Literature has a role to play in the fight against climate change. Coleridge early on showed us how.
Monthly Archives: August 2021
Poets and Climate Change’s 5-Alarm Fire
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged climate change, ecocriticism, Nature, Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Samuel Taylor Coleridge Comments closed
Plantations that Bury Their Black Past
Two black authors (Clifton, McQueen) report similar experiences when visiting southern plantations: the erasure of slave history.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "at the cemetery walnut grove plantation", LaTanya McQueen, Lucille Clifton, slavery, When the Reckoning Comes Comments closed
Chaucer Was No Sexist or Anti-Semite
In which I agree with a recent article defending Chaucer against charges of sexism and anti-Semitism.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged anti-Semitism, Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer, Prioress' Tale, Sexism, Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale Comments closed
Spiritual Lessons from a Happy Hypocrite
In Beerbohm’s story “The Happy Hypocrite,” we learn that to fake virtue can have unintended consequences.
What To Make of a Diminished Biles
For Simone Biles’s fall from Olympic heights, two Robert Frost poems and Le Guin’s Earthsea Tetralogy bring some needed perspective.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Nothing Gold Can Stay", "Oven Bird", gymnastics, Simone Biles, Tombs of Atuan, Ursula K Le Guin, Wizard of Earthsea Comments closed
Beowulf Would Favor Vaccine Mandate
Beowulf would favor vaccine mandates and passports and his firmness would convince the rest of society to go along.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Beowulf, Beowulf poet, Covid, Covid vaccine, Vaccine mandate Comments closed
The Poetry of Hummingbirds
Hummingbirds are simultaneously beautiful and terrifying, as D. H. Lawrence points out.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Humming-bird", Birds, D. H. Lawrence, Dante, Divine Comedy, hummingbirds, Paradise Comments closed
Can We Be Beowulf Strong?
“Bowulf,” a poem about rage, violence, and the end of empire.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Anger, Beowulf, Beowulf poet, end of empire, grieving, resentment, violence Comments closed
Ibsen for Character Formation
Woolf’s “Voyage Out” explores how literature contributes to character formation.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged character formation, Diana of the Crossroads, Doll's House, George Meredith, Henrik Ibsen, reading, Virginia Woolf, Voyage Out Comments closed
