Tennyson and Longfellow have poems about bells ringing out an age of sin and suffering and ringing in new hope. Let them ring.
Monthly Archives: December 2020
Ring Out the Old, Ring in the New
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day", "Ring Out Wild Bells", Alfred Lord Tennyson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, In Memoriam, New Year's Day Comments closed
Post of the Year: Plagues in Literature
A survey of literature through the ages that has dealt with plagues.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Aeneid, Albert Camus, COVID-19, Daniel Defoe, Emily St. John Mandel, Journal of the Plague Year, Katherine Anne Porter, Louise Erdrich, Margaret Atwood, Oedipus, Oryk and Crake, Pale Horse Pale Rider, plague, Sophocles, Stand, Station Eleven, Stephen King, Tracks, Virgil Comments closed
Jesus and the Egyptian Gods
Jesus’s flight into Egypt resonates with the symbolism of multiple religions.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Flight into Egypt", Christianity, nativity scene, Scott Bates Comments closed
Trump & Chaucer’s Pardoner, Both Corrupt
Trump’s abuse of the pardon system invites comparisons with the behavior of Chaucer’s Pardoner and Summoner.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Canterbury Tales, Donald Trump, Geoffrey Chaucer, Pardoner, Summoner, Trump's pardons Comments closed
I Never Saw a Sweeter Child
Dorothy Parker and Scott Bates have poems that see the nativity from the vantage point of commoners.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Nativity", "Witness", Christmas, Dorothy Parker, Scott Bates Comments closed
A Star Has Fallen, to Blossom from a Tomb
John Heath-Stubbs’s “On the Nativity” is one of my favorite Christmas poems.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Jerusalem", "On the Nativity", Christmas, John Heath-Stubbs, William Blake Comments closed
Ms. Claus, Environmental Activist
Scott Bates’s Mrs. Santa Claus poems push environmental and peace themes. The next few posts consist of some of these poems.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Letter from Ms. Santa Claus", Christmas, Scott Bates Comments closed
Ragnarok, an Extreme Weather Event
Gaiman’s account of the Norse apocalypse Ragnarok comes close to describing a world destroyed by climate change.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Fire and Ice", climate change, extreme weather events, Neil Gaiman, Norse Mythology, Ragnarok, Robert Frost Comments closed
