A-W-E-S-O-M-E

Gasp! It's been nearly three days since my last post? How can that be?! I mean, aside from the obvious answer that I spent the entirety of yesterday doing all the homework I had to pass in for my nine hours worth of classes today.

Found this in Barrington today; I was sad at first because I didn't see it where we left it, but this is SO much better.


Poetry assignment of the week: Choose a 16th, 17th or 18th century poem and respond or create its negative image using the same stylistic techniques (rhyme scheme, meter). (As an added challenge, I decided to also use a similar voice with a similar vocabulary. Actually, it just felt like the poem couldn't be written any other way. It was a little less of a challenge and a little more of a compulsion. =P)

Original:
To The Nightingale
by John Milton

O Nightingale! that on yon bloomy spray
Warblest at eve, when all the woods are still,
Thou with fresh hope the lover's heart dost fill,
While the jolly hours lead on propitious May.
Thy liquid notes that close the eye of day,
First heard before the shallow cuckoo's bill,
Portend success in love; O, if Jove's will
Have linked that amorous power to thy soft lay,
Now timely sing, ere the rude bird of hate
Foretell my hopeless doom in some grove nigh;
As thou from year to year hast sung too late
For my relief, yet hadst no reason why:
Whether the Muse, or Love, call thee his mate,
Both them I serve, and of their train am I.

Reply:
To the Wingless Sloth
(the lover and poet, Milton)

O poet! seeking meaning in the fray
of counterclockwise seasons void of thrill,
thou wielder of the mighty, sharpened quill,
thou seekest me when lacking words of prey?
O lover! cause thy hand, bereft, to stay
on my account? Thou hearest not the trills
of the songstress of the night, and wait until
renewed crescendo swells the faded day?
O squanderer of time, create thy fate!
Dost wish to write? Then take thy pen and try.
Dost wish to love? Then turn thy heart from hate
and fault me not (thou wingless sloth!) who flies;
I nest closer to the earth than thee in wait.
Thy “Muse” and “Love” are smothered by my sky.


On a side note, the new House of Heroes album is flipping AWESOME. Go download it RIGHT NOW. You get a sweet deal off iTunes - 16 songs for ten bucks.