A Red, Red Rose by Robert Burns

A Red, Red Rose
courtesy of Scott Branson (Flickr)
Creative Commons

A Red, Red Rose by Robert Burns  (1794)

My love is like a red, red rose

That’s newly sprung in June :

My love is like the melody

That’s sweetly played in tune.

As fair art thou, my bonnie lass,

So deep in love am I :

And I will love thee still, my dear,

Till a’ the seas gang dry.

Till a’ the seas gang dry, my dear,

And the rocks melt wi’ the sun :

And I will love thee still, my dear,

While the sands o’ life shall run.

And fare thee weel, my only love,

And fare thee weel a while !

And I will come again, my love,

Thou’ it were ten thousand mile.

Robert Burns Portrait (1787)
by Alexander Naysmith
source Wikipedia

This is my first choice for the Deal Me In Challenge.  It is a poem put to song based on a familiar song that Burns had heard.  It's structured in four quatrains (four-line stanzas).  Using similes and hyperbole, the writer expresses his great love for a fair, "bonnie lass" and the poem's repetition enforces his feelings.  Initially he likens his love to a rose, a melody, and then declares the endurance of that love.  At the end of the poem it seems the writer has to go away for awhile, which is perhaps why he has written the poem. so that his sweetheart will know the strength of his feelings and of his constancy.

So far my favourite Burns poem is To A Mouse, but I really appreciate the straight-forward honesty of this one.  I'm so used to little teasings and wittiness from Burns, but this poem is quite delightful!

And for Marianne, here is the poem put to music (the poem begins at about 0:40, for those who don't like long introductions):

Deal Me In Challenge - Queen of Diamonds #1

Montaigne's Essays - Part Two

Oh, Montaigne!  The more of his essays that I read, the more I like him.  He's inquisitive, does not let anything get in the way of giving his opinion on absolutely any subject, has a clever but disordered mind, and because of the last point, really makes you engage your brain as you read.  I would have loved to meet him in real life, but, I get the impression that we'd probably have occasionally annoyed each other.  

Some of the readings for this section were:

On The Vanity of Words:  After reading Montaigne's essay On Education, I suppose this attack on rhetoricians can't come as much of a surprise.  To be eloquent is to foster a type of deception, and Montaigne is scathing in his condemnation of it.

Cicero & the magistrates disovering the
tomb of Archimedes
Benjamin West
source Wikiart

On the Inconsistancy of Our Actions:  This one is very interesting. Montaigne laments the inconsistency of men, stating that instead of following a path to wisdom throughout their lives, they are ruled solely by their appetites, living for the here-and-now and are merely motivated by opportunity, very much like animals. They blow with the winds.  He gives various examples on inconstancy, leading us to believe that consistency as Montaigne defines it, is virtually impossible.  One must plan one's life to the utmost and follow the course, not being swayed by emotions or outside forces to be consistent and, as Cicero says, "For nothing can be consistent that has not reason for its foundation."  Therefore, in Montaigne's eyes, everyone is lacking true reason.  This is one of the few essays that I've read so far where Montaigne actually managed to keep on track with his subject.  Bravo!  This is certainly one of my favourites.


On Conscience:  Even if one finds pleasure in their vices, their conscience will always convict them, says Montaigne.  With one of his usual unexpected leaps of thought, he discusses the futility of torture, labelling it a means of testing endurance rather than a means to ferret out truth.  He uses some fun examples in this one, my favourite being Scipio tearing up his account books before the court when accused of dishonesty with regard to the money entrusted to him.  According to Montaigne, his actions declared him an honest man because his big heart could not bear to be accused of such a vulgar crime. Perhaps one should be grateful that Montaigne did not choose to be a judge as his profession.

Portrait d'un homme portant un exemplaire des
Essais de Montaigne
Johann Anton de Peters
source Wikiart

On Rewards for Honour:  Basically I understood that Montaigne feels that rewards should not be given out too liberally or their value is decreased. He'd rather not give out rewards at all, than have too many people get them.  Not a very modern viewpoint, Montaigne, when we presently strive to give everyone a reward for anything.  I tend to side here with Montaigne.

On Books:  Montaigne employs a coyness in this essay, stating that he reads books for pleasure only and has little desire to truly exercise his brain.  His goals in reading are to learn to know himself, and to learn to live and die well. His self-deprecation is quite startling as he confesses to having little knowledge and once again admits to having a poor memory.  Elaborating on his poor memory, he ends by giving a number of examples of literary criticism (not his title for it) that he has written at the ends of books, so if he picks them up again, he is able to ascertain why he liked them or not, and if he would read them again.

On Presumption:  It is not good to think too highly of ourselves, nor is it beneficial to think of ourselves worse than we are.  Montaigne advocates for balance and a practical self-knowledge.  Yet Man has such a variety of differing opinions, there is a "maze of obscurity" which makes the school of Wisdom uncertain, and this gets on Montaigne's nerves.  He then meanders through a lovely forest of subjects, from self-deprecating statements to mediocre poetry to appearances of famous men, etc., finally ending with his disdain for modern education, in that it teaches learning instead of wisdom and goodness.

" It seems to me that the nursing mother of the most erroneous ideas, both of men in general and of the individual, is the exaggerated opinion man has of himself."

On Giving the Lie:  Montaigne indulges in more modesty (false-modesty?) and finally gets to the title of the essay, lamenting that lying has been turned into a virtue by modern society.  He strongly condemns it:

"Lying is an ugly vice, which is painted in its most shameful colours by an ancient writer (Lysander) when he says that 'to lie is evidence that we despise God and at the same time fear men.'"

To be honest, I feel that Montaigne could have benefited highly from the type of education that he despised, however, then he wouldn't have been Montaigne and only another highly intellectual rhetorician with the same habits as all other rhetoricians.  And our Montaigne is unique, that is certain!  Not always simple to follow, but unique!

The Essays of Montaigne - Introduction

Montaigne's Essays - Part One
Montaigne's Essays - Part Three

Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow by Jerome K. Jerome

"It is a most remarkable thing.  I sat down with the full intention of writing something clever and original; but for the life of me I can't think of anything clever and original -- at least -- not at this moment."

Jerome K. Jerome is an author best known for his comic travelogue, Three Men in a Boat, which I highly recommend as it is totally hilarious. Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow is a collection of essays; written with Jerome's signature witty reparteé and lively humour, the essays are titled:

1. On Being Hard Up
2. On Being in the Blue
3. On Vanity and Vanities
4. On Getting On in the World
5. On Being Idle
6. On Being In Love
7. On the Weather
8. On Cats and Dogs
9. On Being Shy
10. On Babies
11. On Eating and Drinking
12. On Furnished Apartments
13. On Dress and Deportment
14. On Memory

Yet while Jerome's anecdotes are amusing and give the reader a good chuckle, he also imparts wisdom to his writing.  In On Vanity and Being Vain, he, at first, pokes fun at the vanity of all men, but concludes that we all must be vain in the right manner.

"Let us be vain, not of our trousers and hair, but of brave hearts and working hands, of truth , of purity, of nobility.  Let us be too vain to stoop to aught that is mean or base, too vain for petty selfishness and little-minded envy, too vain to say an unkind world or do an unkind act.  Let us be vain of being single-hearted, upright gentlemen in the midst of a world of knaves.  Let us pride ourselves upon thinking high thoughts, achieving great deeds, living good lives."

First Edition, 1886

Jerome also uses wonderfully descriptive sentences, that weave a vibrant and idyllic world around the reader:

"And oh, how dainty is spring ---- Nature at sweet eighteen!  When the little, hopeful leaves peep out so fresh and green, so pure and bright, like young lives pushing shyly out into the bustling world; when the fruittree blossoms, pink and white, like village maidens in the Sunday frocks, hide each whitewashed cottage in a cloud of fragile splendor; and the cuckoo's note upon the breeze is wafted through the woods!  And summer, with its deep, dark green, and drowsy hum --- when the rain-drops whisper solemn secrets to the listening leaves, and the twilight lingers in the lanes! ...."

And, of course, one can't say enough of his humour:

"But that's just the way.  I never do get particularly fond of anything in this world, but what something dreadful happens to it.  I had a tame rat when I was a boy, and I loved that animal as only a boy would love an old water rat; and, one day, it fell into a large dish of gooseberry-fool that was standing to cool in the kitchen, and nobody knew what become of the poor creature until the second helping."

If you want a book to make you feel good, read a book by Jerome K. Jerome. His writing is refreshing, light, profound, humorous, beautiful, timeless and educational, all at the same time.  And you won't stop laughing!

Deal Me In Challenge List 2015

Happy New Year all!  My first post for the year is a list of Short Stories, Essays, Poems and Children's Books for my 2015 Deal Me In Challenge.

THE LIST:

Clubs – Short Stories

A –  Cabbages and Kings - O’Henry

2 – The Runaway - Chekhov

3 –  Doctor Marigold - Dickens

4 – Le Horla – de Maupassant

5 – The Tell-Tale Heart - Poe

6 – The Princess - Chekhov

7 – Father Brown: the Worst Crime in the World- Chesterton

8 – A Little Woman - Kafka

9 –  A Haunted House - Woolf

10 – The Birds - Chekhov

J –  The Yellow Wallpaper - Gilman

Q – The Eyes - Wharton

K -   Signs and Symbols - Nabakov

Spades – Essays

A – Milton - Williams

2 – Friendship - Emerson

3 – A Midsummer Night’s Dream - Chesterton

4 – Christianity and the Survival of Creation- Berry

5 – A Panegyric for Dorothy L. Sayers - Lewis

6 – Hamlet : The Prince or the Poem - Lewis

7 –  Monsters and the Middle Ages - Chesterton

8 – The World of Tomorrow – E.B. White

9 – Discipline and Hope, Means as Ends - Berry

10 – Sense - Lewis

J – Sex, Economy, Freedom & Community - Berry

Q – Different Tastes in Literature - Lewis

K – Vulgarity - Chesterton

Diamonds – Poetry

A – Ode to a Nightengale - Keats

2 –  Gesang Der Geister Über Den Wassern - Goethe

3 – The Morning of Life - Hugo

4 – Sonnet XXIX – de la Vega

5 – A Lover’s Complaint - Shakespeare

6 – Resolution and Independence – Wordsworth

7 – Ode VIII: Quiet Night – de León

8 – Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night - Thomas

9 – Ode to a Grecian Urn - Keats

10 – Tears, Idle Tears - Tennyson

J – Song II:  The Dark Night – de la Cruz

Q – A Red, Red Rose - Burns

K – Phoenix and the Turtle - Shakespeare

Hearts – Children’s Classic

A – The Forgotten Daughter - Snedeker

2 – Three Greek Children - Church

3 – The Mysterious Benedict Society - Stewart

4 – The Ides of April – Ray (1)

5 – Journey from Peppermint Street - deJong

6 – The Tanglewood’s Secret – St. John

7 – The Wolves of Willoughy Chase - Aiken

8 – The Cabin Faced West - Fritz

9 – Sprig of Broom - Willard

10 – Teddy’s Button - LeFeuvre

J – The Book of Three – Alexander

Q – Tales from Chaucer - Farjeon

K – Beyond the Desert Gate – Ray (2)

Deal Me In Challenge 2015

Okay, only one more challenge ....... really ..........!  Jay at Bibliophilica is having his yearly Deal Me In challenge and it looks like such fun, I couldn't resist.  I've been watching Dale @ Mirror With Clouds participate all last year, and Marianne gave me an idea with a twist for it that should work wonderfully!

The rules are:

What is the goal of the project?

To read 52 short stories in 2015 (that’s only one per week)

What do I need?

1) Access to at least fifty-two short stories (don’t own any short story collections or anthologies? See links to online resources below)
2) A deck of cards
3) An average of perhaps just thirty minutes of reading time each week

Where do I post* about my stories?

(*You don’t have to post about every single story, of course, but if you have something to say about the story you read any given week, your fellow participants would love to hear it.)

1) On your own blog or website if you have one (I will link to your post at the bottom of my weekly post. I currently plan to do my weekly post on Sundays)

2) if you don’t have a blog or website you may comment on my weekly post, sharing thoughts on your own story – or start one at WordPress or blogspot – it’s easy and free to create a basic blog.

How do I pick which stories to read?

(The 52 stories themselves are totally up to you.) Before you get start reading, come up with a roster of fifty-two stories (you can use any source) and assign each one to a playing card in a standard deck of cards. It can be fun to use different suits for different types of stories, but that is optional. Each “week,” (if you’re like me, you may occasionally fall a story or two behind) you draw a card at random from your deck and that is the story you will read. There are links to last year’s participants’ rosters here if you want to see some examples.

What if I don’t have time to read a story every single week?

Try one of the challenge variations noted below, the Fortnight (or “payday” if you prefer) version is one story every two weeks or the “Full Moon Fever” version with just thirteen stories read or selected on seeing each full moon…

How do I sign up?

Leave a comment below with your URL and I will link you. My first wrap-up post of the year (I post weekly, usually Sunday night or Monday morning) will include links to any new Deal Me In posts and a list of the participants with links to their roster of stories.

What is the purpose?

To have FUN and to be exposed to new authors and stories and maybe get in the habit of reading a short story a week. Isn’t that enough? :-)

Now I've decided to follow Marianne's lead and adjust the challenge to work for my reading plans for the year.  Part of my plan for 2015 was to try to read more children's classics, essays and poems for the year, so instead of reading all short stories, I'm going to split it into four categories:  Short Stories, Essays, Poems and Children's Classics.  

I'm really looking forward to this challenge.  In the next day or so, I'll post my list of titles corresponding to the playing card deck.  I'm not promising I'll be able to read all 52 of them, but I'll certainly do my best!

List of Deal Me In Challenge Book Titles

The End of 2014 ....... Bookish Nostalgia

I saw Jamie's 2014 end of the year book survey on her blog The Perpetual Page-Turner and thought it also covered the 52 Books in 52 Weeks wrap-up survey as well, so I decided to kill two birds with one stone, so to speak.

2014 Reading Stats:

Number Of Books You Read: 70

Number of Re-Reads: 19 

Genre You Read The Most From: Classics

Best in Books

Best book you read in 2014: Paradise Lost.

Book you were excited about & thought you were going to love more but didn't: Once and Future King.  It was just weird.  Until I read Le Morte d'Arthur at the end of the year and kind of understood why it was weird.

Most surprising (in a good or bad way) book you read in 2014: Probably The Life of St. Teresa of Avila by Herself.  I was expecting to like it but it nearly put me to sleep.  I love the lives of saints but not this one.  At least not yet.  I haven't given up on her.

Book you "pushed" the most people to read (and they did) in 2014:   I'm not sure if I have a specific book, put I probably had an influence on more people reading or intending to read Shakespeare. (Nancy and O, is that true?)

Best series you started in 2014? Best Sequel? Best Series Ender:  I re-read The Chronicles of Narnia and loved it.  I'd probably lost a little of the childgood thrill, but I picked up some of the adult references to Plato, Pascal, etc.  Lewis sure packs his works with allusions.  Fun!

Favorite new author you discovered in 2014: Anthony Trollope.  Yay!

Best book from a genre you don't typically read/ out of your comfort zone:  Cicero's Defence Speeches.  I love Romans but, seriously, court cases?!  Yet I loved reading it!  Go figure ....

Most action-packed/thrilling/unputdownable book of the year: The Man Who was Thursday.  What a romp!

Book you read in 2014 that you are most likley to reread next year: None, but I will probably carry on with Dante's The Divine Comedy.  I read Inferno this year, so Purgatorio and Paradiso are up next.

Favorite cover of a book you read in 2014: Utopia by Thomas More.

Most memorable characters of 2014:  Satan (Paradise Lost), Rev. Septimus Harding (The Warden), Prince Myshkin (The Idiot) Sunday (The Man Who Was Thursday) & Odysseus (The Odyssey)

Most beautifully written book read in 2014: Strange, but Richard II.  I believe this is Shakespeare's only play that is written all in verse and it was beautiful.  Othewise Paradise Lost certainly had its moments.

Most-thought provoking/ life-changing book of 2014: The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis

Book you can't believe you waited UNTIL 2014 to finally read: Paradise Lost

Favorite passage/quote from a book you read in 2014: "The logic of worldly success rests on a fallacy:  the strange error that our perfection depends on the thoughts and opinions and applause of other men!  A weird life it is, indeed, to be living always in someone else's imagination, as if that were the only place in which one could at last become real!"  ~~ Thomas Merton

Shortest/longest book you read in 2014: The Chimes by Charles Dickens (100 p.) & War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy (1392 p.) (although Le Morte d'Arthur [950 p.] felt the longest)

Book that shocked you the most: Le Morte d'Arthur.  Those knights were loose cannons, not necessarily consistently honourable.  Phinnea's emblem for them ---- idiots rampant on a blood red field ---- pretty much sums it up.  But thanks to Jean's read-along, I finished it!

OTP of the year: Oh definitely Dante and Beatrice!

Favorite non-romantic relationship: The old man and the fish from The Old Man and the Sea.

Favorite book you read in 2014 from an author you've read previously: The Odyssey by Homer

Best book you read in 2014 that you read based solely on a recommendation from someone else: The Vita Nuova by Dante Alighieri

Newest fictional crush from a book you read in 2014:  I never crush ...... or I never tell ..... ;-)

Best 2014 debut you read: Yikes, I don't read debuts.  Perhaps I should start.

Best world-building/most vivid setting you read this year: Richard II by William Shakespeare.  His only play written in verse, and Richard's "little pin" speech was a discovery to label a favourite!

Book that put a smile on your face/was the most fun to read: Idle Thoughts from an Idle Fellow by Jerome K. Jerome took over top spot from The Warden by Anthony Trollope.  Trollope nails human nature and especially human foibles; Jerome does the same but is completely hilarious!  Fun!

Book that made you cry or nearly cry in 2014: Le Morte d'Arthur.  It takes awhile to get attached to the characters and then you do and then they all die.  Waaaa!  :-(

Hidden gem of the year: Vita Nuova by Dante Alighieri.  His love for Beatrice was quite amazing!

Most unique book you read in 2014: War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy.  As Tolstoy said, it was not a novel, less a poem and even less an historical chronicle.  So what was it?  I only know that it was excellent!

Book that made you the most mad: Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë.  I wanted to smack most of the characters.  

Your Blogging/Bookish Life

New favorite book blog you discovered in 2014:  Mockingbirds, Looking Glasses and Prejudices .....

Favorite review that you wrote in 2014: War and Peace ~ it took the most brain-power. 

Best discussion/non-review post you had on your blog: Ooo, I don't know.  Perhaps The Classics Club "50" Survey.

Best event that you participated in: The Paradise Lost Read-Along.

Best moment of bookish/blogging life in 2014:  Meeting new bloggers.

Most popular post this year on your blog: My Oedipus at Colonus post.  I am completely puzzled as to why.  Not that I don't like it, but it has been getting 5 - 10 hits per day lately.  Perhaps some class is doing a study on it ....?????

Post you wished got a little more love:  Hmmmm ...... I'm not sure.  Perhaps any of my posts that are reviewing more intellectual books, or my ones on poems ......??  But people are drawn to what they're interested in, and our interests are always changing, so honestly I don't have a specific answer to this question.  

Best bookish discovery: Easton's Books, and The Tattered Page looks great too.

Did you complete any reading challenges or goals that you had set for yourself at the beginning of this year: I completed Back to the Classics Challenge, The Pre-Printing Press Challenge, The Shakespeare Challenge, Mount TBR Challenge, 52 Books in 52 Weeks, Arthurian Literature Challenge, Russian Literature Challenge, History Challenge, Chunkster Challenge, Books on France Challenge and Around the World Challenge.  I failed at TBR Pile Challenge, reading only 10 of the 12 books I should have and was one book short for the European Reading Challenge.

Looking Ahead

One book you didn't get to in 2014 but will be your number 1 priority in 2015: Bleak House by Charles Dickens

Book you are most anticipating for 2015 (non-debut): The Cantebury Tales by Chaucer

2015 debut you are most anticipating: I don't do debuts.  I'm so uneducated when it comes to modern books that I have to be the recommendeé, not the recommender.  But perhaps something by Edna Ferrante.  Given that I haven't read anything by her yet, that's a BIG "perhaps".

Series ending/a sequel you are most anticipating in 2015: The Last Chronicles of Barset by Anthony Trollope

One thing you hope to accomplish or do in your reading/blogging life in 2015: Keep up with my books!  Keep up with my posts!  It's not as easy as it sounds.

A 2015 release you've already read and recommend to everyone: None. 

Wishing everyone happy reading days and lots of them in 2015!!

2014 Russian Literature Challenge Wrap Up

This was one of my favourite challenges this year.  It pushed me to focus on all things Russian and helped me finish that epic Russian novel, War and Peace. It also introduced me to my first Dostoyevsky and my first Turgenev. Dostoyevsky is going to take more getting to know, but Turgenev was a delight ....... very different from what I expected of a usual Russian novel.

I had aimed at finishing 1 - 3 books but I ended up reading 5, so I'm pleased with myself. Here are the books I read:

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

Eugene Onegin by Alexander Pushkin

Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak

The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev

Thanks to O at Behold the Stars for hosting this challenge!  I am now firmly entrench in a love of Russian Literature!