now (I think Leapor's Epistle wore everyone out!). On Monday I said there was no assigned reading for Wednesday, and the Frye essay for Friday. The reading I sent you from Jones ("Holt Waters" was one I was going to spring on you in class on Wednesday--only it was cancelled).
I really hope I read this right, because if I didn't everyone will think I'm crazy. Did the woman have to use the facilities, go into a random barn and "make water" in their milk jar? Then the farmer's wife drank it, thinking it was liquor?
Jillian, I'm thinking similar things about this poem. "In short the bus'ness must be done; / Time to consider there was none" makes it seem like the Nymph has something very urgent to get done, and the poem mentions earlier that mid-way she wished she had stayed at home. And "The liquor pure, as amber fine, / But stock'd with particles saline" makes me curious about the liquid that the farmer's wife is drinking. I'm taking some floating specks in the water to indicate it isn't just average liquor.
Jillian and Sam I thought that those lines were hilarious yet gross at the same time. I had to reread it twice, because the first reading was done at night so I thought I misread something. However, since there are at least two of you that are thinking along the same lines then I must not be that far off in my assumptions. I only question how much the farmer's wife drank!. Additionally, I wanted to know what was up with the words that are found in the lower right-hand corners of this poem. Was there a purpose? Or, is this a style of poets during this time?
Since the texts we will be working with on ECCO for our group projects are similar to this poem, I'm glad we got some experience with it now because it is tricky to read and understand with the strange lettering and challenging verse. The first time I read through the poem, I read at a steady pace and translated all of the words that looked funny. Then when I went back through it a second time, I was able to read at a normal pace because I could clearly read each word and understand it a little bit better. However, I still felt that I struggled with the meaning of this poem and the tale it was trying to tell. Hopefully at some point this semester I will come across an C18 poem that I can actually comprehend without having to dissect it in class to get to the core meaning. Like Kellz, I was also wondering if there was anything significant about the random words at the bottom right hand corner of each page.
I noticed that many of the same themes run through this poem as "Epistle." We run into things like fame, death, muse, and multiple characters. I tried to break the poem down like we did in class with the others and I felt that I understood the first half but was completely lost during the last half because it seemed like the topic/subject and tone changed. The poem goes from "Then pay the rite to Polly's shade: / Whose grave I'll sprinkle - with my tears, / And mix my friendly drops with hers" to "I left this milk-pan yet to skim, / And saw no bubbles on the brim! / My cream-pot too was hardly full, / But now it over-flows the bowl!" It just seems like this poem is all over the place and jumps from one thing to the next. Maybe this is a characteristic of C18 literature? I'm not sure, but I'm guessing I will get some answers today in class.
I have now read this poem through five times and I'm still wildly confused. The weird f/s character that is used throughout the poem really throws me off when reading--my question is how is it pronounced? I'm not sure if it would truly help in my understanding, but it may make it easier to read.
Reading this reminds me very much (although from two different time periods), of reading excerpts from "The Canterbury Tales" in ENGL 209. The meter, rhyme scheme, and use of unfamiliar alphabetical characters are reminiscent of my experience with that text. Is it just this particular author, or did the style of poetry not undergo much change between these centuries?
I am also confused about the meaning of the poem. I follow the beginning with the Nymphs and their initial actions. However, similar to the other poems we've read in class, I am getting stuck on the introduction of new subjects or just new names for the characters. For example, are Cloe and Emily still the Nymphs? Is Prudes another character or a personification?
So, when I first read this poem I was completely confused. After reading it a second time I was able to understand a few thing like the characters and some of the things going on. One thing I picked up on was the strange vibe from Cloe. I really didn't understand her actions but after our class discussions today I came to a much better understanding of the poem. The events that took place such as Cloe having to pee as the under story were interesting because I would have never guessed that; that would be a topic to write about in literature. I guess one can write about anything.
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