Week 4, Michaelmas Term: Melted ...

... into a blissful nothingness, with little more than memory to stoke the dull ashes. But I am mixing metaphors, and with that, I'll leave you to it.

Yes, another week gone: and very little to show for it. The highlight was indeed an unexpected trip to the Ashmolean museum this afternoon, with a friend, where we discovered the special exhibit of the Pre-Raphaelite artists. As students, we were allowed free admittance, and there began a delightful three quarters of an hour where I, enraptured, chortled and cooed over the glorious images, while she wondered at my enthusiasm. The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood actually came after the painter Raphael, in the 19th century, but their style/technique/concept of art was supposedly from before Raphael's influence. Some famous Pre-R artists include William Holman Hunt, Dante Gabriel Rosetti, John Everett Millais; you'll probably recognize some of their paintings better than their names, so take a mo and look them up! I particularly like Hunt's "Miranda and the Tempest" and "Lady of Shalott." Rosetti did a number of works of Dante and Beatrice. Millais has a beautiful painting of the Holy Family, as well as a really good portrait of John Henry Newman, interestingly enough. And, did you know, Edward Lear, the nonsense-poet, also dabbled in the fine arts? With quite some success, in my opinion! I was amazed at how much depth of expression the writer of

There was a Young Lady whose nose,
Was so long that it reached to her toes;
So she hired an Old Lady,
Whose conduct was steady,
To carry that wonderful nose.

could reach. Quite an enjoyable afternoon!

And now, for Emma, that incorrigible young woman; will she ever learn to truly think of others? Perhaps Mr. Knightley will be able to cure her of busybodiness. We shall see!