Blog Topics Emerging from Week 8 and earlier….
Take the first line of any one of Yeats’ poems that has touched your imagination and write a poem of your own based around the theme of Yeats’ poem. This is a wonderful way of developing your own writing ability and was often recommended as the best way of learning how to find your own poetic voice!
Do any of Yeats’ poems connect with your own personal experience? Select one of Yeats’ poems ( or a section thereof) and discuss how the poem connects with your own understanding of the world in which we live.
Virginia Woolf seems to be intent on showing us that our way of behaving and thinking is both random and pre-determined. Do you think this is a fair assessment of what she is trying to show in her writing?
Virginia Woolf believes in the power of the imagination to liberate human beings from the shackles of their enslavement. Do you have a comment on this statement?
Write a poem or prose paragraph in a style that is rather like Virginia Woolf illustrating and ordinary mind (perhaps your mind) on an ordinary day.
Please remember that you can create your own blog topic on any subject that links with what we have been doing in the last few weeks. It is always good to weave your own personal experience into your blogs.
Michael Griffith: Home Page- Literature and Life Summer 2023 
Into the air and into the fountain I threw
A shilling, as I think of your eyes, so blue
A farthing when I contemplated your hair
and wondered if you would still be there
oh coin. Am I ready for love?
A toss and a cry to God above
resolute I am ready, I am sure
But now I march off to war
Will you wait for me my love
Will you wait for my return
or will your hand give me a shove
and my face you learn to spurn?
guess I will just have to wait and see.
I was thinking of “The Young Man” as I wrote this in response. The Young Man was written in 1916 when surely many a young man at that time were marching off to war, wondering if they will ever come home.
Virginia Woolf certainly did try to emulate everyday life when she wrote Mrs Dalloway, but also tried to understand the inner voices which she had by writing the inner dialogue, especially with the short story… was it called ” Spot on the wall”? “The Waves” also emulated life for young people as they grew and decided they liked different aspects of life. I think the shackles she tries to free us from is everything that is stereotypical. She was always trying to “buck the trend”, to “go against the flow”, to use cliches. She is telling you, no matter who or what you are… That is ok. It only took us 50 or so years after her death to say… Hmm maybe she had a point there.
sorry Michael, just had to reply. You know how passionate I am about poetry and gay theorists like Virginia Woolf.