Creative Project - Christabel

I finally took my own advice and used my weekends well. I finished off some work, worked a little on my fellowship applications, and even got some overdue teaching stuff squared away. I am feeling great. I think I did not join the new year with everyone else. It took me a month of adjustment (January), but I finally feel like a relatively normal human being. Amazing how Graduate school changes your perception.
You may remember that I had my students do two different creative projects last term, and they were so interesting that I decided to do at least one of them again. Today I spent a couple hours reading their Christabel projects. The basic requirements of the assignment is to finish the unfinished poem by Samuel Coleridge "Christabel." We had a great discussion of the poem itself the other day, and my students surprised me by going to the text to support their opinions. I feel like every time I read this poem, I learn something new, and yet it remains so mysterious. We had a great debate on what exactly Christabel is supposed to be - witch, vampire, succubus?
So I gave them homework to finish the poem using details from the original parts, and showing a clear connection to the themes we discussed. I also offered extra credit if they put more effort in and used rhyme and/or Coleridge's meter. Since I only have 9 student (yes, now it is 9), it did not take me long to read all of their work. All of them did fairly well, and met the basic requirements of the assignment, but two of them did outstanding jobs. In some cases, a student would get the rhyme and meter down, but fail to actually "tell" the story or connect it clearly to the other parts. In these two cases, however, they have compelling stories that make you want to keep reading, and they each mimicked Coleridge in interesting ways. One mimicked they rhyme (but the meter was off) and the format - the "part" and the "conclusion." The other mimicked the rhyme and meter almost perfectly, but did not add a "conclusion." I am going to embarrass them a little in class because I want everyone to see how creatively they addressed the assignment.
I am thinking that I might actually do something with these creative assignments, but I am not telling yet. I want to see if my idea pans out with people who know about this sort of thing. In the meantime, I have finally begun reading A Suitable Boy, but I interrupted it with some Salman Rushdie re-reading (all in the name of the game I am afraid). Looking over Manfred by Lord Byron tonight in preparation for class tomorrow - very fun stuff.