Monthly Archives: November 2015

Reading Poems to Protest Donald Trump

A student attending a Donald Trump rally staged a silent protest by reading the poetry of Claudia Rankine. The collection of poems could not have been better chosen.

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And the Light Shineth in the Darkness…

Auden’s Advent section in “For the Time Being” captures the pessimism that many feel about the world today. Luckily, the poem moves on to the Christmas promise.

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To Strengthen Your Caring, Read Lit

When we become numb to the world’s horrors, the problem is not the numbness but the insufficient attention paid. Reading lit can help us overcome compassion fatigue

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We Come to Pay Our Thanks to Thee

A Paul Laurence Dunbar poem giving thanks on this holiday devoted to gratitude.

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Milton: “A Good Book Is the Precious Life-Blood of a Master Spirit”

In “Areopagitica,” Milton puts forth powerful arguments against censorship. Milton says that we need to be exposed to scenes of temptation–say, Mammon’s Cave in “The Faerie Queene,” so that we will resist it.

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Conspiracy Theories Explained

Why do conspiracy theories thrive? Because people can’t face up to the emptiness that would come with a real explanation. Thomas Hardy understands the phenomenon in his poem “Hap.”

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Unwanted Pregnancies, Desperate Women

As reproductive service centers are closed down by conservative state legislatures, attempted self abortions are on the rise. For a literary depiction of a desperate woman there is Hetty Sorrel from George Eliot’s “Adam Bede.”

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Daniel’s Vision of Indestructible Kingship

The versions of the Prophet Daniel depicted by Richard Wilton and Lucille Clifton have a commonality despite their differences.

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Lit, an Antidote to Dehumanizing Media

The mass media, Norwegian author Karl Ove Knausgaard complains, creates a remoteness from reality. Literature overcomes this remoteness by dissolving the distance between author and reader.

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