Ah, takes me back to my freshman in college class with Professor Sullens who taught us all about this Cantebery Tales, and had us memorizing so much with her instruction in Old English and how to pronounce. I mainly remember A knicht thar was an that a warthy man that fro the teem he first began to redin' oot...
Oh that's wondrous! "A knight that was..." Such a satisfying way to begin a story--all clear and rhythmic and you even know what you're getting into ..
My senior English teacher had us memorize this. My teacher wanted us to use expression in our graded recitation. I offered to go to my daughters' classes to recite for their classmates, but for some reason they didn't want me to. Hmm.
I was just reading a bit of Chaucer with some students. I asked them to memorize and recite the first dozen lines. I too learned it in high school and still know it. And I agree, what’s not to like about couplets like “smalle fowle maken melody/that slepen all the night with open ye” Such a feeling of spring should not be intoned with solemnity. Love, Katherine
What could be more satisfying to read (or perhaps write, than "I was just reading a bit of Chaucer...." And I couldn't agree more about the pleasure of speaking the words and feeling their rhythm. xoxoxoxo
Maybe it's something about some English teachers... I say some because I've had some great ones. But my 4th grade English teacher? She disdained any show of enthusiasm whatsoever. I still remember vividly her dour face and eyes smoldering with disapproval over something I'd said. This was an awfully long time ago... I don't remember what I said. I just remember her reaction. Well, joke's on her, I reckon. I still have my childlike curiosity and enthusiasm!
Otherwise, I highly recommend Mary Oliver's Dog Songs: Poems. Anything she wrote is fabulous. But Dog Songs is a favorite.
Mary Oliver's Dog Songs is a marvel of a book --the absolute opposite of the English teacher with dour face and smoldering, disapproving eyes! Here the Poetry Teacher puts it in her contract that dogs will come to class -- whereupon the students write "thirsty happy poems". Thank you so much for the reminder, as I've been thinking about Dog Songs but hadn't get brought it to the fore. Now it is at my elbow.
I remember Chaucer in 10th grade. I had just started at a new school - all girls- and my friends had lunch at the same time as I had English. The teacher had a squeaky voice. I hated her. It was the first time in my well-behaved life that I disliked a teacher. I sat by the window and watched my friends, didn't pay attention, and hated Chaucer. I still don't like it, but I recently took part of a Chaucer class on-line. Maybe I'll finish it someday. But I'll never memorize those lines. Never!
Well now I'm fascinated by you deciding to take an online Chaucer class when you were pretty sure you hated his work--perhaps in the name of, "well, you never know!" Certainly that prompts me to try things I've formerly avoided. Sometimes I'm surprised. But often not.
Though The Canterbury Tales are actually pretty hilarious...
OH yes Deb-- I LOVE this poem. What a glorious one to learn by heart. Yeats. Sigh. That feeling of place and mood... "Nine bean rows will I have there..." Yes indeed. Perhaps I better go plant some more.
When my sister and I were in Elementary School my mother (a future English teacher that used Bob Dylan lyrics to teach poetry) was taking a class in Olde English and Middle English. She would read Chaucer to us at night before bed: shuttee the doore for the horse is run away. She was quite entertaining!
Oh gosh thank you--both for your kind words and for this Mary Oliver:...clothes, lamps, dishes, paperclips.... How to stick with the essentials that mean home and comfort?
"Now Zeus commands you to send him off with all good speed:
it is not his fate to die here, far from his own people.
Destiny still ordains that he shall see his loved ones,
reach his high-roofed house, his native land at last."
– Homer
The Odyssey, Book 5, lines 125-128
And what a welcome he had--all those suitors and Penelope somehow trying to keep them all under control with her loom...
❤️
Ah, takes me back to my freshman in college class with Professor Sullens who taught us all about this Cantebery Tales, and had us memorizing so much with her instruction in Old English and how to pronounce. I mainly remember A knicht thar was an that a warthy man that fro the teem he first began to redin' oot...
Oh that's wondrous! "A knight that was..." Such a satisfying way to begin a story--all clear and rhythmic and you even know what you're getting into ..
My senior English teacher had us memorize this. My teacher wanted us to use expression in our graded recitation. I offered to go to my daughters' classes to recite for their classmates, but for some reason they didn't want me to. Hmm.
I have a hand lettered sign I love that says, “let’s stay home!”
Now that is perfect. Clear and to the point! xoxox
I was just reading a bit of Chaucer with some students. I asked them to memorize and recite the first dozen lines. I too learned it in high school and still know it. And I agree, what’s not to like about couplets like “smalle fowle maken melody/that slepen all the night with open ye” Such a feeling of spring should not be intoned with solemnity. Love, Katherine
What could be more satisfying to read (or perhaps write, than "I was just reading a bit of Chaucer...." And I couldn't agree more about the pleasure of speaking the words and feeling their rhythm. xoxoxoxo
Maybe it's something about some English teachers... I say some because I've had some great ones. But my 4th grade English teacher? She disdained any show of enthusiasm whatsoever. I still remember vividly her dour face and eyes smoldering with disapproval over something I'd said. This was an awfully long time ago... I don't remember what I said. I just remember her reaction. Well, joke's on her, I reckon. I still have my childlike curiosity and enthusiasm!
Otherwise, I highly recommend Mary Oliver's Dog Songs: Poems. Anything she wrote is fabulous. But Dog Songs is a favorite.
Mary Oliver's Dog Songs is a marvel of a book --the absolute opposite of the English teacher with dour face and smoldering, disapproving eyes! Here the Poetry Teacher puts it in her contract that dogs will come to class -- whereupon the students write "thirsty happy poems". Thank you so much for the reminder, as I've been thinking about Dog Songs but hadn't get brought it to the fore. Now it is at my elbow.
I remember Chaucer in 10th grade. I had just started at a new school - all girls- and my friends had lunch at the same time as I had English. The teacher had a squeaky voice. I hated her. It was the first time in my well-behaved life that I disliked a teacher. I sat by the window and watched my friends, didn't pay attention, and hated Chaucer. I still don't like it, but I recently took part of a Chaucer class on-line. Maybe I'll finish it someday. But I'll never memorize those lines. Never!
Well now I'm fascinated by you deciding to take an online Chaucer class when you were pretty sure you hated his work--perhaps in the name of, "well, you never know!" Certainly that prompts me to try things I've formerly avoided. Sometimes I'm surprised. But often not.
Though The Canterbury Tales are actually pretty hilarious...
Home poem, Yeats
The Lake Isle of Innisfree
I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made:
Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee;
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.
And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;
There midnight's all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet's wings.
I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,
I hear it in the deep heart's core.
OH yes Deb-- I LOVE this poem. What a glorious one to learn by heart. Yeats. Sigh. That feeling of place and mood... "Nine bean rows will I have there..." Yes indeed. Perhaps I better go plant some more.
I seem to be having trouble posting a comment. I want to put in Yeats, The Lake Isle of Innisfree, and it keeps going blank on me!
…and try “Ode to Joy”!
“There is nothing like staying home for real comfort.” ~Jane Austen
Exactly!!!!
When my sister and I were in Elementary School my mother (a future English teacher that used Bob Dylan lyrics to teach poetry) was taking a class in Olde English and Middle English. She would read Chaucer to us at night before bed: shuttee the doore for the horse is run away. She was quite entertaining!
Ha! I love that. What a fabulous memory. And the ideal way in, before someone makes Chaucer into a chore. And Bob Dylan-how excellent is that?
This is just a portion of a poem by J. R. R. Tolkien:
Roads go ever ever on,
Under cloud and under star.
Yet feet that wandering have gone
Turn at last to home afar.
Eyes that fire and sword have seen,
And horror in the halls of stone
Look at last on meadows green,
And trees and hills they long have known.
That is from his poem "Roads Go Ever On".
So glad you had such a lovely pilgrimage, and have made it safely home with your sweet companion Beryl!
You are so right. That combination of the torturous journey and dreams of Hobbiton --certainly an ideal in the home department...Tolkien. Sigh.
DORTHY from the wizard of oz...No
Place
Like
Home
ALL the best to you and Beryl..Scorch..sends
Doggie regards..
But of course! Clicking her heels together, and being there.
I never memorized Chaucer, but your post is priceless.
So I turn to Mary Oliver with Dreamhouse:
“Impossible to believe we need so much
as the world wants us to buy.
I have more clothes, lamps, dishes,
paperclips
than I could possibly use before I die.
Oh, I would like to live in an empty grass.
No planks, no plastic, no fiberglass.
And I suppose sometime I will.
Old and cold I will lie apart
from all this buying and selling, with only
the beautiful earth in my heart.
I love your words, your drawings, your new yarn and the photos.
Filled with gratitude, I am!
Oh gosh thank you--both for your kind words and for this Mary Oliver:...clothes, lamps, dishes, paperclips.... How to stick with the essentials that mean home and comfort?