she [y]eats the apple.

In Modern Poetry, we're a-reading some Yeats.

Coincidentally, my brother is reading Yeats in his Irish Literature class. Brother dear dislikes Yeats dear immensely. But I'm kind of in love with Yeats.

I hadn't read any of his poems before. Literally, nothing. My poetry reading is pretty strictly limited to school assignments and a passionate, unrequited love of Auden, Eliot and Heaney.

But in Modern Poetry, I've fallen in love with Yeats.

The Lake Isle of Innisfree

I WILL arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made;
Nine bean rows will I have there, a hive for the honey bee,
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.
And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,	5
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;
There midnight's all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet's wings.
I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;	10
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements gray,
I hear it in the deep heart's core.

I really love how the images of community "hive for the honey bee" and "on the roadway" are contrasted with the idea of escaping to a world of solitude.

A Tale of Two Majors—English and Classical Languages

When asked what he looks for in a woman by the Proust Questionnaire at the back of Vanity Fair, Garrison Keillor said

High-spiritedness, wit, a love of repartee and wordplay and allusion and jokes—in other words,

an English major.

Well put, Mr. Keillor, who I actually had the oppurtunity to meet and chat with about golfcarts* at the Decatur Writing Festival this fall. And English Major [plus Classics] I will be. But here goes the rest of my academic plans that all point towards...becoming an academic.

Next semester I am planning on taking the following schedule (I'm registering in a week or so I believe)

Monday-Wednesday-Friday

Eng 322, The Woman Question in Victorian literature with [babuhdabum] Professor Cozzens! I've been waiting so long to have a class with her! My mom had her when she was at Agnes Scott for the M.A.T. program and I work with a lot of her current students in the Writing Center.

Lat 202, Intermediate Second Semester with Professor Jim Abbot!‡ I had Abbot this semester for History of Greek Civilization and I love him. This is the guy who makes me want to double major. I've never seen anyone get so excited by a 1/30th of a pediment.

Ant 101, I'm taking this in preparation for MOROCCO. [see next blog post] Plus it fulfills two graduation requirements. whoa. This class only meets on MW

Rel 232, Tibet in Film and Literature with Professor Zablocki. So everyone knows I love China. But the only country I love more than China, culturally, is Tibet! We just had a group of Tibetan monks on campus doing a sand painting. And it was very moving. Plus I love disenfranchised people. Could the Dalai Lama get cuter? And this class only meets twice a week from 5:30 to 8:30 on Mondays and 5:30-6:30 on Wednesday.

Tuesday-Thursday

CLL 212, Greek and Roman Heroes with Professor MacEwan, and I will have gotten the flush of Classics Professors! This is my only class on Tuesday-Thursday.

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*Why is this my default topic of conversation? I love golfcarts and I love Peachtree City. I suppose it was appropriate to mention to Mr. Keillor the quirk of my small-town life. But golfcarts? C'mon Emma, this guy is one of your favorite Apples to Apples† cards

†A favorite game among Kearneys. I hope to meet someday my other favorite living Apples to Apples card—Sean Connery. Our other automatic win card is Carl Sagan. But unfortunately the Great One has passed on.

‡ I like to exclaim a lot. Especially about English and Latin!