At this point in the poem, Xantippe has lost the mask she worked so hard to hold on to. Socrates has angered her, and in a sudden fit of rage, her body responds with a faster heartbeat as she flings the wine onto the floor. Xantippe seems to rarely allow herself to feel or express anger; she might often feel slighted or sad, but these emotions are usually restrained, like a quietly glowing ember. Here, however, a “sudden flame” erupts: the heat rises, and she finally releases it. The description of the red wine spilling onto the white marble serves as a powerful metaphor for the loss of innocence or purity. What was once clean and controlled is now marked and transformed. Xantippe crosses the threshold changed, “hair unbound, white garment stained to redness," no longer the restrained, composed figure she once was. Levy’s depiction of this moment reflects her interest in women’s emotional and intellectual repression. Just as Xantippe’s fury has been contained by societal expectations in ancient Athens, Victorian women like Levy faced pressures to restrain their feelings and intellect. By giving Xantippe a dramatic, physical release of her anger, Levy depicts the costs of suppression and illuminates the intense, hidden emotional lives of women. The poem becomes not only a historical reflection on Xantippe’s experience but also a nuanced critique of the constraints placed on women in Levy’s world by showing how powerful and transformative the acknowledgment of one’s own emotions can be.

While looks and beauty were very important in the ancient Grecian times, Socrates broke the mold when it came to the beauty standards of his day. As noted to his appearance in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Socrates "had wide-set, bulging eyes that darted sideways and enabled him, like a crab, to see not only what was straight ahead, but what was beside him as well; a flat, upturned nose with flaring nostrils; and large fleshy lips like an ass." Despite the hair trends of his area, he grew his hair out and refused to stay clean or change his clothes. Amy Levy includes these details to accentuate the contrast between societal expectations and individual worth. Men like Socrates could be physically unconventional or even “ugly” and still admired for their intellect, yet there was no equivalent space for women to be recognized for their minds. A woman’s value was tied to her beauty and social conformity. By presenting Socrates’ unconventionality alongside the phrase “half with awe,” Levy highlights the tension between superficial judgment and true merit, a tension mirrored in "Xantippe: A Fragment", where women’s intellectual and emotional lives were historically ignored or dismissed.

When Xantippe describes her soul as one that “yearned for knowledge,” she describes a desire that classical society discouraged in women. This yearning reflects Amy Levy’s own intellectual ambitions and her struggle to access education in a world that restricted women’s academic opportunities. Levy pushed against these limitations of her time. She became the second Jewish woman ever admitted to Cambridge University and the first Jewish woman to enroll at Newnham College, one of the women’s colleges founded to expand access to higher learning. Levy’s personal experiences with gender barriers enhance her portrayal of Xantippe’s longing. By giving a classical woman, the same thirst for intellectual life that Levy felt as a Victorian woman, the poem creates a bridge between eras. Xantippe’s desire becomes not merely personal but representative of a long history of women whose intellectual aspirations were dismissed or deemed inappropriate. Through this moment of self-revelation, Levy highlights the emotional cost of systemic exclusion and places knowledge-seeking as both a private desire and an act of resistance.

This passage reflects experiences that are both historically and personally grounded by connecting the lives of women in Ancient Greece and Victorian England. As a Victorian woman, Levy would have understood the deep emotional pressures created by a society that limited women’s education, rights, and opportunities simply because of their gender. Many women writers of the time, including Charlotte Brontë (writing as Currer Bell) and Mary Ann Evans (writing as George Eliot), adopted male pen names just to have their work published. This is just one example of the systemic barriers women faced. The line “and I was sinning in those very thoughts—” adds an intense sense of shame and internalized guilt, drawing attention to how natural curiosity and intellectual exploration could be framed as morally wrong for a woman. By illuminating this tension, Levy exposes the emotional cost of societal restrictions, showing how both historical and contemporary pressures could make women feel as though their own minds were prohibited.

Although “Xantippe: A Fragment” was published in 1880, nine years before Levy’s death in 1889, the poem already reveals the emotional turmoil that resulted in her long-standing, though undiagnosed, clinical depression. In these lines, Amy Levy gives a haunting voice to a figure who feels emotionally drained, as if her life’s flame were dimming. The imagery of a “lamp of life” burning low, mixed with the weariness of waking, resonates with Levy’s own recurring bouts of melancholic depression. As a young Jewish woman navigating the male-dominated intellectual circles of Victorian England, Levy often felt like an outsider, both socially and spiritually. According to the Jewish Women’s Archive (2021), a friend and confidant, Richard Garnett, described her as having "constitutional melancholy." By channeling that profound exhaustion through Xantippe, she not only critiques the silencing of women, but also reveals personal anxieties about her own worth, agency, and artistic survival.

The poem was written/takes place after a battle on Flanders Fields. John McCrae, the author, also fought in the battle.

"Flanders" is a part of Northern Belgium; many other happenings including fierce battles and relentless fighting, occurred there during World War I.

https://www.visitflanders.com/en/discover-flanders/arts-and-heritage/flanders-fields/flanders-fields-history.

The poem was written/takes place after a battle on Flanders Fields. John McCrae, the author, also fought in the battle.

"Flanders" is a part of Northern Belgium; many other happenings including fierce battles and relentless fighting, occurred there during World War I.

https://www.visitflanders.com/en/discover-flanders/arts-and-heritage/flanders-fields/flanders-fields-history.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presentism_(historical_analysis)

relationship with context collapse

Presentism bias enters biblical and religious studies when, by way of context collapse, readers apply texts written thousands of years ago and applicable to one context to their own current context without any appreciation for the intervening changes. Many modern Christians (especially Protestants) show these patterns. There is an interesting irony here because Protestantism began as the Catholic church was reading too much into the Bible to create practices like indulgences.)

The colloquial use of the word "ain't" here very specifically pegs James Bruce, the author, as writing his argument for an audience of Christians in the Southern part of the United States. It's even more stark as most of his review is of a broadly scholarly nature where the word "ain't" or others of its register would never be used.

How does the shift in translation really negate room for Jesus? If it was a truism that it stood for Jesus, then couldn't one just as simply re-translate the New Testament to make sure that the space for him is still there? Small shifts in meaning and translation shouldn't undermine the support for Jesus so easily as Bruce suggests, otherwise there are terrible problems with these underpinnings of Christianity.

If one follows Bruce's general logic, then there's a hell of a religion based on Nostradamus' work we're all going out of our way to ignore.

What would historical linguistics have to say about this translation?

Railroads/Transportation was a big thing as I am noticing a lot of laws were becoming effective in this time frame. Although the Jim Crow Laws were to promote segregation, this law at least ensured that colored people are recieving the services at the rate they are paying. They were able to sue companies if they were treated otherwise. The cars of the trains were to be in good condition and could not be different than the cars and services for white people.

Jim Crow Laws were set into place for years 1866-1955 in the state of Tennesee. These Jim Crow Laws were laws that outlawed miscegenation, transportaion and public accomodation of black people and white people. The 1869 Law stated that no person can be excluded from recieving an education from tne University of Tennesee due to race but mandated that black people receive the same education in a separate faciliity. These Jim Crow Laws in Tennesee would last until 1955.

Fredrick Douglas observed that the convention was ran by mostly women. He says depsite the different opinions and view points, these women maintained good decorum. He says their proceedings were marked by ability and dignity. At this convention, he would see these women read grievances and other documents setting forth the rights for women.

When- July 19-20th, 1848 Who- 100 people (32males/68females) Fredrick Douglas attended and wrote his impressions about the convention in a newspaper. Article named, The North Star What- Very first womens rights conventions. Article : The North Star Where- NewYork, Seneca Falls.

Fredrick Douglas was one of one hundred people who attended the very first womens rights conevention. Located in New York, Seneca Falls. Frederick Douglas is the author of the article, The North Star. Dated July 28th, 1848. Article is about

Google translation:

Every Egyptology student learns in their first semester that the Egyptian word pt (pronounced pet) means "heaven". The collection of documents in the dictionary archive comprises around 6,000 document slips. In the order of this material one learns that the Egyptian heaven has gates and ways, waters and banks, sides, pillars and chapels. This makes it tangible that the Egyptians had something completely different in mind when they heard the word "heaven" than modern Westerners do, namely a mythical space in which gods and spirits of the dead dwell.

This is a fantastic example of context creation for a dead language as well as for creating proper historical context.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Zettelkasten/comments/109r830/who_else_is_pretty_much_avoiding_the_digital_zk/

movie tickets as stores of memory

know that the recipient is already familiar with the subject. 17

17 Indeed, writers often used this shared understanding to stress the relationship they had with the recipients.

Frederic L. Paxson frequently advised that a historian should work fully through the background material.

C. Wright Mills delineates a rough definition of "sociological imagination" which could be thought of as a framework within tools for thought: 1. Combinatorial creativity<br /> 2. Diffuse thinking, flâneur<br /> 3. Changing perspective (how would x see this?) Writing dialogues is a useful method to accomplish this. (He doesn't state it, but acting as a devil's advocate is a useful technique here as well.)<br /> 4. Collecting and lay out all the multiple viewpoints and arguments on a topic. (This might presume the method of devil's advocate I mentioned above 😀)<br /> 5. Play and exploration with words and terms<br /> 6. Watching levels of generality and breaking things down into smaller constituent parts or building blocks. (This also might benefit of abstracting ideas from one space to another.)<br /> 7. Categorization or casting ideas into types 8. Cross-tabulating and creation of charts, tables, and diagrams or other visualizations 9. Comparative cases and examples - finding examples of an idea in other contexts and time settings for comparison and contrast 10. Extreme types and opposites (or polar types) - coming up with the most extreme examples of comparative cases or opposites of one's idea. (cross reference: Compass Points https://hypothes.is/a/Di4hzvftEeyY9EOsxaOg7w and thinking routines). This includes creating dimensions of study on an object - what axes define it? What indices can one find data or statistics on? 11. Create historical depth - examples may be limited in number, so what might exist in the historical record to provide depth.

Ein großer Teil der Regestenarbeit wird neuerdings dem Forscher durch besondere Regestenwerke abgenommen, namentlich auf dem Gebiet der mittelalterlichen Urkunden. Daß diese bevorzugt werden, hat zwei Gründe: erstens sind die Urkunden fur die Geschichte des Mittelalters gewissermafen als festes Gerippe von besonderer Wichtigkeit; zweitens sind sie so verstreut in ihren Fund- und Druckorten, daß die Zusammenstellung derselben, wie sie ftir jede Arbeit von neuem erforderlich wire, immer von neuem die langwierigsten und mtthsamsten Vorarbeiten nötig machen würde. Es ist daher von größtem Nutzen, daß diese Vorarbeiten ein fir allemal gemacht und dem einzelnen Forscher erspart werden.

Google translation:

A large part of the regesta work has recently been relieved of the researcher by special regesta works, especially in the field of medieval documents. There are two reasons why these are preferred: first, the documents are of particular importance for the history of the Middle Ages as a solid skeleton; Secondly, they are so scattered in the places where they were found and printed that the compilation of them, as would be necessary for each new work, would again and again necessitate the most lengthy and laborious preparatory work. It is therefore of the greatest benefit that this preparatory work should be done once and for all and that the individual researcher be spared.

While the contexts are mixed here between note taking and historical method, there is some useful advice here that while taking notes, one should do as much work upfront during the research phase of reading and writing, so that when it comes to the end of putting the final work together and editing, the writer can be spared the effort of reloading large amounts of data and context to create the final output.

Stemming from British history, but often applied in other areas including the history of science, whig history is a historiography that presents history as a path from an oppressive, backward, and wretched past to a glorious present. The term was coined by British Historian Herbert Butterfield in The Whig Interpretation of History (1931). It stems from the British Whig party that advocated for the power of Parliament as opposed to the Tories who favored the power of the King.

It would seem to be an unfortunate twist of fate for indigenous science and knowledge that it was almost completely dismissed when the West began to dominate indigenous cultures during the Enlightenment which was still heavily imbued with the influence of scholasticism. Had religion not played such a heavy role in science, we may have had more respect and patience to see and understand the value of indigenous ways of knowing.

Link this to notes from The Dawn of Everything.

Science needs to be seen and understood in its appropriate historical context. Modern culture (and even scientists themselves) often forget the profound impact of theological, philosophical, social, political, and economic factors on how science develops and how we perceive it.

Historically, the knitting patterns of sweaters were used to help identify drowned men

The simplification required to make models and study systems can be a useful tool, but one constantly needs to go back to the actual system to make sure that future predictions and work actually fit the real world system.

Too often social theorists make assumptions which aren't supported in real life and this can be a painfully dangerous practice, especially when those assumptions are built upon in ways that put those theories out on a proverbial creaking limb.

This idea is related to the bias that Charles Mathewes points out about how we treat writers as still living or as if they never lived. see: https://hypothes.is/a/VTU2lFvZEeyiJ2tN76i4sA

exist as paragons, specimens, sock-puppets or playthings of some inexorable law of history.

This is similar to a problem that Charles Mathewes has pointed out about history and historical writing: Too often we act as if the writer never died and also we forget that the writer ever lived in the real world.

Peoples' context matters.

Cross reference: Lecture 1 of [[[The City of God (Books that Matter)]]

Certain 16th-century editions of the Italian poet Petrarch's works were affixed with a woodcut of an urn containing the ashes of lovers, along with a Phoenix. Donne is credited with moving away from a Petrarchan tradition in poetry, and would have been well-acquainted with this work.

Source: The Poems of John Donne: Volume One, edited by Robin Robbins (Routledge)

The eagle and the dove have been called upon by many different authors to represent a range of relationships. These include "predatory appetite and power versus submissive gentleness," "strength and tender purity," "pleasure and sorrow," and "the active and contemplative lives."

Source: The Poems of John Donne: Volume One, edited by Robin Robbins (Routledge)

Note on History of Poetry:

Donne wrote The Canonization around the turn of the 17th century, a time when European poetry was ruled by Petrarchan sonnets. Some attempts, including by C.S. Lewis have been made to categorize poets of this era (Lewis used "drab and "Golden", others; "plain" and "eloquent") but the spectrum of poets defies easy categorization. One important aspect of the time period was the innovation of language itself. Poetry and literature were moving away from Latin and French, and vernacular English continued to develop.

Source: English Poetry in the Sixteenth Century, Nasrullah Mambrol (Research Scholar, Department of Studies in English, Kannur University)

The final trick of this Donne poem comes from a historical impact he is unlikely to have predicted. After all, he never published his own poems. And yet, 400+ years later, his lyrics are still studied by scholars and students. He has been canonized in the literary sense. Furthermore, as love poems like this are some of his best-known, his love has in fact been canonized.

General Historical Note:

Donne likely writes this poem at the very beginning of the 17th century, though it could have been anywhere from the 1590s until the 1620s. This range came at the end of the Elizabethan period and contains the reign of James I, the first Stuart monarch. This was a period of great growth for England, with increasing naval power leading to the formation of the East India company, as well as the colony of Jamestown, expanding the power of the British empire in both hemispheres.

Sources: The Late Tudors, England 1547-1603; British Museum

In the 18th century English physicians would prescribe cold sea water and sea air to cure a variety of sicknesses. It was common for ailing people to be dunked in the freezing sea, as "the adrenaline from the shock of cold was thought to have soothing effects on the body, calming anxiety and restoring the body-soul balance".

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/08/the-historic-healing-power-of-the-beach/279175/

This historical question has been debated up to the twenty-first century:

Does the Sea Air Have Curative Powers? - WSJ https://www.wsj.com/articles/does-the-sea-air-have-curative-powers-1407797285

Does the sea air have healing powers? | Fox News https://www.foxnews.com/health/does-the-sea-air-have-healing-powers

Out of the blue: The healing power of the sea - ABC News www.abc.net.au/news/2017-03-26/could-sea-help-manage-mental-illness/8343932

(old-fashioned term) a medicine that purges; cathartic; laxative.

https://www.dictionary.com/browse/physic

An eighteenth-century exercise machine.

"…A special type of chair, commonly called a 'Chamber Horse', because the motion made as you sat on it was similar to that of a trotting horse."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/ahistoryoftheworld/objects/uIVOye4BRy-Sh5k7_PF_iQ

what are the connotations of this in this historical context? I'm not sure how to look this up but I'd like to know.

Irish dance halls were very popular during the 1950's amongst Irish-Americans. They allowed people to have fun, dance, and also meet possible romantic partners. The image above parallels this moment in the text because it showcases how women tended to stay together in groups (like Patty, Diana, and Eilis) and wait for men to ask them to dance.

Bartocci’s, the department store Eilis works at was likely inspired by Abraham and Strauss. Abraham and Strauss, also known as A&S, was a famous department store located at the corners of Hoyt and Fulton in Brooklyn. Abraham and Strauss was unlike the small and specialized shops (like Miss Kelly’s general store) that an Irish immigrant would have been used to at this time. A&S sold many different kinds of products, including clothing for all ages, furniture, and sporting goods. This was done in order to compete with other Brooklyn retailers and offer customers one-stop shopping.

‘what you yourself and the late John O’Daly, following in the footsteps of Edward Walsh, to some extent accomplished for Munster, more than thirty years ago’ (iv)

John O’Daly (1800-1878) was an editor and publisher. He published Edward Walsh’s Reliques of Irish Jacobite Poetry (1844), as well as two series of Poets and Poetry of Munster, the first by James Clarence Mangan (1849), and the second by George Sigerson (1860). In another of his works, Mise agus an Conradh (1937), Hyde wrote ‘Ní raibh éinne, lena linn, a rinne níos mó ar a shlí féin chun Gaeilge a leathnú agus a shaothrú’ (There was noone, during O’Daly’s time, who did as much as he did to popularize Gaelic’, my trans.) The most comprehensive biography of John O’Daly is that in Beathaninéis, vol. 2, by Diarmuid Breathnach and Mairéad Ní Mhurchú. It is available online at https://www.ainm.ie/Bio.aspx?ID=1193

The most comprehensive biography I have found in English is the entry in The Oxford Companion to Irish Literature, edited by Robert Welch.

‘My Dear Dr. Sigerson’ (iv)

The Dr. Sigerson in question is George Sigerson (1836-1925), a physician and an eminent translator of Gaelic poetry. When the Gaelic League was founded in 1893, Hyde was elected as its present, and so absented his role as president of the National Literary Society. Sigerson succeeded him, and was the society’s incumbent present when Love Songs of Connacht was published.

A direct address to the National Literary Society was famously performed by Hyde in 1892. The central idea of his speech titled ‘The Necessity for De-Anglicising Ireland’ was that there was an indissoluble link between a nation’s language and its culture, and that it was a sign of cultural weakness to mimic English ways and habits of thought.

The beginning of Love Songs of Connacht reminds us of the ideological backdrop from which the book emerges. For in-depth accounts of the development of the idea that language and nationhood are inextricably linked, see Diarmuid Ó Giolláin’s Locating Irish Folklore: Tradition, Modernity, Identity (2000), and Joep Leerssen’s National Thought in Europe: A Cultural History (2006). You can read the text of Hyde’s 1892 speech to the National Literary Society at http://historymuse.net/readings/HYDENecessityforDeAnglicizingIreland1892.html

Consider this date. What of importance was going on around the time that Carl Becker gave this speech before the American Historical Association?