WEEK 7 - 19th Century Lit.
In our tutorial on Tuesday, I have to say that at first I was not very impressed with Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Sonnet. At first read, I thought it was a bit whiney and repetative, but then Neil (I don't know if that's how he spells his name..oh well) re-read it to me out loud in the way that he interpreted it. When he did this, I suddenly found myself liking the sonnet much better and was able to find more meaning in it than I had before. Neil came up with some fantastic insights into the word choice that she uses and why this poem is memorable and enduring. He was able to bring up some great ideas about why the cuckoo was an important piece of imagery and how at the end of the poem, Browning uses such great word choice to convey her message of lasting love. I was shocked that after hearing his interpretation that I was able to find myself truly enjoying this sonnet, which minutes before I didn't think was anything special.
This whole week has been a great experience for me because I feel like it has been such a long time since I have been able to sit down and discuss what a particular piece of writing means. I haven't done an in-depth analysis of a poem or sonnet since high school and I've found that our tutorials both in this class and my Shakespeare class are extremely insightful and absolutely fascinating. I have to say that I really admire Neil's ability to read something and say dead-on what the writer was trying to convey. I can spend minutes sometimes, just trying to analyze a piece of writing and then in the end find that my opinion was completely wrong. The tutorials for the English classes are a refreshing way to share thoughts and ideas that have so far changed my previous opinions of many works that before had no real meaning to me.
This whole week has been a great experience for me because I feel like it has been such a long time since I have been able to sit down and discuss what a particular piece of writing means. I haven't done an in-depth analysis of a poem or sonnet since high school and I've found that our tutorials both in this class and my Shakespeare class are extremely insightful and absolutely fascinating. I have to say that I really admire Neil's ability to read something and say dead-on what the writer was trying to convey. I can spend minutes sometimes, just trying to analyze a piece of writing and then in the end find that my opinion was completely wrong. The tutorials for the English classes are a refreshing way to share thoughts and ideas that have so far changed my previous opinions of many works that before had no real meaning to me.