the end of the road...

so this course was really a great highlight to my semester. while i thought i would struggle to keep up with an online course, i actually felt it was easier to do than some of my other courses! i know i had an advantage by having a passion for british literature, therefore i really did enjoy the reading and writing of the course, but i feel it would have been just as interesting of a course had i been learning all of this material for the first time. i have gained a new favorite novel through frankenstein, and got to revisit some old favorites through "goblin market" and "the rhyme of the ancient mariner". if given the choice i would gladly retake the class and hope to learn even more:)

web pages

i would like to say that i learned something new last week...how to create a webpage all on my own!! i really thought that having a group project over an internet class was going to be next to impossible, but my group is really great and totally cooperative! once i figured out my own page and played with it before its completion, i was eager beaver to help out on the final product! it helped that another member understands the linking part of the project because that is about the only part that still baffles me. hopefully she will explain it to me later so i will know! this was a fun, interesting project that didnt even feel like work...those are my favorite kinds:)

goblin market

Goblin Market, Christina Rosetti's poem based on the significance of women and their empowerment in a "man's world" always sends a multitude of emotions through me! I love the way Rosetti is able to use imagination and fear to keep the reader going. The strength of a bond between siblings will always make those who have brothers and sisters realize how important they are to us, and that even through hard times we truly do appreciate them and would do anything to ensure their safety. The fact that the sisters were still able to stay strong for each other through sickness and temptation really makes me appreciate my love for my own two sisters!

victorian period poetry

so i decided this week that poetry isnt the awful demon i always make it out to be! i enjoy almost everything from the Victorian era, and all of the required readings for the week peaked my interest! i loved the one about the merman king and its relation to religion, and the one about the duke and its comparison to the apparent aristocracy that it was loaded with was also a favorite! i am not sure if i just liked the writers more from this time or the fact that i can actually understand most of what they are talking about...

Frankenstein

while reading mary shelley's frankenstein i was just blown away! i never read it in highschool, always judging it based on what i had heard from others, about how they didnt like it, etc. well i should know by now that i tend to like what most do not, and this was exactly the case! the way shelley was able to show the deep emotions and struggles betweent he characters, balanced with the gothic and romantic symbolism of the time really grasped my attention. i dont think ive ever marked up a book so much!

pOeTrY

i am going to have to verify that no, poetry is not my favorite source of literary entertainment. while i have never claimed to be a poet nor a writer of any kind, some poetry i do enjoy picking apart...but sometimes i just like to read it for fun! especially these poems of epic proportions, such as Keat's "ode to a nightingale" and coleridge's "rhime of the ancient mariner". while the latter is one of my favorite works, i feel that some epic poems are just too long! i get so into the story and forget to look for the meaning of what i am studying. "michael" just had too much description throughout, but it turned out to be a really nice story...yet i could have done without some of the 400 descriptions of the hills. i do have one favorite "epic" poem that i can suggest with total bias because i just think she is an awesome writer/poet whom i studied in my sophomore brit lit class; the poem is called "goblin market" and was written by christina rossetti in the 1860's (i think you can find the full version on wikipedia or google). it was intended to be a bedtime story for children, but some say it may be more of an appropriate bedtime read for adults...

Week #1

Well, so far I have successfully learned how to start my own blog and become apart of about a million other different websites, but nothing much else! I have already read the novels required for this course, but am really looking forward to the short readings! Have a great Spring Break everyone!