Harvard Classics 90-day challenge

I was thinking of taking up the Harvard Classics 90 day challenge, found here. I've tried recruiting several friends as well, but when I was recruiting, I thought the 90 day plan was 15 minutes a day (that's what the regular Harvard Classics plan suggests) but I see now that its 1 hour per day!

That's too high a time commitment for me, and probably too high for the friends I talked with about the plan as well. So instead, Im going to use the Reading Guide, and simply start on the 1st of April. 

My plan is to take notes as I read, and compile them into a blog post that will be published on Sundays.

Sir Walter Scott

The reading selection for January 5th is two poems by Sir Walter Scott, in the form of ballads compiled in his Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border.  The two selections are Proud Maisie and County Guy.

My initial thoughts are these are not very much like the Wife of Usher's Well, from yesterday, nor much similar to others of the Scottish Ballads I happened to read.

Things to know here that escaped me on first reading, is kirk is a church (presbyterian in the case of Scotland) so the 6 men who will bear her kirkward are pallbearers.  I did not get that on first reading.  It thus makes much more sense when she asks the robin about who will make her bridal bed, and the answer is the sexton who digs her grave.  So the final set of lines regarding glow-worms and owls in the steeple settles the image of the graveyard as her resting place.

Proud I do not get.  One analysis suggested Maisie was vain, but I don't see that in the poem itself.  I see a young, perhaps even adolescent, girl playing in the woods, with a touch of magical fantasy talking to birds, etc.  The poem is very dark, however, once the allusions are understood.

County Guy is another short one.  My original reading was that he is a suitor or lover of the village maid.  Something bad has happened and he is not going to make his scheduled assignation for some reason.  She does not yet know that something bad has happened, and is sneaking out to meet him. Nature and the stars above continue on, unaffected, giving no hint to the maid of something amiss, nor a clue to what has happened to Guy.  Hopefully I have not missed any important subtexts or queues.

With the clarifications I found on Proud Maisie, I came to rather like that poem, and I like County Guy with the interpretation I have made of it.  I don't see them as particularly ballad-like, though.

Comments are welcome, though moderated.

Scottish Ballad "The Wife of Usher's Well"

The Pocket University selection for January 4 is a Scottish ballad called The Wife of Usher's Well.

This is one of the ballads collected by Scott in his Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, published beginning in 1802. Three volumes were published, with various editorial extensions as the publishing cycle continued, with a fifth edition published in 1812.  Project Gutenberg has  available as free e-texts Volume 1 and Volume 2 of the 3-volume 3rd edition published in 1806.

In The Wife of Usher's Well, we hear of a woman whose three sons were lost at sea together, and make a visit to their mother from beyond the grave, for one night.

The selection in Pocket University appears as though it has been abridged, in which form it suggests to me the possible play of supernatural powers or magic in bringing the sons to the mother for a visit. This edition is very close to what is in the Pocket University publication I am using, except that the ellipsis points that I took to indicate where an abridgement occured are not in that copy, but are in my Pocket University.

Looking around the web for the full version, it may be I am wrong about it being abridged in Pocket University, as nearly every other site has nearly identical verbiage for the ballad. The Child Ballads (collected by Francis James Child) has three versions of this ballad, identified as #79.  The one closest corresponding again has ellipsis points that suggest abridgement to me.

Looking to other sources of analysis, I apparently missed the "year and a day" concept, wherein one should mourn a lost loved one for a year and a day but no more, lest they return as revenants and bad things happen.  While this version of the story, at least as abridged, doesn't show anything particularly bad happening, the sons return from whence they came when the night is over.

I was curious to know what kinds of melodies might go with the Scottish ballads.  YouTube had several versions of Wife of Ushers Well. My favorite was this one.

Comments are welcome, though moderated.

Sir Walter Scott

The Pocket University selection for January 3rd is the poem Lochinvar by Sir Walter Scott. This is an excerpt from the longer epic poem Marmion.

In this poem, Lochinvar, a young knight, shows up uninvited to the wedding of Ellen, whom he has been courting but whose father has declined Lochinvar's suit for marriage.

When he shows up, there's a little verbal tussling between Lochinvar and Dad, where Dad tries to ascertain Lochinvar's intentions, but Lochinvar says he's only there for a drink and a dance. The Romantics in the room, which include Ellen, think Lochinvar is a better match for Ellen, whose groom is too cowardly to stand up to Lochinvar.  In the end, Ellen is somewhat snatched away, though she seems willing enough, and in the ensuing chase Ellen and Lochinvar disappear.

I'm not much for poetry really.  I can see this is good poetry, but it is not a literature form I am familiar or comfortable with.

I see Ellen as marrying the man her parents have chosen for her, perhaps a matter of familial responsibility or filial duty.  Certainly, she must see Lochinvar as more exciting or interesting than the ineffectual, passive man she is there to wed.  Of course, much of this is probably explained in the full Marmion poem.

Comments are welcome, but moderated

More Washington Irving

The Pocket University selection for January 2nd is an essay by Washington Irving called "Of The Dutch Paradise", describing a town called Broek, near Amsterdam.

While visiting Amsterdam, Holland, Irving decides to visit a village a short distance away called Broek, which is evidently thought by some to be paradise on earth.  Irving describes the village as immaculately clean, and talks about the polished stones, the scrubbed sidewalks, the freshly painted houses, even the clean dairy cows.  But he does not talk about, or even to, any actual village residents, just hears of them from his guide.  No vehicles or horses are allowed in the village, so the tour is on foot.

The essay strikes me as satirical, though I may be misunderstanding Irving's intent.

I feel ambivalent about the selection.  It does not speak to me particularly.  In the Pocket University, it is in volume 8, "Essays".  Originally published in the Crayon Papers, under the pseudonym Geoffrey Crayon, somewhere in the 1818-1820 time frame, I wonder if the essay has greater meaning in the context of whatever is around it in the original work.

Broek is a real town, is actually a short distance from Amsterdam, and is apparently known in the 17th and 18th centuries for its cleanliness and tidiness, just as Irving describes.  The residents were evidently quite prosperous.  Presumably before Irving's visit, the town was a shipping center. During Irving's visit the town was famed for dairy cows and cheese.

Guided tours are available today, on various internet sites.

I have to admit, I did not get much value from this reading. Perhaps I missed something.

Comments are welcome, though moderated.

Washington Irving

The Pocket University entry for 1 January is a passage from Washington Irving, an autobiographical account of his visit to the home of, and time spent with, Sir Walter Scott.

For me it is revealing whenever a glimpse is given that our iconic literary figures are, after all, human under the mystique of their literary reputations.  In this 23 page passage for today's reading, Irving describes Scott at home, surrounded by wife and children, dogs, a cat, and generally presents a homey, comfortable view of Scott and his home life.  Irving and Scott walk about the nearby area, and Irving shares his impressions of the Scottish countryside and people.

I have read nothing by Scott.  I have a 12-volume set of the Waverly novels I picked up in a book sale a few years back.  If Waverly, Ivanhoe, or Rob Roy were assigned reading in high school, and at least one of them probably was, I did not read them.  After the reading for today, I spent an hour or a little more on the internet reading up on Scott, where i learned a great many things I previously did not know.  This happens to me a lot.

I have a strong liking for a song, Ave Maria, which is frequently associated with a Catholic Prayer of the same name.  I have MP3s of several versions of this song with the Catholic Prayer verbiage in English and Latin, and several versions sung in German as well.  I don't speak German, and I sorta thought the German versions were translations of the Catholic Prayer.

Boy was I wrong. 

Thinking about it now, it does seem odd that someone would translate the Catholic Prayer Ave Maria from Latin (or English even) into German, and then produce so many versions of it.  I probably should have investigated before now.

Scott wrote a poem, the Lady of the Lake, published in 1810, which was then adapted into a 7-song cycle by Franz Schubert.  One of the songs in the cycle, number 6, is "Ellens dritter Gesang" (Ellen's Third Song), wherein Ellen (the lady of the lake) sings a prayer to the Virgin Mary.  This is the original song whose melody I know as Ave Maria.  The 7-song cycle was published in 1825, it is Opus 52.  It turns out a bunch of other people like the melody as well, and since the Schubert song begins with Ellen singing the words "Ave Maria", it evidently made sense to adapt the Catholic Prayer to the Schubert melody (and record a hundred versions of it).  It is a common misconception that Schubert arranged the music specifically for the Catholic Prayer.  It is the misconception I would have had, had I realized Schubert composed the music.

One of the things that struck me in Irving's comments on the Scottish countryside, was his reaction to how the countryside looked.  Irving had preconceived notions of what the countryside would look like based on the romantic poetry he had read from Scott.  Irving's notions were of course drawn from his own experience of the countryside in the northeastern United States around where he grew up, and he was distressed to see the Scottish countryside as grey, unadorned with trees, etc.

Don't we all carry untested, and inaccurate, preconceptions drawn from our own experience?

I think the only thing by Washington Irving I've read is Legend of Sleepy Hollow, but even that may have been an abridgement meant for a child.

Percy Bysshe Shelley

The Pocket University entry for September 23rd is four poems by Percy Bysshe Shelley.  Shelley was born in 1792, and died in 1822.  Like so many great writers, he went substantially unrecognized during his lifetime, but his literary legacy is quite profound.

When I think of Percy Bysshe Shelley, I think of "Prometheus Unbound", a play published in 1820.   Shelley's second wife was Mary Shelley the author of "Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus".

From wikipedia, Shelley was closely associated with the poet Lord Byron.  Other poets and philosophers who admired his works include Karl Marx, Mahatma Gandhi, George Bernard Shaw, Alfred Nobel, C.S. Lewis, and William Butler Yeats.

"To a Skylark", published in 1820, is the first selection.

The second selection is "Love's Philosophy"

Next comes "Good-Night", which I particularly enjoyed for its light, playful mood.

Finally, "To ---", which I'm not quite sure what to make of. 

A rereading is probably in order on these and perhaps an updated post.

Comments are welcome, though moderated.