A Couple of Cool William Golding Videos

Modern British War Poetry

The following is poet Louise Russell's introduction to poems about the effect that battle has had on her husband, David, who was aboard the HMS Sheffield (pictured above) when it was hit and sunk in 1982 (during the Falkans War) by an Exocet missile from Argentine aircraft. Following this intorduction are two poems by Russell. 

Since 1987 when David was medically discharged with PTSD the real David has been missing but appears from time to time which is lovely.  Unfortunately, the David who came back from the Falklands refuses to leave – a bit like Jekyll and Hyde.
I believe there are many “Falklands veterans”  who are also the “forgotten heroes.” I mean the wives, sweethearts, mums, sisters, daughters, sons, brothers and dads of veterans.  There has been a lot of writings by the vets, however, I believe it is just as important for the other side of the coin to be publicised.   In almost the words of Churchill never in the field of human combat has so much been done for so many by so many who are still suffering the fallout of this conflict.I have spoken to many families of Falklands vets and haven't come across one family who have not suffered and are still suffering because of this conflict.

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"The Call of Home"

A river of tears cannot cleanse
The unseen wound which does not heal
There are more than battlefield shells
So many human shells return home
To the family never to be the same
Children once had a dad to turn to
Now he’s an island with a barrier reef
And she searches and searches in disbelief
She knows he’s in there somewhere
But she cannot find the path
She doesn’t know it’s a one way street
It’s his choice if they are ever to meet
In the land of trust where love is all around
When his spirit’s journey is homeward bound
It’s a long road to travel with many pitfalls
But when he stumbles her heart hears his calls
No company for him he must travel alone
But the family’s love is the beacon guiding him home
Home is where the spirit longs to be
Surrounded by love then it can be free

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"Lost"

Yes you are here
But so far away
That you are not near

Your smile that never
Reaches your vacant eyes
I wonder will it ever

A heart turned to stone
Just to survive the
Pain of being alone

I don’t know how
It captured your soul
Always with you now
I will find the key
To unlock your heart
And set you free 
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Click here for more from Falkan War Poems Anthology.

Trimester Exam Review

What to study:

Vocabulary

(Definitions, synonyms, antonyms, word parts)

- Chapter V (Lessons 16 – 30), congratulate – vociferous, pp. 176 – 202

N.B. Start at Lesson 16

- Chapter VI, “Words from Classical Mythology and History,”

Adonis – titanic,pp. 203 – 214

- Chapter VII, “Anglo-Saxon Vocabulary” and “Latin-Derived Synonyms and Near-Synonyms for Anglo-Saxon Words,” aboard – nuptials, pp. 215 – 231

- Chapter VIII, “French Words in English,” au-courant – vis-à-vis,

pp. 232 – 255

Spelling         

- Lists 13 – 22

Literature

The Romantic Period

Lives of the poets and authors

Quotations from all works of literature on this list

Thomas Gray, “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard”

William Blake, “The Lamb,” “The Tyger”

William Wordsworth “The World Is Too Much with Us,” “Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey”

Samuel Taylor Coleridge, “Kubla Khan”

George Gordon, Lord Byron “She Walks in Beauty”

Percy Bysshe Shelley “Ozymandias,” “Ode to the West Wind”

John Keats “When I Have Fears” “Ode on a Grecian Urn”

The Victorian Period

Alfred, Lord Tennyson "In Memoriam, Lyric # 7," “Ulysses”

Robert Browning “Porphyria’s Lover “My Last Duchess”

Matthew Arnold, “Dover Beach”

Thomas Hardy “The Man He Killed, ” “Ah, Are Your Digging on My Grave?”

Gerard Manley Hopkins, “Pied Beauty”

A. E. Housman “To an Athlete Dying Young”

Aldous Huxley Brave New World

 

Brave New World on the Big Screen

If you thought the book was weird, check out the BBC's take on it.
The people are a bit robotic at times, their clothes are a bit , but overall, the creative liberties taken by director Burt Brinckerhoff make things pretty easy to understand.

What to Study for the Trimester Exam

                           Vocabulary

A.      Chapter III, “Building Vocabulary Through Central Ideas,” bliss – vanity,  pp. 46-106 

B.      Chapter IV, “Words Derived From Greek,” acrophobia – peritonitis,

 pp. 107-145

C.      Chapter V, “Words Derived From Latin,” Latin Prefixes 1 – 30 (a – vice) and Lessons 1 – 15 only, abrupt – perfidy, pp. 146-176

Definitions, synonyms, antonyms, and word parts (Greek roots and prefixes, Latin roots and prefixes; be sure to study the list of thirty Latin prefixes found at the beginning of Chapter V.)

                             Spelling – Lists 1-13 (see Spelling List page)

                             Grammar and Composition – Elements of Language

A.      Types of Phrases – Chapter 16

B.      Types of Subordinate Clauses – Chapter 17

C.      Complete Sentences, Fragments, and Run-ons – Chapter 17

D.     Types of Sentences According to Structure – Chapter 17

(simple, compound, complex, compound-complex)

Literature     

(Literary periods, literary techniques, authors, genres, quotations, details, details, details . . . )

A.      The Anglo-Saxon Period

B.   Beowulf

C.   The Middle Ages

D.   The Canterbury Tales: “General Prologue,” “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” – Chaucer

E.      The Renaissance

F.      Sonnets 18, 29, 116 – Shakespeare  (Be sure to know the first line of each.)

G.      Macbeth – Shakespeare

H.     “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning” – Donne

I.         “Death Be Not Proud” (Holy Sonnet #10) – Donne

J.       “Meditation 17” – Donne

K.      “Of Studies,” – Bacon

L.      “To His Coy Mistress” – Marvell

M.    “When I Consider How My Light Is Spent” – Milton

N.      Paradise Lost (excerpt from Book I) – Milton

O.     The Restoration and the Eighteenth Century

P.      “A Modest Proposal” – Swift

Revised 12/11/09 

Meet John Donne

Here are some prime cuts from John Donne:

I am two fools, I know,
For loving, and for saying so
In whining poetry.
- from "The Triple Fool"

Love built on beauty, soon as beauty, dies.
- from "Elegy II: The Anagram"

Any man's death diminishes me, because
I am involved in Mankind; And therefore
never send to know for whom the bell tolls;
it tolls for thee.
- from "Meditation XVII"


Click here for more on John Donne, the great poet, lawyer, world explorer, chaplain, preahcer, womanizer, and [eventual] family man.

Don't say "Macbeth" in a theater!

Did you know that saying "Macbeth" in a theater is considered by theater folk to be very bad luck. In fact, it's widely acknowledged as being even more ominous than the time-honored classis, "Break a leg."

Here's a rundown from Listverse, a very cool web site that lists Top 10s:  

Theater folk avoid using it, referring to the play as ‘The Scottish Play’ or ‘The Bard’s Play’. If the name is spoken in a theater, there is a cleansing ritual one can do to rectify the mistake. The ritual I am familiar with is: The person is required to leave the theater building, spit, curse and spin around three times, before begging to be allowed back inside. Other variants include: Reciting a line from another Shakespearean work, brushing oneself off, running around the theater counter clock-wise, or repeating the name 3 times while tapping their left shoulder.

There are several possible origins for this superstition. One option is to believe in witchcraft. According to one superstition, Shakespeare himself got the words from a coven of real witches, who, after seeing the play weren’t impressed by their portrayal. Another says the props master from the original performance stole a cauldron from said coven, and the witches, again, weren’t impressed. The best witchcraft explanation is that Shakespeare put a curse on the play so that no-one, other than him, would be able to direct it correctly.

Another origin is that there is more swordplay in it than most other Shakespeare plays, and, therefore, more chances for someone to get injured. But the option I believe is most likely is that, due to the plays popularity, it was often run by theaters that were in debt and as a last attempt to increase patronage; the theaters normally went bankrupt soon after.

NB: The superstition is even parodied in an episode of The Simpsons. While visiting London, the Simpson family comes across Sir Ian McKellen outside a theater showing “Macbeth.” Every time “Macbeth” is said, something happens to McKellen.

Patrick Stewart as Macbeth

Take a look at some of the other scenes/chapters if you have time; once you know the story, you can better appreciate this new take on an old classic.

Watch Macbeth on PBS. See more from GREAT PERFORMANCES.

Shakespeare: The Authorship Controversy

Did William Shakespeare really write all of the timeless plays for which he is given credit? Or were these plays penned by noblemen whose social status was above that of the Renaissance theater types? After all, how could Shakespeare, with his limited education, know so much about foreign language and culture, as well as matters of the law?

Outside of scholarly circles, the authorship controversy surrounding the great bard remains popular, and a new feature film called Anonymous explores the idea that "Shakespeare never wrote a single word" of his plays -- or sonnets. Check out the trailer below:




Not buying into the hype? Click here for The Shakespeare Authorship Page, which proposes that Shakespeare did, in fact, write Shakespeare.

A Real Life Shangri-La

Author Mitchell Zukoff's novel Lost in Shangri-La recounts a 1945 military mission over the island of New Guinea and its practically prehistoric tribesman and women. If the book is as inspiring as this short video, it's no wonder Lost in Shangri-La has been lauded as one of the best books of 2011.