George Orwell Essays Selected

Following is the list of George Orwell's essays that we will be reading for our January 17 meeting of Classics Revisited:

Such, Such Were the Joys
Shooting an Elephant
Politics and the English Language
Why I Write
The Art of Donald McGill
Marrakech
Looking Back on the Spanish War
England, Your England


All of the above essays except "England, Your England" can be found here:

And "England, Your England" can be found here:

Update 1/14/2012:  If you have a chance to read "A Hanging" as well, please add it to your list. You can read it here:

Dec 20 meeting starts at 6 pm

Our December 20 meeting will begin earlier than usual so that we may watch the 2002 film version of this month's title, The Importance of Being Earnest. The movie will start at 6 pm and lasts 97 minutes. If you don't care to watch the film, you are welcome to join us later for the discussion portion of the evening, around 7:40 pm.

Variations on a Theme by William Carlos Williams

By Kenneth Koch

1
I chopped down the house that you had been saving to live in next summer.
I am sorry, but it was morning, and I had nothing to do
and its wooden beams were so inviting.

2
We laughed at the hollyhocks together
and then I sprayed them with lye.
Forgive me. I simply do not know what I am doing.

3
I gave away the money that you had been saving to live on for the next ten years.
The man who asked for it was shabby
and the firm March wind on the porch was so juicy and cold.

4
Last evening we went dancing and I broke your leg.
Forgive me. I was clumsy and
I wanted you here in the wards, where I am the doctor!

Easy Poet Costume Ideas

Have you decided on your Halloween costume yet?  How about being a poet!

This page from Poets.org offers ideas for dressing up as Emily Dickinson, Edgar Allan Poe, William Carlos Williams, Walt Whitman, and---Sappho! They are all easy to do.

For example, dressing up as William Carlos Williams requires no more than donning a toy stethoscope and rubber gloves. For greater verisimilitude, carry a bowl of plums or trundle along a red wheelbarrow full of candy.

Emily Dickinson's "In a Library"

A PRECIOUS, mouldering pleasure ’t is
To meet an antique book,
In just the dress his century wore;
A privilege, I think,

His venerable hand to take, 5
And warming in our own,
A passage back, or two, to make
To times when he was young.

His quaint opinions to inspect,
His knowledge to unfold 10
On what concerns our mutual mind,
The literature of old;

What interested scholars most,
What competitions ran
When Plato was a certainty, 15
And Sophocles a man;

When Sappho was a living girl,
And Beatrice wore
The gown that Dante deified.
Facts, centuries before, 20

He traverses familiar,
As one should come to town
And tell you all your dreams were true:
He lived where dreams were born.

His presence is enchantment, 25
You beg him not to go;
Old volumes shake their vellum heads
And tantalize, just so.

The Importance of Reading Earnest

You'll find the list of classics for our 2012-2013 season down the left side of this blog. Later this year, we'll make a selection of the Orwell and Dickinson titles we'll be discussing and post it here. If you have any suggestions for titles you would like to have discussed, feel free to post a comment here.

We're tentatively planning to show a movie of "The Importance of Being Earnest." In that case, we'll begin the discussion an hour or so early. Check back for more details!