Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Courseblogging: More early modern stick-art!

For really advanced players of the Bardiac game, what seventeenth-century poem are we reading today?



(It went surprisingly well, BTW.)

13 comments:

Sisyphus said...

Uhhhhh, something about smiting? Give us a hint --- are you going through stuff chronologically in the survey?

moria said...

That man's hair is both tonsured and green, yes?

I got nothin'.

Fretful Porpentine said...

Sisyphus -- Yup. This is mid-seventeenth-century, Civil War era to be precise.

Moria -- Actually, I meant him to be wearing a laurel wreath, I just can't draw for crap :)

Flavia said...

If that were a tree, I'd say it was Herbert (Affliction 1). But upon a second look it looks like a thundercloud smiting man (maybe) and non-church building (definitely).

Uh, Milton's sonnet "When the Assault Was Intended to the City," or whatever it's called? But that's about an army, not God, sparing a poet. And I don't know why you'd be teaching it. Damn. No clue.

Fretful Porpentine said...

Yup, there is definitely some thundercloud-smitin' going down, of both churches and non-church buildings. (It may help to know that the non-church building is meant to be a palace, except I didn't know how to convey this with my meager artistic skills.)

Bardiac said...

I'm going with "To the Lord General Cromwell." There's lots of blood and guts, and "Worester's laureate wreath," and the poem ends with "new foes arising / to bind our souls with secular chains" and such?

By the way, I think you're underestimating your artistic skills (though, perhaps, overestimating our ability to interpret 17th century poetry). your use of color, for example, is wonderful, and I think you've got the whole smiting thing down perfectly!

Fretful Porpentine said...

Bardiac -- Sososo close! That was actually one of the other poems I assigned for yesterday, and the one illustrated is more or less on the same theme.

And yes, I have whiteboards in the classroom, and multicolored markers, and I'm not afraid to use them :)

Bardiac said...

Doh, "Like the three-forked lightening, first / Breaking the clouds where it was nursed"!

Of course! I think we all got stuck on Milton and forgot about teh other fun folks :/

Now I begin to see the true brilliance of your work! I bow to your artistic excellence!

Fretful Porpentine said...

Bardiac -- Bingo! "Then burning through the air he went / And palaces and temples rent; / And Caesar's head at last / Did through his laurels blast."

Bardiac said...

Your Caesar is quite impressive!

Digger said...

This is fun :D

Sisyphus said...

So wait, what was the title?

Fretful Porpentine said...

It's Andrew Marvell's "An Horatian Ode, Upon Cromwell's Return from Ireland." (Probably not a terribly familiar poem if you're not an early modernist, alas!)