a great class -- and miscellany from my day

Today is one of those days when I just feel so damn lucky to be able to do this for a living. I spent the morning rereading and thinking about poems from one of my favorite poets (Elizabeth Barrett Browning) and this afternoon discussing them with my students. My undergrads this semester are really sharp -- I'm so impressed and pleased. Last time I taught this course I had a much slower group. So discussion was lively and interesting, and I had a great time. The only problem is that we are already behind the syllabus. But good discussion is worth that, I think.

A joke that only Victorianists who listen to hip hop music or smoke weed might understand (maybe there's one of you out there?) . In a paper on Tennyson's poem "The Lotus Eaters," one of my students repeatedly mistyped "Choric Song" as "Chronic Song." Yup, those tranced-out sailors might just as well have been smokin the chronic...

A new low for students (not mine) paying attention in class: I received a very apologetic email from a student today explaining that she had missed the Blake quiz on Tues and could she make it up. The problem is that she's taking a class that I am not teaching. (Nor have I ever taught it.) I wrote her back and politely suggested that she consult her syllabus to discover the name of her professor.