Monday, December 10, 2007
I look forward to the break from university study, which begins sometime after I turn my grammatical analysis of a portion of The Bacchae in to Avril Wednesday afternoon. I made ambitious plans to shut myself off from the world for the rest of the month to finish reading several books I started, complete most of my grad school applications, and review Latin, Greek, and German grammar. Most, if not all, of any projects set will, of course, remain undone, written colourfully on the humongous dry-erase board of my conscious mind. But I will consider completing many tasks, which almost feels like actually doing them.
At the moment I toggle between dicking around on the Internet and writing a ten-page term paper for the Latin elegy class. It might be said that I am dicking around on the paper, which purports to concern itself with the role of the elegiac mistress, utilizing examples from Propertius and Goethe. I am less interested in elaborating my nebulously-formed thoughts about any aspect of elegy than in beginning to read the entirety of a book about Propertius' placement in the circle of Augustan elegists that I checked out from the library a few days ago for the purpose of citing something (anything) from it in the above-referenced paper. I checked out another book auf Deutsch, titled simply Properz, that I might (codespeak for "assuredly will not") skim over the break. The first page I flipped to quoted a few lines of Latin, with subsequent reference to Goethe's Römische Elegien.
I also have a short German essay to revise and expand tomorrow afternoon before taking that final exam, for which I have prepared little. The Latin essay has consumed most of my time. I am also anxious about Avril's grammatical analysis- he expects something thorough, which I simply cannot do between all the other things I need to make time for and have not made time for. The independent Greek study this semester has not gone as well as it should have, since I haven't been able to make time to review the text or the side topics Dr. Lavigne points out. We didn't even translate half the play. Finishing the text will be another goal that I will fail to achieve.
Bedtime.
[Lauree Frances Keith concluded this diatribe at 7:49 PM]