Wednesday, October 31, 2007

The Stolen Child
-W.B. Yeats-

WHERE dips the rocky highland
Of Sleuth Wood in the lake,
There lies a leafy island
Where flapping herons wake
The drowsy water rats;
There we've hid our faery vats,
Full of berrys
And of reddest stolen cherries.
Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand.

Where the wave of moonlight glosses
The dim gray sands with light,
Far off by furthest Rosses
We foot it all the night,
Weaving olden dances
Mingling hands and mingling glances
Till the moon has taken flight;
To and fro we leap
And chase the frothy bubbles,
While the world is full of troubles
And anxious in its sleep.
Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand.

Where the wandering water gushes
From the hills above Glen-Car,
In pools among the rushes
That scare could bathe a star,
We seek for slumbering troutA
nd whispering in their ears
Give them unquiet dreams;
Leaning softly out
From ferns that drop their tears
Over the young streams.
Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand.

Away with us he's going,
The solemn-eyed:He'll hear no more the lowing
Of the calves on the warm hillside
Or the kettle on the hob
Sing peace into his breast,
Or see the brown mice bob
Round and round the oatmeal chest.
For he comes, the human child,
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world's more full of weeping than he can understand

Thursday, October 25, 2007

Observations IV

There is this person in a long-sleeved shirt and pants snoring in the library. I can't concentrate.
Hungry too.
Why Why Why

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Reading and Writing

MF:Gooood evening ladies and gentlemen! Welcome to Ms Fickle's Mind Live! Interview, where you get to meet such extraordinary persons that you won't think to meet! (and will never meet, Peace be upon you) As for tonight, let's see just who we have tonight at the studio!
[camera pans right to cushy armchairs]

MF:Ah! I see that we have the excellent Master Reading here in the studio tonight with us! [chorus of excited murmur]
MF: So! Master Reading! What a pleasure it is to meet you in person! I am told that as it is the end of the semester, you have seen a slight dip in those who follow Readership.
MR: [Sourly] It is expected of course. But those who turn away ultimately return during the exams. I am not overly concerned by this.
MF: I see! How nice it is to see you so unconcerned... As a matter of fact, you have been criticised by some as being rather autocratic. Your followers complain that they have been often coerced into Reading textbooks and research.
MR: [waves one hand nonchalantly] I quite fail to see it as my problem. Insofar as I see it, they'll just have to deal with me in whatever way they can. [smirks] Seeing as they can't escape me anyway.
MF: Oh dear. Perhaps this might exlain why in the mean time, Readers have turned to your more charming cousin, Sir Essay Writing. I hear that at least he has been more democratic in dealing with his er. essayists.
MR: Democratic? I hardly think so. He may be as you call it, more "charming", but he is no less demanding than I am. Though I do admit that the effort put in on working on essays are strictly on a voluntary basis. Flattery may get you somewhere with him, but not me. I am not so two-faced. [looks at clock on the wall impatiently] Is it over yet? I did not ask for this ridiculous interview did you know? I am a busy person.
[link terminated]

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Booklist

Revived an old list of "to read" books, and decided that I have to update it..

List of Books to read:
-Fragile Things, Neil Gaiman [finished!]
-The Remains of the Day, Kazuo Ishiguro [finished!]
-The Magic Toyshop, Angela Carter
-The Gormenghast Trilogy, Mervyn Peake [it's STILL sitting at home]
-Gods Behaving Badly, Marie Phillips
-American Gods, Neil Gaiman [I never seem to get round to reading it]
-Vanity Fair, William Makepeace Thackeray
-Special Topics in Calamity Physics, Marisha Pessl
-100 Great Books in Haiku, David Bader
-The Misanthrope: and other plays, Moliere
-The Name of the Rose, Umberto Eco
-Oscar Wilde and the Candlelight Murders, Gyles Brandreth
-The Time Traveller's Wife, Audrey Niffenegger

Sunday, October 14, 2007

The Irrelevent Post

Hmm. So life continues on, without stopping (as usual) for a breather, while I sit back and admire the lovely mess I've created. Went back to school yesterday, forgetting it was a public holiday, and naturally, everything was closed, my readings stuck behind the wretched glass wall... No matter, I suppose, so I went back home, and scowled at the review I was supposed to be writing, while simultaneously planning this other essay I've got... the one of many other essays to come, but I needn't complain. I forsee all-nighters in the not too distant future. And I haven't finished reading Jane Eyre. And I have a presentation on it.

I do wish I can cough up 10 page research papers in a day... I hear you have to do something similar if you want your PhD... Incidentally, PhD; I don't know how many of you actually know, but it doesn't mean Permanent Head Damage as many of us know it as, but A Doctor in Philosophy. Weird, especially when there actually ARE doctors of Philosophy out there... i.e. the profs at the Philo Dept (where else).

Right then, back to my point about writing essays fast. I really don't have all day to sit around waiting to be inspired, but it happens, and I glaze over the essay/review/write-up/report/proposal/research paper and half the day is gone. Talk about time passing...
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