[COMPLETE] Milton's Minor Poems - availle

[chymocles]

Thanks, Betty. I've fixed these now.

I see that the next poem is one that caused me to lose a good student early in the course, and that disaster caused me to redesign the course so as never to lose another. Well, here goes. Okay, that is now uploaded too: https://librivox.org/uploads/availle/minorpoems_20_milton_128kb.mp3.

Tom

[Availle]

...the next poem is one that caused me to lose a good student early in the course...

Now that sounds like an interesting story! If you want to tell it, I'm all ears - and Betty too, I'm sure.

[libraryanne]

Hi,
Section 19, "Comus" is now all set.

Section 20 might have a little glitch:

At 2:14 I think I heard “thee” in

"Yet can I not perswade me thou art dead.."


And I was thinking the same as Ava, was some poor student scared off one of your courses?


Betty

[chymocles]

I fixed it. Thanks. The story, by the way, is about a non-traditional student, a very smart and apparently rather rich woman who was a member of the best freshman writing class I ever taught. She was not present at the final exam, so I called her house. The maid (!) answered and said that she could not be disturbed because she was studying "for her English final exam." I pointed out that the exam had already begun, and the student arrived an hour late. After passing the course with an A (a foregone conclusion), she signed up for my senior-level course in Milton. In those days I had arranged the material as it had been arranged for me when I was in college: chronologically so that the class would follow the poet's growth in his craft. Unfortunately, this approach left his greatest works for last, and this uncommonly intelligent student felt that her time was being wasted on juvenilia. I had to agree, and I never even included this poem again, starting instead with the crucial books of Paradise Lost, moving then to the minor poems, and ending with Paradise Lost as a whole. The review of the books already read made this climax to the course both easier and more fun that it would have been, and beginning with the best guaranteed that the only ones who dropped the course would be those who found it too difficult.

[libraryanne]

Section 20 is good to go now.

That was an interesting story. Luckily for me, I can listen to (or listen again to) the literature and poetry I like without worrying about exams anymore.

Betty

[chymocles]

Moving right along!

"At a Vacation Exercise" has been uploaded. Milton, known as "The Lady of Christ's [College]," was 18 when he delivered this with his classmates, including (one supposes) a boy named Rivers.

By the way, Availle, would you kindly reserve the cover art for me? I never have quite mastered the way of claiming it for myself, and I especially want to use the youthful portrait of Milton which, after his death, his third wife claimed still looked like him.

https://librivox.org/uploads/availle/minorpoems_21_milton_128kb.mp3

Tom

[Availle]

Thank you Tom for telling your story! I guess both approaches to teaching this kind of materials have merits, but I'm glad you took your student's hint. Nothing worse than a lecture where you can't see the point...

I have claimed the cover for you. Technically, you cannot put in the claim yourself, so you either ask your MC or you ask Anne over in the covers thread. I'm looking forward to seeing what you'll come up with!

[libraryanne]

Moving right along!

"At a Vacation Exercise" has been uploaded. Milton, known as "The Lady of Christ's [College]," was 18 when he delivered this with his classmates, including (one supposes) a boy named Rivers.

..........

https://librivox.org/uploads/availle/minorpoems_21_milton_128kb.mp3

Tom

Maybe it's right under my nose but I can't find this poem in the link you provided. help?

Betty

[chymocles]

The problem may be that the text itself is hard to find because its title has not been enlarged and bold-faced. The editor has repaired all the text you have finished, but now we are entering a section I have not told him about. Here is the beginning of the poem, which you can find with the search function:

• Anno Aetatis 19. At a Vacation Exercise in the Colledge, part
  Latin, part English. The Latin speeches ended, the English thus
  began.
  HAIL native Language, that by sinews weak
  Didst move my first endeavouring tongue to speak,
  And mad'st imperfect words with childish tripps,
  Half unpronounc't, slide through my infant-lipps,
  Driving dum silence from the portal dore,
  Where he had mutely sate two years before:
  Here I salute thee and thy pardon ask,
  That now I use thee in my latter task:
  Small loss it is that thence can come unto thee,
  I know my tongue but little Grace can do thee: 10
  Thou needst not be ambitious to be first,
  Believe me I have thither packt the worst:
  And, if it happen as I did forecast,
  The daintest dishes shall be serv'd up last.

Now, if it is the recording that is giving trouble, not the text, I don't know what to say. The link https://librivox.org/uploads/availle/minorpoems_21_milton_128kb.mp3 is correct.

Tom

[libraryanne]

Thanks,I found the text, and it was practically right under my nose...

Moving on section 21 is PL OK.


Betty

[chymocles]

[chymocles]

The psalm paraphrases contain a number of significant variants from modern editions, some of which I am sure are errors in scanning, but some may be errors in the edition itself. To resolve doubts, we must ask David Widger to return to the text and compare it with the online version. I do not like to ask him to do this again so soon after he obliged me by checking the part you have already proofed, so I am going to plunge forward, making notes of the questionable parts, and when I have completed the project I will send Widger my queries in a single message, and once he has told me that his checking has been completed, I will return to those sections and adjust them, if necessary, to the text as corrected. This will necessitate putting the project on hold as far as you are concerned, Betty. I'll be in touch.

Tom

[libraryanne]

Tom,
I've had computer problems and I have to buy and a new computer, have it installed etc and I have no idea how long that will take, maybe a couple of weeks. I'm typing this from my local library where no downloads are allowed. If you want to find a new DPL in the mean time you of course can. I apologize for this unintended interruption.

Betty

[chymocles]

Sorry about your computer difficulties and expense, but if it had to happen during this project, it could not have occurred at a more appropriate moment. I am going to Canada for a couple of weeks, and meanwhile, David Widger will (I hope) address my latest list of errata in the Gutenberg text.

I have uploaded the final file, https://librivox.org/uploads/availle/minorpoems_22_milton_128kb.mp3, which I will mark "Ready for PL" once Widger has gotten back to me. Should you want to listen in the interim, don't bother identifying possible glitches by quotation but only by location on the time-line.

The only peculiar word where I have not asked Widger make a correction is the word "speak" (fairly late in the recording); I read "spake" because that is the tense required, but I have not asked for a respelling, although modern-spelling editions do make it, since "ea" was actually a spelling of long "a" in Milton's time, as it still is in "break" and "steak."

Good luck with your new machine.

Tom

[libraryanne]

Hi,
I have PL'ed the file you uploaded and I found only one small glitch

At 25:47, heard "not freed"

Yes,I'm almost back to my PL'ing. I'm still learning the mysterious ways of Windows 10.

Betty