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Agnes Grey by Anne Brontë
I finished reading Agnes Grey (1847) by Anne Brontë. This is the first book she published and the only one I have read by her. The novel carried me away to Agnes’s world and I could often relate to her inner thoughts. The fictive world that Brontë builds is simple and clean, and feels bright…
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Pharsalia by Lucan, video
I just posted the first video I’ve made for The Vulgar Eclectic. Here it is:
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Pharsalia by Lucan
“No, it will be the match we always have— Liberty pitted against a Caesar“ I recently finished reading Pharsalia (written about 65 AD) by the Roman poet Lucan, translated by Jane Wilson Joyce. This is an epic in ten parts written in verse in the tradition of Homer and Virgil. Unlike those poems, however, Pharsalia…
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Carmina Achilochi: the Fragments Of Archilochos
I read this collection of poems by the Greek lyric poet Archilochus back in January of 2021 and wrote a very brief reaction: I just finished reading Carmina Archilochi: the Fragments Of Archilochos, translated by Guy Davenport. Archilochos was a 7th Century Greek poet and soldier. This book was really fun to read and felt…
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Postcard potpourri
I added a number of new postcards to the postcard pages. Some of them I picked up to mail with particular people in mind. It’s fun finding old postcards and writing a note to someone special and mailing them off.
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Snowy world
In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan,Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone;Snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow,In the bleak midwinter, long ago. -Christina Rossetti; excerpt from In the Bleak Midwinter
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Under A Lucky Star: A Lifetime Of Adventure by Roy Chapman Andrews
I read this book back in January of 2021 and wrote the following reaction afterwards: This morning I finished reading Under A Lucky Star: A Lifetime Of Adventure by Roy Chapman Andrews. It is a memoir by a man who was famous during the first half of the 20th century as a naturalist, archaeologist, and explorer. It…
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Hippopotamus
This is a fun word…just the sound of it is pleasing, and its etymology interesting. The English name for this large mammal found in the swamps, lakes, and waterways of sub-Saharan Africa comes, like several African animals, from ancient Greek. The hippo segment, ἵππος in Greek, means “horse”. Several other words in English use this…
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Inevitable
The shades drawn all dayErasing time, a circleThe elm seed in spring
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Beasts, Men, and Gods
Back near the end of 2020, I read Beasts, Men, and Gods. After finishing the last chapter, I wrote up what was to be the first of what I’m calling a “book jot” (a simple little reaction after reading a book). In an effort to include these book jots on The Vulgar Eclectic, here it…