1) The document outlines the assignments for an American Literature 201 course for the following week, which includes setting up a personal blog, reading selections from "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry" by Walt Whitman, and reading from William Bradford. 2) It also provides information on the course logistics, including the grading structure for blogs and levels of reading texts, from elementary to analytical readings. 3) The document concludes with summaries and analysis of the assigned Whitman text and key passages.

1. American Literature 201 August 18 Michael Simpson Section 051 “ Old and new make the warp and woof of every moment. There is no thread that is not a twist of these two strands. By necessity, by proclivity and by delight, we all quote. It is as difficult to appropriate the thoughts of others as it is to invent.” Ralph Waldo Emerson * * Sante, Luc. “The Fiction of Memory” The New York Times. March 14, 2010.

6. Lectio Divina From the very earliest accounts of monastic practice – dating back to the fourth century – . . . a form of reading called lectio divina (“divine” or “spiritual reading”) was essential to any deliberate spiritual life. This kind of reading is quite different from that of scanning a text . . . , or advancing along an exciting plotline to a climax in the action. It is, rather, a meditative approach, by which the reader seeks to savor and taste the beauty and truth of every phrase and passage. . . . There are four steps in lectio divina : first, to read, next to mediate, then to rest in the sense of God’s nearness, and, ultimately, to resolve to govern one’s actions in the light of new understanding. This kind of reading is itself an act of prayer. [xii] Thornton, John F., and Susan B. Varenne. “About the Vintage Spiritual Classics” The Confessions . By Saint Augustine. Trans. Maria Boulding. Vintage Books: New York. 1998. xi-xii.

7. Lectio Divina From the very earliest accounts of monastic practice – dating back to the fourth century – . . . a form of reading called lectio divina (“divine” or “spiritual reading”) was essential to any deliberate spiritual life. This kind of reading is quite different from that of scanning a text . . . , or advancing along an exciting plotline to a climax in the action. It is, rather, a meditative approach, by which the reader seeks to savor and taste the beauty and truth of every phrase and passage . . . . There are four steps in lectio divina : first, to read, next to mediate, then to rest in the sense of God’s nearness, and, ultimately, to resolve to govern one’s actions in the light of new understanding. This kind of reading is itself an act of prayer. [xii] Thornton, John F., and Susan B. Varenne. “About the Vintage Spiritual Classics” The Confessions . By Saint Augustine. Trans. Maria Boulding. Vintage Books: New York. 1998. xi-xii.

9. “ Crossing Brooklyn Ferry”(1 – 5) Saw the reflection of the summer sky in the water, Had my eyes dazzled by the shimmering track of beams, Look’d at the fine centrifugal spokes of light round the shape of my head in the sunlit water, [2184]

10. “ Crossing Brooklyn Ferry”(1 – 5) What is it then between us? What is the count of the scores or hundreds of years between us? Whatever it is, it avails not --- distance avails not, and place avails not I too lived, . . . I too felt the curious abrupt questionings stir within me, I too had been struck from the float forever held in solution, I too had receiv’d identity by my body, That I was I knew was of my body, and what I should be I knew I should be of my body. [2185]

11. Last Questions It is as difficult to appropriate the thoughts of others as it is to invent.” Ralph Waldo Emerson * * Sante, Luc. “The Fiction of Memory” The New York Times. March 14, 2010.