"Poppies on Ludlow Castle" by Willa Cather.

I started reading April Twilights by Willa Cather as the first official title in my Willa Cather project. This poem stuck out to me (perhaps because we live very close to a street named Ludlow? Perhaps because I just love the mood of the poem?). I wanted to share, so you could have a little poetry to get through the day. Enjoy. :)

"Poppies on Ludlow Castle" by Willa Cather

Through halls of vanished pleasure,
And hold of vanished power,
And crypt of faith forgotten,
A came to Ludlow tower.

A-top of arch and stairway,

Of crypt and donjan cell,

Of council hall, and chamber,

Of wall, and ditch, and well,

 

High over grated turrets

Where clinging ivies run,

A thousand scarlet poppies

Enticed the rising sun,

 

Upon the topmost turret,

With death and damp below,--

Three hundred years of spoilage,--

The crimson poppies grow.

 

This hall it was that bred him,

These hills that knew him brave,

The gentlest English singer

That fills an English grave.

 

How have they heart to blossom

So cruel and gay and red,

When beauty so hath perished

And valour so hath sped?

 

When knights so fair are rotten,

And captains true asleep,

And singing lips are dust-stopped

Six English earth-feet deep?

 

When ages old remind me

How much hath gone for naught,

What wretched ghost remaineth

Of all that flesh hath wrought;

 

Of love and song and warring,

Of adventure and play,

Of art and comely building,

Of faith and form and fray--

 

I'll mind the flowers of pleasure,

Of short-lived youth and sleep,

That drunk the sunny weather

A-top of Ludlow keep.

Weekly Wrap-up for January 13, 2012: Back to the Grind.

Phew. This was the first week back after our two-week winter vacation, and let me tell you, it was a rough one. On Tuesday afternoon, the district was working on the servers for our computer system...and everything went down. Teachers and students couldn't access files, laptops on our carts had no internet access, and the computers were SLOW. They finally restored full access YESTERDAY, so you can imagine it was rough.

Thankfully I keep most of my files on a flash drive (which I really need to back up), so I still had access to my final exam files (many teachers did not, and since we have exams THIS WEEK, you can imagine the panic). I did have to rearrange some lessons and took out a video that the kids were really looking forward to (I've been showing my U.S. History classes episodes from The History Channel show, "America: The Story of Us" as we get to that content. They really love the show, so it was a bummer not to get to the Great Depression episode as promised). But, it was actually a good way to push my own creativity as a teacher so that I didn't rely on technology. :)

This week will go by quickly, I am sure. We have two full days, followed by three half days-2 exams each day. I'm in relatively good shape for grading, since all I have are the handful of things I collected in this past week. I'm hoping that I can spend the time the kids are taking their exams on prepping and getting things ready for second semester.

With second semester also comes my unit on Maus, which I am more than excited for. I brought the copies of the novel down to my room this week, and they are currently sitting in a box on my big front table. They have caught the attention of my kids, and I think they are really going to love the book and the unit.

I'm also teaching The Great Gatsby in my sophomore English classes at the beginning of the semester, so I need to do a quick reread this week to refresh my memory.

Besides all the school stuff, I've spent a lot of time this week with my niece, Zoey. It's hard to believe that she is almost 3 months old! My mom is watching her during the day for my brother and sister-in-law, and there were 2 days this week she had an appointment, so I came over after school to spend a couple hours watching the little munchkin. I also babysat last night for a few hours while my brother and sister-in-law went out for a date night. Zoey is the cutest little thing, and except for one little bout of fussiness last night, she was a blast to play with and cuddle. I'm glad that I get to be a big part of her life.

In reading news, I launched my Willa Cather Project this week, which I am over the moon excited about. :) When I was planning it, I was looking into finding copies of her poems and essays. While they were sold in single-volume sets, they were so darn expensive! I decided to be 2 of the 3 titles in the "Library of America" series on Cather (I decided not to purchase one of the volumes since it just contained her novels, which I already own). I've never owned one of the editions before, so I took a chance and ordered them used on Amazon. The first one came yesterday, and thankfully, it was the one with her poetry (April Twilights), so I already started reading. :) There aren't an overwhelming amount of poems, so I imagine I will finish them this week.

I also finished Cold Sassy Tree, which, as I read, seemed more and more familiar to me. I could have sworn that I read it before, but I couldn't figure out when. Generally speaking, I have a pretty good memory of what I've read and when, but I was drawing a blank. It was only after the scene with the car that I was SURE I had read it, and after asking on Facebook, turns out that I read it in high school for my sophomore English class. I'm pretty sure I didn't read it as an assigned book, but as a book for fun.

Lastly, I started Anna Karenina yesterday morning. I've been meaning to read it, and I was disappointed I didn't get to it last fall. I'm already 50 or so pages into it, and I can imagine really sinking into it and flying through the pages. Assuming I get all my grading done between today and tomorrow, I'll have a good amount of time to read this week (the grading for my exams is pretty straight-forward). I'm also looking forward to next weekend since we have the following Monday off. I'm picturing a lot of time snuggled up and reading.

I hope you all had a pleasant week and that you currently have a good book waiting. Let me know what you're reading!

The Willa Cather Project.

On Saturday, I got into a discussion on twitter about reading the major or complete works of certain authors with a few bloggers. We discussed some of the big names and the authors we would most like to read. Authors like Steinbeck, Dickens, Hardy, James, and more all came to mind. We all became pretty inspired and two bloggers have already posted away (you can see Adam's here-he chose Steinbeck, O's is here-she chose Trollope).

I've always thought that the most logical step for me after my 250 project would be to go back and read the complete works of an author. I am close with a few-Shakespeare, Austen, the Brontes-but I wanted to push myself by reading an author I don't know a lot about. This project will serve to educate me about that writer.

After thinking it over, I settled on Willa Cather. We have had a rocky history. I hated her novel, My Antonia, when I read it as a high school freshman (now I love it. It happens, you know?). When I took a risk and read O Pioneers! in the first year of my 250 Project, I fell madly in love. So, I've decided that Willa Cather will be my choice for a Major Works/Complete Works Project.

The goal is to read her work in order of publication. The one exception is My Antonia, since I just finished it (I will be rereading O Pioneers!....because I can). If I cannot find a copy of the work, I will simply skip it and move on (I already own all of her novels, save one, so I am more concerned with finding her short stories and essays). I'm not giving myself a goal date for this project. My hope is to finish when I feel so inspired, and to get to know a writer I don't know much about.

The List:

• April Twilights (poetry) 1903

• The Troll Garden (short stories) 1905
• "Flavia and Her Artists"
• "The Sculptor's Funeral"
• "A Death in the Desert"
• "The Garden Lodge"
• "The Marriage of Phaedra"
• "A Wagner Matinee"
• "Paul's Case" 

• Alexander's Bridge (novel) 1912

• O Pioneers! (novel) 1913

• The Song of the Lark (novel) 1915

• My Antonia (novel) 1918

• Youth and the Bright Medusa (short stories) 1920
• ***contains 4 of the stories also in The Troll Garden. These are marked with an asterisk
• "Coming, Eden Bower"
• "The Diamond Mine"
• "A Gold Slipper"
• "Scandal"
• *"Paul's Case"
• *"A Wagner Matinee"
• *"The Sculptor's Funeral"
• *"A Death in the Desert" 

• One of Ours (novel) 1922

• A Lost Lady (novel) 1923

• The Professor's House (novel) 1925

• My Mortal Enemy (novel) 1926

• Death Comes for the Archbishop (novel) 1927

• Shadows on the Rock (novel) 1931

• Obscure Destinies (short stories) 1932
• "Neighbor Rosicky"
• "Old Mrs. Harris"
• "Two Friends" 

• Lucy Gayheart (novel) 1935

• Not Under Forty (essays) 1936

• Sapphira and the Slave Girl (novel) 1940

• The Old Beauty and Others (short stories) 1948
• "The Old Beauty"
• "The Best Years"
• "Before Breakfast" 

• Willa Cather: On Writing (essays) 1949

• Five Stories (short stories) 1956
• ***Some stories were previously published. These are marked with an asterisk
• "The Enchanted Bluff"
• "Tom Outland's Story"
• *"Neighbor Rosicky"
• *"The Best Years"
• *"Paul's Case"

• Selected Letters from Willa Cather

•  I am also considering a few biographies, but haven't settled on one just yet. Anyone have some recommendations?

I'm not positive that I have all the short stories listed, but I will add as I find/discover other stories. I'm really excited about this project!

So here's a question, if you were to read any classic author's works, from beginning to end, who would it be and why?