Poetic Memory
[sorry Amanda- don't sue for plagiarism!!! O_O ]
As many of you know, classes are over for me and finals will be over in the next week or so. So, I am losing sleep to nerves, sanity to sheer panic and losing my eyeballs to relentless study. Just like everyone else. But! I wanted to talk about some of my last classes and all that jazz.
On Thursday I had my last International Relations class and it was emotional. Although this class has been ransacking my knowledge bin [what the fuck does that even mean? gawd i'm incoherent!] for the past few months, it has also been one of my favorite classes of all time. I was right- it was very much like Borneman's class on steroids only I learned a lot more in this class and I love the professor infinitely more. It was an honor to read all these works by the greatest minds of our time and then to realize that one of these esteemed scholars was actually telling you what he and his contemporaries are trying to say. He ended the last lecture early, then read us the "Wear Sunscreen" speech. You know... it was allegedly Kurt Vonnegut's speech to a graduating class, but turned out to have been an article by some Chicago reporter and then was a pop song for a while in the 90s... well, anyway, I had heard it a bunch of times [my aunt even bought me a book of it for my high school graduation, but I had never thought too much about it. Well, PK was so moved by it and so touched by the veracity of it all that he choked up and had to stop and everyone giggled a little, but I'm such a softie that I choked up too and by the end of his speech, I was practically in tears. I LOOOOOOVE classes like that!!! How does a guy to talks at a room of 300 people twice a week make such a strong connection that he wants to give them advice and then makes them cry over it?! That is an incredible power and I respect that characteristic in a person very much.
Well, during this emotional last week of classes, I was running around like a headless chicken trying to get all the signatures I need to study abroad. I had been mentally prepared for the worst and was dreading trying to convince my DUS and Faculty Advisor to approve the courses I selected, but my DUS is not a morning person, so at one point he exclaimed "Oh, no! I'm not even reading what I'm signing- oh well, I trust you." And my faculty advisor definitely approved of my UCL courses, but not so much of the other ones. She said she was onto me and that I was putting London-fun ahead of my academic goal and that it is not in her job description to approve of fun, but she understood and signed them all anyway. I love these people! My Old English professor had already sent in my recommendation by Wednesday and my favorite English professor just finished. She also gave me some advice on how to fix my entrance essay and I think it's now fool-proof. In the morning, I'm going to go to have my faculty advisor go over my essays once more and sign the final paper and from there I can head straight to the CUAbroad office to drop off my application. YAY!!!
Today was one of those "Cross-Country Gourmet" dinners that Cornell likes to treat us to, on occasion. Instead of having a hip restaurant visit like the ones we had last year, they had the master chefs at Cornell show off their own skills. I had no idea that someone who spends every day making comfort food for thousands of starving teenagers could also make such gourmet food as they did tonight. We had Duck with Wild Mushrooms, succulent Beef Tournedos, REAL Italian flatbread pizza, specialty salads, French onion soup, lots of yummy bread with sweet red-pepper butter, and for dessert I had Pumpkin Mousse Spongecake Torte with Cinnamon-Vanilla ice cream. We were all so happy with the food that we've decided to chase the specialty dinner around all week. It will be hosted at a different dining hall each night this week until Thursday and we intend to follow it. Tomorrow I think I'll try the Potato Crusted Grouper and the Raspberry White Chocolate Cheesecake. Oh, man! I need to stop loving food so much. I'm like James Spader in my affinity for the culinary arts. LOL. I was so sated after dinner, that I read one chapter of Government [insert JAWS theme] and fell asleep for 4 hours. In the past 2 hours and 1/2 I have rewritten my UCL statement of academic intent and come up with a first draft of my Queen Mary's essay and now I have one more chapter to read of IR, then I can keep trying to memorize the 50 readings we're supposed to know for the final [ ::dies inside more than just a little bit:: ] and then I'll go to bed to prepare for the Tuesday before my doom. Wednesday will be the death of me because of my International Relations final; Thursday will the the Hell in my afterlife because of my Math final; Friday will be the final torture of my ragged soul because of my Old English final; the weekend will be all English-y with the composition of my Romanticism final essay; and Tuesday will be redemption in that my English final will be the last kick to my dead horse of a brain [what is with these stupid metaphors for my feeble little mind?!] and then I will spend the last 2 days of the week watching The Matrix Trilogy and as many Disney movies and episodes of Inuyasha as I can get my hands on, while packing and cleaning my room to GO HOME!!!!
Well, as for the title of today's post, one of my final assignments for my Romanticism class was to memorize lines from 2 Romantic poems and schedule an appointment with the professor to recite them one on one. I adore this professor! He is one of the most brilliant people I've ever met. He got his first undergraduate degree at Princeton, then his second BA at Oxford, then he was accepted to Harvard Law AND Harvard Medicine, but he opted instead to get his Ph.D. in English at Harvard. Well, I recited the lines to him and I had to repeat them a few times each, just to get the timing and emphasis and meter and rhyme absolutely perfect, and I was worried that I had to repeat them because I messed up, but I guess I did so well that he asked me if I was a singer! He also asked if I found memorizing poetry to be easy and surprisingly, I do. Well, I took the singer comment as a compliment and was ludicrously happy for the rest of the day.
The lines I memorized:
From Byron's "Manfred" in which Manfred is trying to commit suicide-by-cliff, but is unable to.
"...when a leap,
A stir, a motion, even a breath,
Would bring my breast upon its rocky bosom's bed
To rest forever- wherefore do I pause?
I feel the impulse- yet I do not plunge.
I see the peril- yet do not recede.
And my brain reels, and yet my foot is firm."
From Byron's "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage: Canto 3" in which the detrimental nature of Napoleon's ambition is described.
"But quiet to quick bosoms is a hell;
And THERE hath been thy bane; there is a fire
And motion of the soul, which will not dwell
In its own narrow being, but aspire
Beyond the fitting medium of desire,
And, but once kindled, quenchless evermore,
Preys upon high adventure, nor can tire
Of aught but rest- a fever at the core
Fatal to him who bears, to all who ever bore."
AAAAAND! Caroline in teh cit-ay!
P.S.
"If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience. I will dispense this advice now.
Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. Oh, never mind. You will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they've faded. But trust me, in 20 years, you'll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can't grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked. You are not as fat as you imagine.
Don't worry about the future. Or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubble gum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind, the kind that blindside you at 4 p.m. on some idle Tuesday.
Do one thing every day that scares you.
Sing..."
[there's a lot more, but you can find it on your own if you're interested. It's a column called "Advice, Like Youth, Probably Just Wasted on the Young"]
As many of you know, classes are over for me and finals will be over in the next week or so. So, I am losing sleep to nerves, sanity to sheer panic and losing my eyeballs to relentless study. Just like everyone else. But! I wanted to talk about some of my last classes and all that jazz.
On Thursday I had my last International Relations class and it was emotional. Although this class has been ransacking my knowledge bin [what the fuck does that even mean? gawd i'm incoherent!] for the past few months, it has also been one of my favorite classes of all time. I was right- it was very much like Borneman's class on steroids only I learned a lot more in this class and I love the professor infinitely more. It was an honor to read all these works by the greatest minds of our time and then to realize that one of these esteemed scholars was actually telling you what he and his contemporaries are trying to say. He ended the last lecture early, then read us the "Wear Sunscreen" speech. You know... it was allegedly Kurt Vonnegut's speech to a graduating class, but turned out to have been an article by some Chicago reporter and then was a pop song for a while in the 90s... well, anyway, I had heard it a bunch of times [my aunt even bought me a book of it for my high school graduation, but I had never thought too much about it. Well, PK was so moved by it and so touched by the veracity of it all that he choked up and had to stop and everyone giggled a little, but I'm such a softie that I choked up too and by the end of his speech, I was practically in tears. I LOOOOOOVE classes like that!!! How does a guy to talks at a room of 300 people twice a week make such a strong connection that he wants to give them advice and then makes them cry over it?! That is an incredible power and I respect that characteristic in a person very much.
Well, during this emotional last week of classes, I was running around like a headless chicken trying to get all the signatures I need to study abroad. I had been mentally prepared for the worst and was dreading trying to convince my DUS and Faculty Advisor to approve the courses I selected, but my DUS is not a morning person, so at one point he exclaimed "Oh, no! I'm not even reading what I'm signing- oh well, I trust you." And my faculty advisor definitely approved of my UCL courses, but not so much of the other ones. She said she was onto me and that I was putting London-fun ahead of my academic goal and that it is not in her job description to approve of fun, but she understood and signed them all anyway. I love these people! My Old English professor had already sent in my recommendation by Wednesday and my favorite English professor just finished. She also gave me some advice on how to fix my entrance essay and I think it's now fool-proof. In the morning, I'm going to go to have my faculty advisor go over my essays once more and sign the final paper and from there I can head straight to the CUAbroad office to drop off my application. YAY!!!
Today was one of those "Cross-Country Gourmet" dinners that Cornell likes to treat us to, on occasion. Instead of having a hip restaurant visit like the ones we had last year, they had the master chefs at Cornell show off their own skills. I had no idea that someone who spends every day making comfort food for thousands of starving teenagers could also make such gourmet food as they did tonight. We had Duck with Wild Mushrooms, succulent Beef Tournedos, REAL Italian flatbread pizza, specialty salads, French onion soup, lots of yummy bread with sweet red-pepper butter, and for dessert I had Pumpkin Mousse Spongecake Torte with Cinnamon-Vanilla ice cream. We were all so happy with the food that we've decided to chase the specialty dinner around all week. It will be hosted at a different dining hall each night this week until Thursday and we intend to follow it. Tomorrow I think I'll try the Potato Crusted Grouper and the Raspberry White Chocolate Cheesecake. Oh, man! I need to stop loving food so much. I'm like James Spader in my affinity for the culinary arts. LOL. I was so sated after dinner, that I read one chapter of Government [insert JAWS theme] and fell asleep for 4 hours. In the past 2 hours and 1/2 I have rewritten my UCL statement of academic intent and come up with a first draft of my Queen Mary's essay and now I have one more chapter to read of IR, then I can keep trying to memorize the 50 readings we're supposed to know for the final [ ::dies inside more than just a little bit:: ] and then I'll go to bed to prepare for the Tuesday before my doom. Wednesday will be the death of me because of my International Relations final; Thursday will the the Hell in my afterlife because of my Math final; Friday will be the final torture of my ragged soul because of my Old English final; the weekend will be all English-y with the composition of my Romanticism final essay; and Tuesday will be redemption in that my English final will be the last kick to my dead horse of a brain [what is with these stupid metaphors for my feeble little mind?!] and then I will spend the last 2 days of the week watching The Matrix Trilogy and as many Disney movies and episodes of Inuyasha as I can get my hands on, while packing and cleaning my room to GO HOME!!!!
Well, as for the title of today's post, one of my final assignments for my Romanticism class was to memorize lines from 2 Romantic poems and schedule an appointment with the professor to recite them one on one. I adore this professor! He is one of the most brilliant people I've ever met. He got his first undergraduate degree at Princeton, then his second BA at Oxford, then he was accepted to Harvard Law AND Harvard Medicine, but he opted instead to get his Ph.D. in English at Harvard. Well, I recited the lines to him and I had to repeat them a few times each, just to get the timing and emphasis and meter and rhyme absolutely perfect, and I was worried that I had to repeat them because I messed up, but I guess I did so well that he asked me if I was a singer! He also asked if I found memorizing poetry to be easy and surprisingly, I do. Well, I took the singer comment as a compliment and was ludicrously happy for the rest of the day.
The lines I memorized:
From Byron's "Manfred" in which Manfred is trying to commit suicide-by-cliff, but is unable to.
"...when a leap,
A stir, a motion, even a breath,
Would bring my breast upon its rocky bosom's bed
To rest forever- wherefore do I pause?
I feel the impulse- yet I do not plunge.
I see the peril- yet do not recede.
And my brain reels, and yet my foot is firm."
From Byron's "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage: Canto 3" in which the detrimental nature of Napoleon's ambition is described.
"But quiet to quick bosoms is a hell;
And THERE hath been thy bane; there is a fire
And motion of the soul, which will not dwell
In its own narrow being, but aspire
Beyond the fitting medium of desire,
And, but once kindled, quenchless evermore,
Preys upon high adventure, nor can tire
Of aught but rest- a fever at the core
Fatal to him who bears, to all who ever bore."
AAAAAND! Caroline in teh cit-ay!
P.S.
"If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience. I will dispense this advice now.
Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. Oh, never mind. You will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they've faded. But trust me, in 20 years, you'll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can't grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked. You are not as fat as you imagine.
Don't worry about the future. Or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubble gum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind, the kind that blindside you at 4 p.m. on some idle Tuesday.
Do one thing every day that scares you.
Sing..."
[there's a lot more, but you can find it on your own if you're interested. It's a column called "Advice, Like Youth, Probably Just Wasted on the Young"]