We’ve been looking at the theme of isolation and identity in poetry. Thought you might want to review the poems we’ve been reading in class, so here they are (and a few we will get to), in no particular order:

• “We Wear the Mask” by Paul Lawrence Dunbar (1913)¹
• “Sympathy” by Paul Laurence Dunbar
• “Not Waving But Drowning” by Stevie Smith (1957)
• “Ozymandias” by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1875)
• “If” by Rudyard Kipling
• “Viva la Vida” by Coldplay (2009)
• “I am a Rock” by Simon & Garfunkel (1965)²
• “Eleanor Rigby” by The Beatles (1966)
• “Self-Dependence” by Matthew Arnold (1852)
• “Warning to Children” by Robert Graves
• “Do not go gentle into that good night” by Dylan Thomas (1952) (With audio!)

I asked you to read and journal over “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by T.S. Eliot, which you can find here. It is a complicated poem, so don’t worry if you have more questions than answers at this point³—I don’t expect a dissertation, just a record of your initial reaction and questions, lots of questions.

If you come across (or know of) any other poems we should read, post a link in the comments or bring a copy to class.

1. Yep, he’s American, but these are important poems. [↩]
2. Can’t find a clean link—search if you’d like. [↩]
3. And here I use an emdash to set off a parenthetical elaboration… [↩]

…some of my favorite sites, by category. Enjoy, and make suggestions in the comments.¹

News

• Time isn’t my favorite news source, but the photography is always amazing.
• Google’s Interesting Reads²
• New York Times: Front Page The NYT has lots of feeds, so you can choose what you’re interested in.
• The New Yorker.  I subscribe to all feeds.  But then, I’m addicted to this.
• NYT: Magazine
• NPR.org breaks up the site sections into different feeds, which can be found here.  After you sign up with an RSS reader, click on the RSS button next to the section you’re interested in.  I’m subscribed to Top Stories, All Things Considered, World Cafe, Morning Edition, Topics: Music, and of course, Education.

Opinion

• Arts & Letters Daily—Brilliant site bringing together articles from all over the Interwebs. Mostly scholarly; all well written.
• In These Times—Began as an “Independent Socialist Newspaper,” but is primarily progressive (left of center) in it’s leanings today. Kurt Vonnegut was a frequent contributor until 2005.
• Slate.com—Online-only news magazine. Gotta love the Explainer.
• The New Republic is always a good source for opinion articles.  It’s a bit liberal, but always creates solid discussions.
• Bad Idea—A British magazine that publishes “young journalism.” Definitely worth checking out, as it brings a fresh face to opinion and editorials. Check out the Butcher’s Shop for an overview of the editing process articles go through before publication.
• AdBusters—Popular amongst my students for the past two years. Worth checking out.
• National Review—Very well-written conservative magazine.
• Popmatters—Articles on popular culture; music, video games, books, television, and movies are all topics. Great place to find an article and a new favorite band.
• The Urban Tulsa Weekly is my favorite source for local entertainment and opinion articles.  The Most Recently Posted feed delivers all content for your perusing pleasure.

Stuff to Make

• DudeCraft
• Wunderkammer
• Instructables
• Make
• Afrigadget
• Typographica
• I Love Typography

Wasting Time

Probably not a good idea to add any of these…

• The Art of Manliness
• Atlas Obscura
• BibliOdyssey
• Neatorama

1. I was going to organize these into “Relevant to School” and “Not,” but they all seemed relevant in one way or another. [↩]
2. Not exactly sure how this works, but I think there’s an algorithm that finds news links that are often shared/read. [↩]

Hope you had a great first day as upperclassmen.

This blog will be my primary means of disseminating information outside of the classroom. As I state in the syllabus: if you have a question, check here first. If you don’t find an answer, send me an email or post a comment. If it’s a quick question or urgent, the little box in the bottom corner is a direct link to me.

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