No, the letter S doesn't stand for "Skip the blog". I don't plan to randomly skip it for long stretches of time, such as two days in a row, but I was in the darkroom from 1 PM on Tuesday to 3 AM on Thursday---38 hours at a stretch, except for several short smoking breaks and one longer exam break---and, had I taken a blogging break as well on top of those, I probably wouldn't have managed to turn in my Photography portfolio on time.
But now it's Thursday evening, and I'm done with seven of my eight finals, and my students, in general, did well, I think :) so I checked MyAQ for my own grades, and saw: Nothing. None of my four final grades have been posted yet. The four S's from the mid-term grades stared back at me from the screen.
Which got me thinking about the letter S. My first thought was an unhappy one: Maybe they're all S's for now because I'm done with S for seven finals, and they'll all change to E's as soon as I finish my E for eighth final tomorrow?
My second thought was scary again: Maybe they're all S's for the snowstorm that's coming our way tonight :(
On my third attempt, I managed to come up with S for Shakespeare, so I'm posting the S for sonnet that Hart Crane addressed to Shakespeare. And then I'm going to my apartment to get some much-needed S for sleep.
____________________________
To Shakespeare
By Harold Hart Crane
Through torrid entrances, past icy poles
A hand moves on the page! Who shall again
Engrave such hazards as thy might controls---
Conflicting, purposeful yet outcry vain
Of all our days, being pilot,---tempest, too!
Sheets that mock lust and thorns that scribble hate
Are lifted from torn flesh with human rue,
And laughter, burnished brighter than our fate
Thou wieldest with such tears that every faction
Swears high in Hamlet's throat, and devils throng
Where angels beg for doom in ghast distraction
---And fail, both! Yet Ariel holds his song:
And that serenity that Prospero gains
Is justice that has cancelled earthly chains.
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