1
2
3
✛
love for reading
One thing I have to really thank my mother for is the way she inculcated in me a love for reading; to open a book and soak up every single word that leaps off the page, transporting me to a different universe painted by my imagination.
Which is why one of the things I regret is not doing Literature at the 'O' levels. I chose instead to do Geog & History because they are more 'fact' based out of all the humanities. You just can't go wrong with rock formations and plate tectonics while literary form and metaphors and that sort of thing are hard to grasp. Why I chose to do Literature in JC is befuddling, and many friends gave me the 'what? but PCME is a guarantee of 4 As in JC' which is sad. Sad that learning is about grades; about how you fare in comparison to others.
Nobody asks 'so what are you learning in Literature?' or 'how is Literature applicable to daily life?' (ok I personally don't think it is very much applicable, especially with me doing the Renaissance paper) yet I will always remember the Lit lessons where I sat enthralled as we went over Donne's sonnets. The metaphysical world has never made sense to me, and never will, yet the beauty of how the words are strung together is so exceptionally romantic.
Literature in JC was not easy; many tears were shed, many late nights of contemplation but without the bitter, will we know what's sweet? One thing about this place strikes me - you can do anything and everything you want to. You could be talented in graphic design and be encouraged to pursue that degree with the full support of your parents instead of being pushed to read something like civil engineering because it pays well. I love how creative people are here. I've never seen this many lefties in my life and everyone here is so creative and brimming with ideas. Sometimes I wish things were different though; but circumstances are such and as much as I want to change them I guess I can only do one thing - suck thumb.
A VALEDICTION FORBIDDING MOURNING.
by John Donne
AS virtuous men pass mildly away,
And whisper to their souls to go,
Whilst some of their sad friends do say,
"Now his breath goes," and some say, "No."
So let us melt, and make no noise, 5
No tear-floods, nor sigh-tempests move ;
'Twere profanation of our joys
To tell the laity our love.
Moving of th' earth brings harms and fears ;
Men reckon what it did, and meant ; 10
But trepidation of the spheres,
Though greater far, is innocent.
Dull sublunary lovers' love
—Whose soul is sense—cannot admit
Of absence, 'cause it doth remove 15
The thing which elemented it.
But we by a love so much refined,
That ourselves know not what it is,
Inter-assurèd of the mind,
Care less, eyes, lips and hands to miss. 20
Our two souls therefore, which are one,
Though I must go, endure not yet
A breach, but an expansion,
Like gold to aery thinness beat.
If they be two, they are two so 25
As stiff twin compasses are two ;
Thy soul, the fix'd foot, makes no show
To move, but doth, if th' other do.
And though it in the centre sit,
Yet, when the other far doth roam, 30
It leans, and hearkens after it,
And grows erect, as that comes home.
Such wilt thou be to me, who must,
Like th' other foot, obliquely run ;
Thy firmness makes my circle just, 35
And makes me end where I begun.
Which is why one of the things I regret is not doing Literature at the 'O' levels. I chose instead to do Geog & History because they are more 'fact' based out of all the humanities. You just can't go wrong with rock formations and plate tectonics while literary form and metaphors and that sort of thing are hard to grasp. Why I chose to do Literature in JC is befuddling, and many friends gave me the 'what? but PCME is a guarantee of 4 As in JC' which is sad. Sad that learning is about grades; about how you fare in comparison to others.
Nobody asks 'so what are you learning in Literature?' or 'how is Literature applicable to daily life?' (ok I personally don't think it is very much applicable, especially with me doing the Renaissance paper) yet I will always remember the Lit lessons where I sat enthralled as we went over Donne's sonnets. The metaphysical world has never made sense to me, and never will, yet the beauty of how the words are strung together is so exceptionally romantic.
Literature in JC was not easy; many tears were shed, many late nights of contemplation but without the bitter, will we know what's sweet? One thing about this place strikes me - you can do anything and everything you want to. You could be talented in graphic design and be encouraged to pursue that degree with the full support of your parents instead of being pushed to read something like civil engineering because it pays well. I love how creative people are here. I've never seen this many lefties in my life and everyone here is so creative and brimming with ideas. Sometimes I wish things were different though; but circumstances are such and as much as I want to change them I guess I can only do one thing - suck thumb.
by John Donne
AS virtuous men pass mildly away,
And whisper to their souls to go,
Whilst some of their sad friends do say,
"Now his breath goes," and some say, "No."
So let us melt, and make no noise, 5
No tear-floods, nor sigh-tempests move ;
'Twere profanation of our joys
To tell the laity our love.
Moving of th' earth brings harms and fears ;
Men reckon what it did, and meant ; 10
But trepidation of the spheres,
Though greater far, is innocent.
Dull sublunary lovers' love
—Whose soul is sense—cannot admit
Of absence, 'cause it doth remove 15
The thing which elemented it.
But we by a love so much refined,
That ourselves know not what it is,
Inter-assurèd of the mind,
Care less, eyes, lips and hands to miss. 20
Our two souls therefore, which are one,
Though I must go, endure not yet
A breach, but an expansion,
Like gold to aery thinness beat.
If they be two, they are two so 25
As stiff twin compasses are two ;
Thy soul, the fix'd foot, makes no show
To move, but doth, if th' other do.
And though it in the centre sit,
Yet, when the other far doth roam, 30
It leans, and hearkens after it,
And grows erect, as that comes home.
Such wilt thou be to me, who must,
Like th' other foot, obliquely run ;
Thy firmness makes my circle just, 35
And makes me end where I begun.
“some people feel like they don't deserve love. they walk away quietly into empty spaces, trying to close the gaps of the past.”
“This is how you do it: you sit down at the keyboard and you put one word after another until its done. It's that easy, and that hard.”
This is a free page. Put here your tagboard, your links, or anything. You can delete the credits below, but please, leave a link somewhere to the original skin where I've already listed the credits. Thank you!