1. Happy New Year! 2. This marks a new low in that I’ve procrastinated through the whole weekend and the flotsam is going up on Monday. I wish I could say there was a good reason for that, but there isn’t, unless it’s reluctance to talk about the year that is passed. One of my … Continue reading New Year Flotsam
Author: DBreitenbeck
Friday Flotsam: Christmas, ‘Avatar’ and ‘Rebecca’
1. A Merry Christmas! 2. It's been a very laid back, half-hearted kind of Christmas on my end, keeping with the whole of these past few months. The experience has been (so I imagine) similar to that of a functional alcoholic; there are good days and bad days, and a kind of fog over everything, … Continue reading Friday Flotsam: Christmas, ‘Avatar’ and ‘Rebecca’
Sunday Sundry: End of the Semester and ‘Animal Farm’ Hypocrisies
1. Another semester done at last! And exams were mostly pretty fun this year. For my English students (all high schoolers this time around), I opted for a discourse method in which students had to give a verbal answer to a question regarding one of the books we read, followed by a general class discussion … Continue reading Sunday Sundry: End of the Semester and ‘Animal Farm’ Hypocrisies
Poem – “The Lost Legion”
There's a Legion that never was ’listed,That carries no colours or crest,But, split in a thousand detachments,Is breaking the road for the rest.Our fathers they left us their blessing—They taught us, and groomed us, and crammed;But we’ve shaken the Clubs and the MessesTo go and find out and be damned(Dear boys!),To go and get shot … Continue reading Poem – “The Lost Legion”
Saturday Sundry: Gods of the Copybook Headings and Ten Years of Misery
1. I had my students read The Gods of the Copybook Headings this week (it's almost exam time and I didn't want to start new lessons, so we're just reading Kipling poems). It's really amazing that this was written in 1919, when its subject matter and thesis are a pitch-perfect match to the present. But … Continue reading Saturday Sundry: Gods of the Copybook Headings and Ten Years of Misery
Poem – “Hymn”
At morn — at noon — at twilight dim —Maria! thou hast heard my hymn!In joy and wo — in good and ill —Mother of God, be with me still!When the Hours flew brightly by,And not a cloud obscured the sky,My soul, lest it should truant be,Thy grace did guide to thine and thee;Now, when storms … Continue reading Poem – “Hymn”
Sunday Sundry: Principles of Unity
1. A bout of insomnia this week left me only half-rational, hence why this is extra late. 2. Unity – ‘Oneness’ – is one of the transcendentals: qualities of Being that transcend the Ten Categories. It is the ability to speak of something as a single unit or concept. Coupled with this is Distinction: that … Continue reading Sunday Sundry: Principles of Unity
Poem – “Yarrow Visited”
And is this—Yarrow?—This the streamOf which my fancy cherished,So faithfully, a waking dream?An image that hath perished!O that some Minstrel's harp were near,To utter notes of gladness,And chase this silence from the air,That fills my heart with sadness! Yet why?—a silvery current flowsWith uncontrolled meanderings;Nor have these eyes by greener hillsBeen soothed, in all my wanderings.And, … Continue reading Poem – “Yarrow Visited”
Sunday Sundry
My father's out visiting, so my schedule is a little off (as far as I have one). That means no Flotsam this week. Sorry.
Poem – “Marius Amongst the Ruins of Carthage”
Twas noon—and Afric's dazzling sun on high,With fierce resplendence fill'd th' unclouded sky;No zephyr wav'd the palm's majestic head,And smooth alike the seas and deserts spread;While, desolate, beneath a blaze of light,Silent and lonely, as at dead of night,The wreck of Carthage lay—her prostrate FanesHad strew'd their precious marble o'er the plains;Dark weeds and grass … Continue reading Poem – “Marius Amongst the Ruins of Carthage”
Serpent's Den 