"why am I on earth with these people?"

Time to nerd out on Emily Wilson’s new translation of the Iliad into iambic pentameter. I’ll focus on the proem, the very first seven lines, which I had to memorize nearly forty years ago in Greek class and which has been close to heart ever since. Here is her rendition. 1/

That AI could improve our writing seems paradoxical. If a piece of writing doesn’t convey an idea well, then AI won’t know the idea either. It can embellish but not really troubleshoot (polish a turd, as they say)

louise forever

Halloween costume idea for the early modernist? Hester Pultergeist 👻

A poem for when the semester gets too busy and you just need a break

Arrowroot soup, because it’s cold and rainy. The heart was its natural shape!

Were renaissance poetry coteries just group therapy sessions? Like it wouldn’t be okay to tell you I’m depressed, but what if I send you a nice poem about it?

Never too cold for gelato 🍦

My next dissertation chapter is due at the end of November, so it’s basically just nanowrimo… right?

I’ve been in the throes of writing, so got delivery as a treat. And the person put Halloween candy in my bag 🥹💛

It's a bit wet out so here's a cheery autumnal squirrel from a 1664 Psalter.

Dark academia—expectations vs reality

A glimpse of the Shakespeare events in Vancouver over the past few days. It was incredible to be among such brilliant theatre practitioners and scholars. And happy 400th birthday to the book!

Returning to post a silly comic—Circe and Odysseus attend a party! Hope you’re all having a happy end of December 💛

In honor of today being National Ice Cream Sandwich Day, we link to this classic post from @rare_cooking's Cooking in the Archives: make some 17th century ice cream this weekend! rarecooking.com/2019/07/10/the…

I'm a PhD student at University of Oxford and I think I'm living in a fairytale :-) Foxes playing around in the snow at Magdalen College this morning — absolutely magical!

After a long hiatus, I have to say—this place is very different now. Are the early modern literature folks still here?