Adventures in Ethics and Science

Signs of the times.

Posted by Janet D. Stemwedel on October 27, 2009
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The times in question being, in this case, the last days of October.

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Once upon a Tuesday morning, while I wandered, cold and yawning,
Up the grimy stair steps winding skyward toward my office door,
On the wall’s bile-greenish surface, noticed I a note whose purpose
Took more consciousness to process than I’d had the step before.
“English majors strike,” I murmured, “with tactics I’ve not seen before,
Reciting Poe and nothing more.”

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Folks on campus today may find themselves caught in the middle of insurgent Poe recitations. It’s likely that “The Raven” will claim the most victims, but I’ll also be on the lookout for “Annabel Lee”.

The ringleaders have called on the Poe reciters not to disrupt classes, but we all know that poetry sometimes gets out of hand.

We’ll see if the poetic guerrillas are in evidence when I go out on my quest for another concomitant of late October on this campus — sugar skulls.

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Comments

  1. #1 jennifer Ouellette
    October 27, 2009

    What an awesome idea! Random impromptu poetry slams. Oh the possibilities!

  2. #2 Pat Cahalan
    October 27, 2009

    When I was a freshman in high school, a most formidable English teacher by the name of Fr. McFadden used to terrorize his students quite thoroughly.

    One of his punishments for failure to grasp basic grammar (repeatedly) or misbehavior was to recite, by memory, various works of poetry or prose. If you couldn’t get it right, you had to try again tomorrow.

    Repeated exposure has rendered “The Raven” as a permanent member of my long term memory banks.

  3. #3 tcmJOE
    October 27, 2009

    Awesome!

  4. #4 David
    October 27, 2009

    the tintinnabulation that so musically wells. From the bells, bells, bells.

    much more fun.

  5. #5 ARJ
    October 29, 2009

    I think some Mary Oliver would be a little less in-your-face… (but I do love “The Raven”)

  6. #6 Eric
    November 6, 2009

    I would probably go for The Conqueror Worm, myself, but to each his own.