As always, click to enlarge the image. :)

hey kids! here's the flier for the public reading. i'll have it posted on campus within the next couple of weeks. just thought i'd give you all a sneak peek :)

Here you go! Click the image to enlarge it. :)

-Jess B.

finally!

Here it is! The newsletter.

Click the image to enlarge it.

:)

-Jess B.

Literary Festival, 7:00 Thursday, Cone Chapel

Hey friends,

The Fall Literary Festival is this Thursday, so we shan't be meeting in the Honors House.

The Literary Festival is at 7:00 Thursday night in the Cone Chapel, and I hope you can be there. It will include readings from student and local authors, music, refreshments, and a (ridiculous and possibly pretty amazing) performance by your officers.

We Souvenirs kids may also be migrating to Midnight Oil after the Lit Fest, depending on our various levels of homework distress at the time.

I hope to see you tomorrow!

Joanna

Keats and Kipling

Hey friends,

We're doing Keats and Kipling this week. Emily Daw and are also planning a showdown for you of Keats' "Ode on a Grecian Urn." Hope to see you Thursday!

Also, this blog, which died alone and neglected some time ago (kind of like Keats) is going to be revived now (unlike Keats). Jess Briggs and Jess Roper, our intrepid PR officers, will have prettier stuff here as the semester continues. So you should subscribe to the RSS feed if you eat RSS.

Joanna

W.B. Yeats and Jeanne Murray Walker

Our poets this week are Yeats and Jeanne Murray Walker, the poet and playwright who is coming here to Harding next Thursday.

Rita Dove and Tennyson

Our poets this week are Lord Tennyson and Rita Dove. I found some additional poems by Dove here. The Brackett gives us this book of African American poetry on a search for Dove, so someone should bring that. I trust you to find your own Tennyson. Enjoy!

Also, we're reading T.S. Eliot's Murder in the Cathedral this Saturday starting at 2:00. We'll be at Midnight Oil -- on the porch, if weather permits. Feel free to drop by even if you can't stay the whole time.

- J.E.B.

P.S. Here's our poetic selection for this week, two sections of Tennyson's In Memoriam:

XXXI.

When Lazarus left his charnel-cave,

And home to Mary’s house return’d,

Was this demanded–if he yearn’d

To hear her weeping by his grave?

‘Where wert thou, brother, those four days?’

There lives no record of reply,

Which telling what it is to die

Had surely added praise to praise.

From every house the neighbours met,

The streets were fill’d with joyful sound,

A solemn gladness even crown’d

The purple brows of Olivet.

Behold a man raised up by Christ!

The rest remaineth unreveal’d;

He told it not; or something seal’d

The lips of that Evangelist.

XXXII.

Her eyes are homes of silent prayer,

Nor other thought her mind admits

But, he was dead, and there he sits,

And he that brought him back is there.

Then one deep love doth supersede

All other, when her ardent gaze

Roves from the living brother’s face,

And rests upon the Life indeed.

All subtle thought, all curious fears,

Borne down by gladness so complete,

She bows, she bathes the Saviour’s feet

With costly spikenard and with tears.

Thrice blest whose lives are faithful prayers,

Whose loves in higher love endure;

What souls possess themselves so pure,

Or is there blessedness like theirs?

Robinson Jeffers and Emily Dickinson

Hullo, All.

Our poets this week are Robinson Jeffers and Emily Dickinson. Here's our poem to discuss this week, by Dickinson:

#1695

There is a solitude of space
A solitude of sea
A solitude of death, but these
Society shall be
Compared with that profounder site
That polar privacy
A soul admitted to itself--
Finite Infinity.

(I picked this partly because I'm not sure what it means. So please bring your poetic insight. :) )

Also, we're going to do an extra public reading this semester, because we want to. It'll be a play, and we'll just have people take parts and read them. We're doing this the afternoon of Saturday, September 15. The play is Eliot's Murder in the Cathedral, and we'll probably do it at Midnight Oil.

See you Thursday!

- Joanna

Shelley and Sandburg

Hello, friends.

Welcome to anyone new to Souvenirs who's wandered here!

Our poets for this week are Percy Shelley and Carl Sandburg. So bring your favorite Shelley and Sandburg to read -- or brush up on some to recite.

We're also going to try something new this semester: We're choosing a specific poem for discussion from one of our poets. Here's this week's poem, Shelley's "Invocation":

RARELY, rarely, comest thou,
Spirit of Delight!
Wherefore hast thou left me now
Many a day and night?
Many a weary night and day	5
'Tis since thou art fled away.
How shall ever one like me
Win thee back again?
With the joyous and the free
Thou wilt scoff at pain.	10
Spirit false! thou hast forgot
All but those who need thee not.
As a lizard with the shade
Of a trembling leaf,
Thou with sorrow art dismay'd;	15
Even the sighs of grief
Reproach thee, that thou art not near,
And reproach thou wilt not hear.
Let me set my mournful ditty
To a merry measure;	20
Thou wilt never come for pity,
Thou wilt come for pleasure:
Pity then will cut away
Those cruel wings, and thou wilt stay.
I love all that thou lovest,	25
Spirit of Delight!
The fresh earth in new leaves drest
And the starry night;
Autumn evening, and the morn
When the golden mists are born.	30
I love snow, and all the forms
Of the radiant frost;
I love waves, and winds, and storms,
Everything almost
Which is Nature's, and may be	35
Untainted by man's misery.
I love tranquil solitude,
And such society
As is quiet, wise, and good;
Between thee and me	40
What diff'rence? but thou dost possess
The things I seek, not love them less.
I love Love—though he has wings,
And like light can flee,
But above all other things,	45
Spirit, I love thee—
Thou art love and life! O come!
Make once more my heart thy home!

I hope to see you Thursday! Bring a friend (besides Shelley and Sandburg). :D

- Joanna

Shakespeare!

Welcome back, all!

We're reading Shakespeare at our first meeting, as is traditional. So come, read and recite Shakespeare, and catch up with all the spiffy poetry people.

Bring a lost freshman with you if possible! Also, we'll be chalking poetry on campus this Wednesday night to advertise our first meeting (and also because we like poetry). Contact me or Nathan (commenting on this post will work) if you'd like to help.

We're excited about Souvenirs this semester, and we'll also talk about some plans for the semester at the first meeting.

- Joanna

Officers, Summer

Hullo again,

We've chosen officers for the next year of Souvenirs.

-Nathan will continue as president.
-I'll be vice-president this year.
-Jessica Roper will take over as secretary/treasurer.
-Katie Cozzens and Emily Daw will share the public relations office, since Emily will be overseas the fall semester and Katie will graduate in December.
-Johnna is secretary to the vice-president, but we're thinking this isn't a real officer position anymore but that she should make tea anyway.
-Luke Jones, as a spiffy graphic design major, will also be helping us with advertising.
-Thanks to Dr. Claxton for continuing as sponsor and to Dr. Cameron for joining us as co-sponsor.

So yes.

Have a grand summer with plenty of poetry. :) Some showdowns to start off next semester would be amazing, so get with people and memorize stuff over the summer.

-- Joanna

Party

Hullo,

I apologize for last week's lack of blog. We did W.H. Auden and Shel Silverstein (quite an odd combination).

But this week, we have our end-of-the year party. It's be at the home of Andrea, Ashley, and Jo Jo. Bring food, games, and/or literary movies if you like. :)

Here are the directions:
Take Grand (the street that starts at the American Studies building and goes between College Church and Subway) across RACE and turn RIGHT on MOORE Ave. Then, turn LEFT at the third street on the LEFT, N CEDAR ST. The house is on the RIGHT. It's 906 N. Cedar St.

We'll also be having our officer elections. Andrea has explained that in the newsletter. So, please run for offices. :)

Jo Cleveland, Naomi Nye, and Souvenirs

We have a lot of poetry stuff going tomorrow, so here it is for reference:

3:00
Question and answer time with Naomi Shihab Nye in American Studies 200. Everyone is welcome, and I believe it's come-and-go.

6:30
Jo Cleveland awards in Cone Chapel (a.k.a., "the new wedding chapel").

7:30
Reading and presentation by Naomi Shihab Nye, also in Cone Chapel.

9:30
Souvenirs is meeting on the deck at Midnight Oil for mass poetry showdown and general spiffiness.

So come and enjoy as many of these events as possible. :)

Camping Trip Canceled

Hullo,

The weather hasn't cooperated,* so we shan't be camping this weekend. :(

Instead, we plan to have a cookout at Berryhill Park. We'll have hot dogs, snacks, and s'mores and read poetry. So bring spiffy poetry and a couple of dollars for the food. You can post here with questions or if you'd like to let me know you're coming (i.e., assure that we buy enough marshmallows for you).

We'll plan on camping properly some time next semester. :)

Congratulations to Katie on winning the Shelley showdown tonight!

-- Joanna

* Thunderstorms and hail are predicted.  Cf. Shelley:

 Thou on whose stream, 'mid the steep sky's commotion,

Loose clouds like Earth's decaying leaves are shed,

Shook from the tangled boughs of Heaven and Ocean,



Angels of rain and lightning: there are spread

On the blue surface of thine airy surge,

Like the bright hair uplifted from the head



Of some fierce Maenad, even from the dim verge

Of the horizon to the zenith's height,

The locks of the approaching storm. Thou dirge



Of the dying year, to which this closing night

Will be the dome of a vast sepulchre

Vaulted with all thy congregated might



Of vapours, from whose solid atmosphere

Black rain, and fire, and hail will burst: O hear!

Tennyson and Naomi Shihab Nye

Our poets for tomorrow are Tennyson and Naomi Shihab Nye. (Nye will be coming next week to speak after the Jo Cleveland awards.)

Katie Cozzens and I also hope to bring you a showdown of Shelley's "Ode to the West Wind." We do know that it isn't autumn, but Shelley is pretty spiffy all year. Also, the dramatic expression of angst really fits this time of the semester rather well.

The camping trip is planned for this weekend, but we may have rain. I'll update with alternate plans when/if we have them.

- J.E.B.

Plath and Hughes

Hullo,

Tonight's poets are Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes.

We'll also be discussing further plans about the upcoming camping trip. :)

- Joanna

Robert Browning and Langston Hughes

Our poets for tonight are Robert Browning and Langston Hughes.

We'll also have the showdown that was planned for last week, as well as more information about the camping trip, a possible service project, and the end-of-the year party.

- J.B.

Robert Pinsky and Sir Philip Sidney

Hullo All,

Welcome back!

Our poets for this week are Robert Pinsky (recent-ish US Poet Laureate) and Sir Philip Sidney (Elizabethan courtier poet). A reminder: If you're planning to print out poems, please do so before you come, because we don't have easy access to a computer in the Honors House now.

Emily and Nathan plan to give us a showdown of "Supernatural Love" by Gertrude Schnackenberg. (The internet doesn't know very much about Gertrude Schnackenberg, but she's pretty spiffy, as you shall know when we hear the poem. It's on last year's CD as well, I believe.)

Also, the camping trip is coming up, and we'd like to get an idea of who'll be going. So think about that so you can let us know. It'll be April 13-14.

- Joanna

Winter and Spring Poems

Hullo All,

Tonight we're reading any poems involving winter and/or spring, so bring your favorites. (Oddly, Wikipedia has a lot more to say about winter than about spring.)

Also, consider getting with someone and working on a showdown for after spring break. In American Poetry class the other day, Nathan and I found the perfect poem for those intimidated by showdowns. It's "In a Station of the Metro" by Ezra Pound:

The apparition of these faces in the crowd;
Petals on a wet, black bough.

Well, I hope to see you tonight.

- Joanna