Second Semester, Aristotle

I am reading a lot of Aristotle this semester. I wish to devour his Physics, Metaphysics, and On the Soul. I did not understand the first two last year, a sad fact I wish to straighten. It will take a tremendous amount of work, but I am willing to do it.

Second semester of Sophomore year is the Poetry Semester. Almost everything we read is English lyric poetry or Shakespeare. We read eight plays, one of which (King Lear) we study in Language, and study his sonnets and early English poetry like Wyatt and Spenser. We also read the Commedia, a tremendous literary achievement from Dane Alighieri.

I am terribly excited. My studies of poetry have sucked, though I have (I think) always rather appreciated it, if you will consider my childhood and my Language Arts classes in eighth grade and first two years of high school. Now I will read the majority of the Shakespeare corpus and become intimately familiar with a few of his sonnets, two of which I will memorize. And Dante! Glorious Dante! Chaucer! Poetry! I will let my dialectic-loving side relax a little and enjoy myself. After all, I will be studying Aristotle's Logic in Language and reading his two greatest treatises. Poetry is good for the soul. I will never enjoy it so much as straight up philosophy or theology (Aquinas is a river of gold!), but I certainly hold it in the highest respect.