Tag Archives: John Wilmot

Wilmot, Women, and Sexual Pleasure

Apparently the 17th century experienced a small boom in sex toys–which brings John Wilmot’s poetry to mind.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Pullman and Dante on the Afterlife

Pullman, drawing on Dante, provides one of the most sustaining accounts of the afterlife that I know.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments closed

Poems about Charles I and II

With the ascension of Charles III to the throne, I look back at poems that mention the two previous Charleses.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments closed

When a Novel Affected Clock Sales

Friday I have lots of thoughts about the Congressional hearings on Donald Trump’s January 6 coup attempt, which opened last night, and am working up a post that references Milton’s rebel angels. I’ll end this week, however, on a lighter note, an interesting footnote that my English professor son alerted me to. Apparently, Laurence Sterne’s […]

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged , , , , , , | Comments closed

John Wilmot Sums Up Current GOP

Thursday One of the interchanges in Trump fixer Michael Cohen’s testimony before the House Investigation Committee yesterday jumped out at me because it had such an 18th century flavor to it. Kentucky Republican James Comer, seeking to undermine Cohen, challenged him with the following: Comer: “You called Trump a cheat. What would you call yourself?” […]

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged , , , , , , , | Comments closed

The Meaning of Hell

Spiritual Sunday Stephen Greenblatt, the world’s preeminent Shakespearean, has an article about hell in the latest issue of the New York Review of Books that has me thinking about a subject I generally avoid. It’s a smart piece but fairly grim.  For the most part, my view of hell is the one set forth in […]

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged , , , , , , , | Comments closed

Women Battling the Marriage Plot

Although men got the quest plot while women were relegated to the marriage plot in the 18th century, a number of women writers found imaginative ways to circumvent it. Among these were Aphra Behn, Eliza Haywood, and Lady Mary Wortley Montagu.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments closed

10 Memorable Poetic Pick-Up Lines

10 memorable pick-up lines from poetic greats. Try them at a bar near you.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments closed

Sexual Misconduct in the Classics

A sexual misconduct course required of all employees got me thinking of problematic situations in the books that I teach.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments closed