10 Years After

Something old and something new.
My Spanish class was cancelled last Friday. There was a note up stating she was ill. So, the quiz was put off until yesterday. I aced it.

Also yesterday, in British Literature we discussed "Porphyria's Lover." I must admit to having reconsidered the poem after rereading and discussing it. I now like the poem quite well. There's a sort of symmetry employed (the four references to Porphyria's hair) as well as Browning's uncanny ability to create images which are derived from the words he uses rather than simply stipulated. A good example is the innuendo that the cottage door was left open by the phrasing of how Porphyria "glided in" (line 6).

His dramatic dialogues seem to require more than one reading so that all the elements can be understood and then enjoyed. These poems of his remind me of impressionistic or pointilism paintings - everything doesn't need to be given in order for a fuller image to be viewed, just the proper perspective.

Speaking of Browning, I switched my final essay in British Literature from an explication of three of Fitzgerald's rubyai to a discourse on the themes of control in Browning's "My Last Duchess." After my online study session for the second test in World Civilizations this Thursday stayed up work on the paper. I finished a rough draft last night at 3 am.

I woke up this morning at 7:30, rushing to make it to this morning's 8am class. At the end of American Government we went over the test we took last Thursday. The instructor in that class is amazingly punctual in grading tests- It took over two weeks to have the first World Civ test.

I didn't do quite as well as I anticipated. While I correctly answered all of the short answer questions a few of the multiple choice questions eluded me. I received all 30 points for short answer and correctly answered 24 out of the 28 mulitple-choice questions, earning me a 90%.

I'm off to do a little reading on "My Last Duchess" and, possibly, a jaunt over to see my British Lit professor to make some inquires. One thing that attracted me to browning was an online study guide for A.S. Byaat's "Possession" which claimed that Randolph Ash was modelled on Robert Browning. Unfortunately it appears we will only be reading a selection of his dramatic monologues. I've seen a great deal about a work of his tittled The Ring and the Book, which I would have enjoyed investigating. Perhaps I'll do so over Winter Break.