UPDATE: I'm extending the deadline for paraphrasing portions of the poem that we did not discuss in class on Monday. If you have not already attempted a paraphrase, please feel free to do so.
Between now and the start of class on Monday (9/21) you can get blog credit for attempting a paraphrase of 6 to 10 lines of Samuel Johnson's poem.
As explained in an earlier blog posting on Absalom and Achitophel: to paraphrase something is to restate it in your own words. You should strive to retain as much of the meaning as possible while "translating" it directly into C21 language that is clear, comfortable, and accessible. Don't try to rhyme--you don't even need to preserve Johnson's line breaks or retain his sentence structure! It's fine to write your paraphrase in as many or as few prose sentences as can capture Johnson's meaning most clearly.
Try to select a chunk that works as a coherent and more-or-less self-contained unit. Note that, like Absalom and Achitophel, The Vanity of Human Wishes is written as a series of really really long sentences, indicated by capital letters and periods. You'll probably find it easier to figure out what Johnson is saying if you take on a passage that does not begin or end mid-sentence. So that your paraphrases can function as a resource for your classmates, you should post your paraphrase as a response to the post below indicating the particular part of the poem you're working with.
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"Yet hope not life from grief or danger free, Nor think the doom of man reversed for thee: Deign on the passing world to turn thine eyes, And pause awhile from letters, to be wise; There mark what ills the scholar's life assail, Toil, envy, want, the patron, and the jail." (lines 155-160)
-Don't think that just because one is a scholar life will be free from strife or difficulty. Turn your eyes to the truth in the present to see that apart from the physical letters, there is little that books can offer to the ills of society. The scholar will still be subject to the ills of society.
Your instructor here. I just cut and pasted Whitney's response to the post below labeled "Lines 135 - 174 (Intellectual Preeminence)." Try to put your paraphrases under the post for the section of the poem you're working on--that way it will be harder to duplicate someone else's efforts and easier to get help deciphering a portion of the poem that puzzles you by looking at others' paraphrases.
There is no real salvation for mankind and their desires when it comes to mankind. In the end of The Vanity of Human Wishes, Johnson seems to believe that men should not stop trying to do good things. People should continue to be good hearted and keep faith, but only in God and not men.
"Must no dislike alarm, no wishes rise,
No cries attempt the mercies of the skies?
Inquirer, cease, petitions yet remain,
Which Heav'n may hear, nor deem religion vain.
Still raise for good the supplicating voice,
But leave to Heav'n the measure and the choice,
Safe in his power, whose eyes discern afar
The secret ambush of a specious prayer."
He seems as though having faith in God is all that people need to have faith in if they seek goodness and want their faith rewarded. All else is a wasted of time and effort.
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