We could have anticipated how Donald Trump would respond to losing by reading “King Lear.” All the stages are the same.
Monthly Archives: November 2020
Lear Also Doesn’t Step Down Gracefully
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Donald Trump, Election 2020, King Lear, narcissism, Presidential transition, William Shakespeare Comments closed
Seamus Heaney’s Healing Vision
Seamus Heaney’s “Cure at Troy” points toward a country’s possibility for healing, a powerful vision as America emerges from the Trump presidency and a contentious election.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Cure at Troy, Election 2020, Joe Biden, Philoctetes, Seamus Heaney, Sophocles, truth and reconciliation Comments closed
The Stars Weep with Happiness
“There are no creatures you cannot love,” Tom Hennen writes in “From a Country Overlooked.” It is a message America currently needs.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "From a Country Overlooked", love, Nature, Tom Hennen Comments closed
Our New President Understands Suffering
America has elected a president who understands suffering. A passage from Aeschylus’s “Agamemnon” seems right.
“Stalin’s Epigram” and the Trump Era
Russian poet Osip Mandelstam describes life under Stalin. It eerily describes what life feels like under Trump.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Stalins Epigram", Donald Trump, Election 2020, Masha Geesen, Osip Mandelstam Comments closed
2020: Wandering between Two Worlds
A witty riff on a T. S. Eliot line and an illusion to a Matthew Arnold poem neatly capture the 2020 election results.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Hollow Men", "Stanzas from the Grand Chartreuse", Donald Trump, Election 2020, Joe Biden, Matthew Arnold, T. S. Eliot Comments closed
After the Storm
Baylebridge’s “After the Storm” will hopefully provide a suitable metaphor for America following the 2020 election.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "After the Story", Election 2020, William Baylebridge Comments closed
Whitman: Ballots Like Snowflakes Falling
Walt Whitman’s celebration of democratic elections is a powerful encorsement.
Hope for a Great Sea-Change
The Seamus Heaney poem that Biden quotes in a new ad is itself taken from Heaney’s verse translation of Sophocles’s “Philoctetes.” It’s perfect for the current moment.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Cure of Troy", 2020 election, Joe Biden, Martha Nussbaum, Philoctetes, Seamus Heaney, Sophocles Comments closed
