‘Men of Troy, what madness has come over you? can you believe the enemy truly gone? A gift from the Danaans, and no ruse? Is that Ulysses’ way, as you have known him? Achaens must be hiding in this timber, Or it was built to butt against our walls, Peer over them into our houses, […]
February 28, 2011 at 1:05 pm
Energy is an eternal delight, and he who desires, but acts not, breeds pestilence. — William Blake, “The Fly.” Fun Fact: Esperanza Spalding put out a song based on this poem.
February 25, 2011 at 5:51 pm
The 1940 Census had revealed that some 10 million Americans had not been schooled past the fourth grade, and that one in eight could not read or write. This, primarily, was a southern problem. A higher proportion of blacks living in the North had completed grade school than whites in the South. — Ira Katznelson, […]
February 24, 2011 at 12:45 pm
Domestic service reveals the contradiction in a a feminism that pushed for women’s involvement outside the home, yet failed to make men take responsibility for household labor. Employed middle- and upper-middle class women escaped the double day syndrome by hiring poor women of color to perform housework and child care, and this was characterized as […]
February 23, 2011 at 1:04 pm
I met a traveller from an antique land Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand, Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown, And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command, Tell that its sculptor well those passions read Which yet survive, stamped on […]
February 22, 2011 at 12:18 pm
Wisdom and Spirit of the universe! Thou Soul, that art the Eternity of thought! And giv’st to forms and images a breath And everlasting motion! not in vain, By day or star-light, thus from my first dawn Of childhood didst thou intertwine for me The passions that build up our human soul; Not with the […]
February 18, 2011 at 1:55 pm
Is there, for honest poverty, That hangs his head, and a’ that? The coward-slave, we pass him by, We dare be poor for a’ that! For a’ that, and a’ that, Our toils obscure, and a’ that; The rank is but the guinea-stamp, The man ‘s the gowd for a’ that! What tho’ on hamely […]
February 17, 2011 at 12:39 pm
O Earth O Earth return! Arise from out the dewy grass; Night is worn, And the mourn Rises from the slumberous mass. – from “Introduction” to Songs of Experience by William Blake, whose poetry among others’ will be considered by Prof. Christopher Ricks in a lecture next Tuesday for the students of CC202
February 16, 2011 at 11:25 am
A woman who expends her energy, who has responsibilities, who knows how harsh is the struggle against the world’s opposition, needs — like the male — not only to satisfy her physical desires but also to enjoy the relaxation and diversion provided by agreeable sexual adventures. — French existentialist philosopher Simone de Beauvoir, from The […]
February 15, 2011 at 10:47 am
Sexual initiation! Not to be mentioned in our house! . . . I hunted in books, but wore myself out without finding the road. . . . For my schoolteacher the question did not seem to exist. . . . A book finally showed me the truth, and my overexcitement disappeared; but I was most […]
