Epitaphs for the Semester

This was finals week, and I asked my online Intro to Lit class to take us out with “epitaphs” for the semester, pulled from pieces we’d read together this fall.  Here are some of their choices…

I felt a Cleaving in my Mind— / As if my Brain had split— ◘ Wild Nights— Wild Nights! ◘ I say drop a mouse into a poem / and watch him probe his way out ◘ Yes, I have tricks in my pocket, I have things up my sleeve. But I am the opposite of a stage magician. He gives you illusion that has the appearance of truth. I give you truth in the pleasant disguise of illusion. ◘ Guillotines are painful, but / There’s nothing like a paper cut! ◘ All they want to do / is tie the poem to a chair with rope / and torture a confession out of it. ◘ As he defeated—dying— ◘ When I died they washed me out of the turret with a hose. ◘ Saying nothing…sometimes says the most ◘ A word dropped careless on a Page ◘ Success is counted sweetest / By those who ne’er succeed ◘ Free, free, free!

There you go.  R.I.P., Fall 2010.