Thursday, June 07, 2007

when is not all the time

I just decided to do my English last paper on a topic that would allow me to deviate and make my academic career go full circle. I'm going to touch on Romantic poetry (which I studied most in 12th grade) , and modernism (which I have always liked). I came across this gem from a paper I wrote four years ago that I was always so proud of: He suggests that despair is temporary in the line “but when the melancholy fit shall fall” (223) with the use of the word “when,” because when is not all the time. This is the kind of line that reporters would sometimes turn in (you know, when I used to edit at the newspaper), and the whole office would laugh about it and repeat it before I would finally delete it.

I'm rather embarrassed. This is precisely the reason why I generally refuse to read my articles after they've been published -- especially the ones that sit collecting dust in big red memory books -- they may remain clearly good in my mind, but my refined eye won't be able to read them now without cringing.

1 comment:

Kurt Rice said...

Cringe often and with pleasure. A good cringe tells you where you are now by reminding you where you have been.