Monthly Archives: September 2011

Word Cloud of Whitman’s “Song of Myself,” section 1

Posted on September 25, 2011 by Peter Schmidt

Using “Wordle” [available at wordle.net] and pasting in the online text of section 1 of “Song of Myself” (given at the end of this post), here is the “word cloud” that was generated: (Click on the image if you’d like … Continue reading →

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Could Beowulf Have Been a Source for the Star Wars Lightsaber?

Posted on September 8, 2011 by Peter Schmidt

I’ve been reading my colleague Craig Williamson’s splendid new translation of Beowulf, the first time I’ve re-read this poem since college.  Coming across Craig’s fun discussion of compound words and “kennings” in Anglo-Saxon poetry (pp. 8-9; kennings are 2-word metaphorical … Continue reading →

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