Next Meeting: January 30th, Ethan Frome

Our next meeting is on Monday, January 30^th at 1pm at the Ralstons’ house in South Portland, and we will be discussing Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton. I chose this novel specifically for this time of year because it takes place in New England in the midst of winter. 

One thing I want you to consider is how the New England winter is represented in this novel. What is winter in Starkfield like? Does this view of a New England winter fit with your personal experience?

Another thing  I’d like you to consider, and be ready to discuss, is the integrity of each of the novel’s primary characters: Ethan, Zeena, and Mattie. To that end, please come prepared to support – or argue against – one of the following statements:

Ethan is a wonderful husband.

Zeena is a terrible wife.

Mattie is an innocent bystander.

Choose one of the above statements (or its opposite, i.e., “Ethan is a terrible husband”) and find quotes from the book – things a character does or says, events that occur, ideas that are implied by the narrator – to support it. Be sure to jot down the quotes and their page numbers so you can reference them, and please bring your copy of Ethan Frome with you. If you wish, you can choose more than one statement, or be ready to argue both sides for one of them.

It should be a fun discussion. See you on Monday!

This Sonnet Thing is Tough!

Whew! It took me a while, and I gave up on the rhyme scheme partway through, but here's my rewrite of Sonnet XIX.

Sonnet 19 – Revised by b-nice

Time, feel free to degrade the lion’s claws,

Let everything on the earth return to dust,

Let the teeth fall out of old tigers' maws,

And burn the phoenix while she's still robust.

Let winter, spring, summer and fall come and go,

And do whatsoever you care

To the world's flora and fauna.

But don’t you dare

Put a single wrinkle on my love’s forehead.

Or veins or age spots.

Let him remain unchanged

So future generations will always admire his beauty.

     Actually, never mind. Go ahead and make him old.

     He’ll always be young in my poetry.

And here's the original Sonnet XIX by the Bard himself for comparison:

SONNET XIX

Devouring Time, blunt thou the lion's paws,
And make the earth devour her own sweet brood;
Pluck the keen teeth from the fierce tiger's jaws,
And burn the long-lived phoenix in her blood;
Make glad and sorry seasons as thou fleets,
And do whate'er thou wilt, swift-footed Time,
To the wide world and all her fading sweets;
But I forbid thee one most heinous crime:
O, carve not with thy hours my love's fair brow,
Nor draw no lines there with thine antique pen;
Him in thy course untainted do allow
For beauty's pattern to succeeding men.
      Yet, do thy worst, old Time: despite thy wrong,
      My love shall in my verse ever live young.

Sorry, what ThePuck meant to say was, how now spirits? wither wander the works of Shakespeare before our eyes before next we meet?

ThePuck want's to know if we will be reading more Shakespeare.