Tag Archives: "Castaway"

Eternally Damned after Reading a Book

By Robin Bates | Published: June 23, 2021

In which I compare Austen’s Marianne and Willoughby to Dante’s Paulo and Francesca.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "Castaway", "Task", Alexander Pope, Dante, Desire, Essay on Man, Inferno, James Thomson, Jane Austen, Relationships, Seasons, Sense and Sensibility, Sir Walter Scott, William Cowper | Comments closed

The Rising Floodwaters of Sadness

By Robin Bates | Published: August 20, 2013

My father is dying. One of his last acts was to find an A. A. Milne passage about Sewanee’s incessant rain for the local newspaper.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "Castaway", A. A. Milne, death and dying, William Cowper, Winnie the Pooh | Comments closed

The Choice: To Die or to Go on Caring

By Robin Bates | Published: April 29, 2010

Yesterday we buried a long-time friend, 98-year-old Maurine Holbert Hogaboom, a New York actress who had retired to southern Maryland. Tomorrow we commemorate the tenth anniversary of the death of my oldest son Justin. April, a month of new beginnings, has too often proved cruel as well. Nature often works ironically. Justin, feeling joyous on a […]

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "Castaway", "John Chapman", death and dying, Herman Melville, Lost Children, Mary Oliver, Moby Dick, William Cowper | Comments closed