The random ramblings thread

[Raphael]

Welcome gstormcrow!

[dks]

Just saying hello again to this place I hold so dear, yet never seem to be able to peer in often enough...it's that time again-teaching the Romantics-which means we will get to 'the man' in about 3 or 4 weeks-which also means being able to show a movie about Keats! Ah, teaching Keats-it is the reason I teach at all...

I do have a poem to post...first I've written in a few months...sometimes they cook much slower than usual...miss you guys...

[Saturn]

Good to hear dks, and I can't think of anyone better equipped to teach Keats than yourself; what lucky students I almost envy them, I'm sure they'll learn a lot. You are missed here too, and I'm looking forward to that poem however long it takes, mine are inordinately slow in the gestation these days too and I have no such excuse.

[BrokenLyre]

Great to hear an update from you dks. I envy the opportunity. But I know kids have a hard time with poetry.
Last week I taught 4 home school kids and two adults Romantic Literature and illustrated it with Keats's To Autumn. It was so much fun for me - but I needed more time.

Glad for you!

[Malia]

Great to see you again, dks!! I'm glad you're still able to teach Keats. What lucky students you have!

[Raphael]

She certainly does!
I was walking down a side street in town today which I don't think I have been down before with my mother and my mother stopped and said "Look at that!". I noticed it at the same time- it was a building dating to about the 1840's by the look of it- still has the original windows and was enclosed in a square courtyard. It had a very curious atmosophere about it, one felt that the 1800's could be experienced there- hard to explain. It felt very different to the surroundings- some modern buildings are in that street (night club being one of them).I said to my mother I felt certain it was haunted. She felt that also.Then a young woman came and was about to walk into the courtyard and we asked her if she lived there and if it was flats- it was- student flats. I asked her if it had any orIginal features such as fireplaces- she said not fireplaces but doorways and I think she said slabs as it used to be a medical place where medical students in the 1800's did medical studies and I think autopsies she said. I said to her that I bet it was haunted and she said it was.....
When I get a camera I will take photos- it is a very atmospheric old place. I'd love to find out more about it.

[BrokenLyre]

OK - I can't top that. But George Washington (yes, 1st President of the US) did stay in a house in my hometown of Cohoes, NY. House is still there.

[Ennis]

OK - I can't top that. But George Washington (yes, 1st President of the US) did stay in a house in my hometown of Cohoes, NY. House is still there.

I can't top it, either, but Thomas Wolfe (of Look Homeward, Angel, Of Time and the River, and You Can't Go Home Again fame) is a native-son of my hometown, Asheville (NC), and the boarding house (his mother owned) still stands smack in the middle of downtown. It's been "true-to-its-time" restored since some idiot decided to set it on fire about 10 - 12 years ago. I suppose he was pissed-off because he had had to read Look Homeward, Angel in high-school. It's a L - O - N- G, but an elegantly written semi-autobiographic novel about Wolfe's boyhood in Asheville. If you haven't read it, I encourage you all to do so, especially if you like lots of beautiful descriptions, and you must since you (we're) are all Keatsians. Wolfe, to me, is the king of prose sensory imagery, but because of what some feel is descriptive "over-kill" -- a heavy-handed use of the good ol' modifiers -- his works are either greatly admired or detested.
dks: you're an English teacher (high-school, correct?). I'm sure you're familiar with Wolfe's works. What do you think?

[dks]

Great to see you again, dks!! I'm glad you're still able to teach Keats. What lucky students you have!

I hope they think so!! We are reading Wordsworth this week. Next week is spring break, but when we return we start the young batch-Byron, Shelley, and "the man", as I reverently refer to him in my classroom.

[dks]

Good to hear dks, and I can't think of anyone better equipped to teach Keats than yourself; what lucky students I almost envy them, I'm sure they'll learn a lot. You are missed here too, and I'm looking forward to that poem however long it takes, mine are inordinately slow in the gestation these days too and I have no such excuse.

You know, mine have been the same way-slow cookers. The poem I'm finishing now is taking so long to be fully born for some reason...but as soon as it is, you know I'll litter it in on here!

It's always sooo good to be here...such a sanctuary in the throes of life's drum and hustle...

[dks]

Great to hear an update from you dks. I envy the opportunity. But I know kids have a hard time with poetry.
Last week I taught 4 home school kids and two adults Romantic Literature and illustrated it with Keats's To Autumn. It was so much fun for me - but I needed more time.

Glad for you!

Kids do have a hard time with poetry-but it really is all about relevance for them-they're engrossed in themselves and that's par for the teenage course (as we all know). Once they find one they can hook onto, they claim it for their very own!

[BrokenLyre]

I absolutely agree dks!

Good new dks and others - my son told me that his High School English teacher is giving me permission to come into his class and teach on Keats for the day!

This is great! I can't wait to do this. I will have 40 minutes for each class....hmmm wonder what I should do? I have so many ideas...One thing for sure, I will bring in my bronze life mask of Keats (copy from Haydon's done in 1816). Little show and tell would be nice to bring Keats home to these kids.

I'm open for suggestions - these are 12th graders - 17-18 year old kids.

[Cybele]

Yay! Enjoy yourself, BL!
Teens are into the "angsty," the sensual. I was puzzled when a teacher at the local Jr. Hi. used the poem "Bright Star" to introduce his students to the Romantic era, but he said that the kids really responded to it. (The thought of teaching teens totally terrifies me - LOL. I could never do it, altho' my husband taught high school for 35 years.)

[Ennis]

I absolutely agree dks!

Good new dks and others - my son told me that his High School English teacher is giving me permission to come into his class and teach on Keats for the day!

This is great! I can't wait to do this. I will have 40 minutes for each class....hmmm wonder what I should do? I have so many ideas...One thing for sure, I will bring in my bronze life mask of Keats (copy from Haydon's done in 1816). Little show and tell would be nice to bring Keats home to these kids.

I'm open for suggestions - these are 12th graders - 17-18 year old kids.

Good for you, Brokenlyre!
Where did you get a bronze life mask of Keats? Back in 1990, I bought a plaster mask at the Keats House. I'd much prefer a bronze one, though.

[Raphael]

That's a great opportunity Broken Lyre! I think you will do well. I bet dks will have lots of suggestions for you.