For those who weren't here yesterday or today, here's a recap of yesterday's class: To begin, Mrs. Loconte read us a devotion titled Letter From the Father, which was a compilation of different promises given to us from God via verses in the Bible. In this letter, God promises us that he knows each and every part of us, and that he loves us and desires to lavish us with his love. He also promises a great future for each of us if we listen closely to his commands and follow him.
After devotions, we had our Hamlet Act 1 quiz, which was surprisingly doable if you actually read all the scenes. When the quizzes had been finished and collected, we moved on to look at Mr. Yeats and his poem Second Coming. It is a very diverse, and indeed baffling, poem with everything from staunch Christian themes and interesting occult philosophy, to perhaps even some colourful nonsense. The imagery of the poem though, is extremely powerful, and makes it a worthwhile read. I especially liked the image given of a falcon as a metaphor for reason, circling and circling until it can no longer hear the falconer.
Homework from Yesterday: Act 2, Scene 1 Questions
Now, we shall move on to today. Today's class began with another devotion from Mrs. Loconte, titled P.U.S.H, which was a story about how sometimes we think God isn't answering our prayers, when in actuality, he's growing us and making us patient or strong or whatever it may be. In the end, all we have to do is keep Praying Until Something Happens.
Next, we moved on to presentations for those of us who did the extra credit projects. Jeff started us off with a dramatic presentation of how "The Sun Never Sets on the British Empire", showing us all the countries that were once under British Rule (i.e England, India, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Jamaica, etc.). After that, Kathleen gave us a nice poem countering the pessimism of Matthew Arnold's Dover Beach. I preceded to also give a poem countering Arnold's pessimism.
After everyone had been put to sleep by my poem, we moved on to (or should I say back to?) Yeats and finished analyzing Second Coming. Personally, I am of the opinion that Yeats was enjoying some recreational activity (read: DRUGS), and I'm pretty sure the rest of you all agree. Either that, or he was into some pretty wacky voodoo that was conjuring up some strange images in his head.
Speaking of crazy people, we also continued to discuss Hamlet, reiterating what we read in Act 2, Scene 1, as well as starting to read part of Act 2, Scene 2. We all kind of agreed that Polonius is, in Emmett's words, "a scumbag", or at the very least, crafty, manipulative, and distrustful of his children. Ok, yeah, a scumbag. Polonius gets Reynaldo to check up on his son Laertes to make sure he is behaving reasonably and not shirking his studies, by asking around to see if he is a party animal or not. Next, we learn that Hamlet is acting like a madman, making everyone start to question what is wrong with him.
Homework for Today: Read the rest of Hamlet and turn in a 25 page paper on the underlying themes of the poem by tomorrow. Just kidding. Maybe.
**REAL HOMEWORK DUE TOMORROW: Finish Act 2, Scene 2 and do all the question for it. Yep, stay up all night if you have to. JUST DO IT. - nike**
P.S: Sorry if this blog post is long, boring, weird, hallucinogenic, riddled with mistakes, or just plain terrible. I may have been trying to get my creative juices flowing through some recreational activity just like Yeats did. Just Kidding. Maybe.
P.P.S (or is it P.S.S??) Jaclyn, could you do devotions tomorrow? I won't be there. Thanks :D
Now that you've wasted half your life reading this, it's time for you to go rest, go outside, kick a ball, listen to some music, go party. Oooooooooh, wait. You can't. You have seventeen questions for Scene 2 to do. Better get on that.
Have a nice day.
perhaps "inspired and delighted" by your poem is better than "put to sleep".
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