“sober certainty of waking bliss”

I’m here going over everything, specifically “A Masque at Ludlow Castle” right now, and my notes in the margins and in my notebook are really quite funny. I read them aloud to Madeline and Rachel today already, but they are striking me as very entertaining right now, especially out of context. Some life lessons, perhaps. Ha. Though in context they make perfect sense. Some of them.

Random Notes on Milton’s “Masque”

“…so to lose virginity is to participate in the ultimate earthy degradation”

“A healthy, blissful marriage is to be aspired to.”

“Drunkenness –> misery = arrogance and ignorance”

“Lust leads to the pollution of the soul.”

Me, to Comus, as he tries to take the Lady’s virginity: “It’s special dude, not something she can just throw away” (and yes, I actually wrote this in the margin)

And, to sum it up: “After Comus sticks her to the chair (with semen??), she never speaks again”

I actually am taking useful notes on my legal pad, I’m sorry I’m not sharing all that. Maybe in a little while I’ll post something more substantive/helpful.

Like Madeline, I am going to share my paper with you all:here it is. I wish I had a few more weeks to work on it, but as I told Dr. C before I turned it in, it is what it is.

I meant to blog yesterday, but truly I could not. I had been so intensely thinking about Milton for five days (Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday I was focused on Paradise Lost almost exclusively, everything abandoned for the sake of my presentation and paper) and once everything was done my brain was just exhausted. I’m sure you guys can relate. I could hardly even talk to anyone after class, I sort of just ignored my housemates and went to Borders to wander around for awhile. After such an intense experience (because I really think that intense is one of the only words that works here) with such a complicated, beautiful, unbelievable work (and author, might I add) it was suddenly just…over. My mind was really only capable of wandering, wondering how we had managed to pack all that into five weeks, wondering about how much I had learned a grew from this experience. Because I know I have. I’m not sure about all the ways the seminar has changed me yet, but I know eventually I will discover the little ripples of change this class, this professor and this poet have sent my way. I can predict what some of the changes will be, or even some that I can already notice. I think I am a more mature reader, a more discerning and thoughtful reader. Because Milton is so interrelated and meaningful and charged with all sorts of ideas and humor and seriousness, I know I will seek such depth from the books and poems I read in the future. I am definitely converted technologically, which excites me. I learned about delicious, blogs and blogging…and I do hope to continue this blog, not as one exclusively devoted to Milton, but about all the books I read. I hope others in class continue to blog or start a new one. The blog is something I have not really enjoyed in my English classes before, but this seminar has opened my eyes to how useful and exciting blogs can be. Well, I am about to go meet some of the class to study for the final (!!) so I will wrap this up. I want to thank everyone (Madeline, Rachel, Kim, Brittany, and Emily) in our seminar. I think we were so lucky to have such a wonderful mix of people and so very lucky to have such a small class! I’m sure I don’t think I’ve ever been in such an ideal learning environment, and I probably won’t experience it again. And finally, thank you Dr. Campbell for sharing your time, knowledge and passion with us. I know it has changed me as a student and probably a person, too. It was a great class, I only wish it had been weeks and weeks longer.