Monthly Archives: December 2020

Dreaming of Travel during Covid

By Robin Bates | Published: December 21, 2020

A very smart Covid poem circulating on social media at the moment references 11 poems, all about longing to travel.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud", "Lake Isle of Innisfree", "Sea Fever", "Green Eye of the Yellow God", "Mandalay", "Milford Haven", "Rolling English Road", "Skye Boat Song", "Upon First reading Chapman's Homer", A. E. Housman, COVID-19, Crown, G.K. Chesterton, J. Milton Hayes, John Keats, John Masefield, Kenneth Grahame, Loveliest of Trees, Michael Drayton, Midsummer Night's Dream, Outlanders, Robert Louis Stevenson, Rudyard Kipling, Sir Henry Boulton, W. B. Yeats, William Shakespeare, William Wordsworth, wind in the willows | Comments closed

Promises on the Year’s Darkest Evening

By Robin Bates | Published: December 20, 2020

When we have a president who is governed by self-gratification, Frost’s famous poem about honoring obligations is what we need.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged "Stopping by the Woods on a Showy Evening", Donald Trump, GOP, Robert Frost, social obligations, Winter solstice | Comments closed

A Barn Shall Harbor Heaven

By Robin Bates | Published: December 19, 2020

In Richard Wilbur’s “Christmas Hymn,” low and high meet as we have the promise of worlds reconciled.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged "Christmas Hymn", Advent, Christmas, nativity scene, Palm Sunday, Richard Wilbur | Comments closed

Who Gets to Be Called “Dr.”?

By Robin Bates | Published: December 17, 2020

Alexandra Petri satirizes a dismissal of Jill Biden’s doctorate by imagining herself as Dr. Victor Frankenstein.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Christopher Marlowe, colleges and universities, Doctor Faustus, doctorate programs, Frankenstein, Jill Biden, Joseph Epstein, Mary Shelley, misogyny, Sexism | Comments closed

Forster Predicted Our Zoom Existence

By Robin Bates | Published: December 16, 2020

In his 1909 novella “The Machine Stops,” E.M. Forster all be predicts the internet, Zoom, and Facebook, along with their downsides.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged COVID-19, E. M. Forster, Internet, Machine Stops, Zoom | Comments closed

Brecht on Trumpian Democracy Attacks

By Robin Bates | Published: December 15, 2020

Brecht has the perfect poem for Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election results.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged "Solution", 2020 election, Bertolt Brecht, Donald Trump, GOP | Comments closed

Finding Strength in a Time of Covid

By Robin Bates | Published: December 14, 2020

Robinson Jeffers offers a poem that reminds us of spiritual resources available to us in these dark days.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged "Answer", Adonais, American Dream, COVID-19, death and dying, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Robinson Jeffers | Comments closed

Austen-Like Dating During Covid

By Robin Bates | Published: December 13, 2020

Covid is disrupting our dating lives but may as a result have an up-side. Kundera, John Fowles, and Jane Austen explain.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged COVID-19, French Lieutenant's Woman, Jane Austen, John Fowles, Milan Kundera, Persuasion, Pride and Prejudice, Relationships, sexuality, Slowness | Comments closed

Hanukkah: Light Invites Happiness

By Robin Bates | Published: December 12, 2020

Mary Oliver’s celebration of light in “Poppies” qualifies it as a Hanukkah poem.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged "Poppies", e. e. cummings, Garden of Earthly Delights, Hanukkah, Hieronymus Bosch, Mary Oliver | Comments closed