Monthly Archives: November 2021

Poetry for Couples Counseling

By Robin Bates | Published: November 9, 2021

An Ingrid Hagerup poem gives a future psychologist a profound insight into her quarreling parents.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged domestic quarrels, Ingrid Hagerup, psychotherapy, Thor Tangeras | Comments closed

Great Novels Tell Uncomfortable Truths

By Robin Bates | Published: November 8, 2021

Tuesday I’ve written a couple of times about Glenn Youngkin’s attack on Beloved (here and here), which may have helped him win the Virginia governorship, but I want to make one final point. Because Toni Morrison’s novel is in fact social dynamite, it makes sense that those “tap-dancing” with white supremacy (that’s the phrasing of […]

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No Flowers, No Leaves, November

By Robin Bates | Published: November 7, 2021

An antidote to feeling gloomy in November is to embrace the gloom by reading gloomy November poems. I offer several here.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged "November for Beginners", "November", Amy Lowell, Autumn, Depression, Rita Dove, Seasons, Thomas Hood | Comments closed

Birds on His Shoulders, Faith in His Hands

By Robin Bates | Published: November 6, 2021

In “Standard Time: A Novena for My Father,” Martinez wrestles with his doubts about whether his father is in some sense still present.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged "Standard Time: Novena for My Father", All Hallows Eve, death, Dionisio D. Martinez | Comments closed

On Revisiting Intense Experiences

By Robin Bates | Published: November 4, 2021

Returning to my alma mater reminds me of Wordsworth returning to the Wye River in “Tintern Abbey.” That he shares the experience with his sister makes it even more relevant.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged "Tortoise Shout", college reunions, D. H. Lawrence, Overstory, Richard Powers, Tintern Abbey, William Wordsworth | Comments closed

First They Came for Toni Morrison, Then…

By Robin Bates | Published: November 3, 2021

In the right attacks Toni Morrison novels, does this mean that Homer, Dostoevsky, Milton, and Sophocles are next?

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Beloved, Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoevsky, GOP, Homer, Odyssey, Oedipus, Sophocles, Toni Morrison | Comments closed

Holding on to Our Imperiled Humanity

By Robin Bates | Published: November 2, 2021

In arguing for the humanities, this “American Scholar” article makes good points but dismisses some powerful arguments.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Albert Camus, As I Lay Dying, English majors, George Herbert, King Lear, plague, Robert Oppenheimer, William Faulkner, William Shakespeare | Comments closed

Mixed Emotions about My Alma Mater

By Robin Bates | Published: November 1, 2021

To understand my feelings of melancholy when I returned to my alma mater, I turned to poems by Lawrence, Housman, and Dylan Thomas.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged "Into My Heart an Air that Kills", "Poem in October", A. E. Housman, college reunions, Dylan Thomas, Nostalgia, Piano | Comments closed