Monthly Archives: June 2016

Trump’s Game of Thrones Invasion

By Robin Bates | Published: June 9, 2016

Now that the Democrats have a presumptive nominee, the question is whether Bernie Sanders’s supporters will join Hillary. A “Game of Thrones” analogy points out what is at stake.

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Was T. S. Eliot a Key to Hillary’s Success?

By Robin Bates | Published: June 8, 2016

As a college student at Wellesley in 1969, Hillary Clinton made multiple references to T. E. Eliot’s “East Coker.” Now as we watch her become the presumptive Democratic nominee, we can see how Eliot has helped her along the way.

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Donne Can Help with a Separation

By Robin Bates | Published: June 7, 2016

Today is my 43rd wedding anniversary and, although Julia and I plan to be together for many more years, we will live apart next year. John Donne’s “Valediction: Forbidding Mourning” may help us out.

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Donne vs. Brexit: No Nation Is an Island

By Robin Bates | Published: June 6, 2016

Donne’s “no man is an island” essay–Meditation 17–can be read as a commentary on the inadvisability of a British exit from the European Union (Brexit).

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Marianne Moore and Muhammad Ali

By Robin Bates | Published: June 5, 2016

The American poet Marianne Moore was drawn to Muhammad Ali, who died Friday. Moore wrote liner notes for an album of Ali’s spoken poetry in 1963. Her poem “The Octopus” shows why would have drawn her to the boxer.

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Celebrate! The Month of Fasting Is Come

By Robin Bates | Published: June 4, 2016

In this Ramadan poem by Rumi, the month of fasting is compared to a friend, an intoxicant, “a beautiful fortune,” a secret illumination, a plentiful harvest, and a silk outfit than one dons.

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Medicine & Lit, Working Together

By Robin Bates | Published: June 2, 2016

Paul Kalinithi’s “When Breath Becomes Air” represents an ideal blending of science and the humanities, including literature. It’s a book we all should be reading.

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Doctor Faustus: Lessons in Grieving

By Robin Bates | Published: June 2, 2016

After watching two students turn to Marlowe’s “Doctor Faustus” as they grieved the death of parents, I have come to see the play as a powerful meditation upon how we respond to death.

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