Sure Thing

I absolutely love this dialogue. I've heard quite a few like this before, but they're so enjoyable that they don't get old. It's funny and charming and well-written. I could imagine it all easily, and I actually had it "cast" in my head (I could definitely see a couple of my friends who I used to act with in high school doing this). The setting is perfect in a cafe; it's simple enough not to take the focus away from the characters, the development of whom is obviously the focal point of this play. Just get two thespians who can capture an audience's attention and who mesh well together and you have a production. The bell is the perfect way to change the direction of the dialogue because it's very obvious but wouldn't distract. I also love how Ives gave the characters the extremely generic names "Betty" and "Bill." It shows that these characters could be anyone, anywhere. It goes through several situations of how two normal people could end up either never giving one another a chance, or else hitting it off so well that they get married and raise a family together--two girls and a boy to be exact. The title is ironic because it shows that meeting someone new is never a sure thing. It is written with a lot of energy so it would be fun to watch, and it made me laugh just reading it so I'm sure it would funny seeing it performed.

Driving to Town Late to Mail a Letter

I really like this poem because of the imagery, and because I can relate to it. I admire how Robert Bly and paint so vivid a scene in peoples' minds with only five lines. Everyone has been out on a night like this. A night where "the only things moving are swirls of snow." Personally, I enjoy the stillness and solitude of these nights ("There is a privacy I love in this snowy night"). It takes the focus off of everyday life, making things that seemed so important look so trivial in comparison. It gives you one of those moments where you feel you are so alive, and that life is so worth living. You know if you can get to the next moment in life where you feel like that, you will be okay. It's something no circumstance or person can take away from you. And, like the narrator, I have "wasted" time (depending on if you consider the time spent a waste) driving or walking around, simply to prolong the moment.

Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day?

One question for Howard Moss...why?

It seems like he knew he couldn't improve on the elegance of Shakespeare's language, so he decided to make it as unpoetic as possible. Yes, comparison to a day in summer is a unique idea in the subject of love poems, and a very good one at that. But the idea of it alone doesn't make good poetry. Moss' language is so plain and common that it makes it almost painful to read, especially having read the original version right before it.

As for Shakespeare's original version, I love his use of language...especially the end:
"so long as men can breathe or eyes can see
so long lives this, and this gives life to thee"
He makes everyday concepts elegant.