Monthly Archives: July 2022

August: The River Flames Like Brass

By Robin Bates | Published: July 31, 2022

Reese writes one of the very best poems about August.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Comments closed

The Vanity of Human Wishes

By Robin Bates | Published: July 30, 2022

To mark today’s reading (from Ecclesiastes) about human vanity, I turn to Samuel Johnson’s great poem about the subject.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Comments closed

O’Connor and Swift on the Death of Others

By Robin Bates | Published: July 28, 2022

Friday While losing my mother at 96 is definitely not like Julian losing his mother in Flannery O’Connor’s “All That Rises Must Converge,” I can relate somewhat to his feelings of being adrift once she is gone. In his case, he is entirely dependent upon her, and embarrassed by her, and resentful of his inability […]

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | Comments closed

On Telling the Homeless to “Move On”

By Robin Bates | Published: July 27, 2022

People want refugees and the homeless to be out of sight, out of mind. Like society with Jo in “Bleak House.”

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | Comments closed

Returning at Last with Weary Feet

By Robin Bates | Published: July 26, 2022

As I return home, I recall Bilbo’s “The Road Goes Ever On and On.”

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , | Comments closed

Cut the Heat, Plow Through It

By Robin Bates | Published: July 25, 2022

Hilda Doolittle captures heat such as we are currently experiencing it.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | Comments closed

Donald Trump Is Our Harold Skimpole

By Robin Bates | Published: July 24, 2022

Dickens’s Skimpole reminds one of Trump in the way he leeches off other people and always avoid’s responsibility.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | Comments closed

Why Cry for a Soul Set Free?

By Robin Bates | Published: July 23, 2022

Christina Rossetti’s “Let Me Go” guides those mourning a loved one and consoles those who are dying as well.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Comments closed

Good Night, Sweet Lady

By Robin Bates | Published: July 21, 2022

Tomorrow I will recite internally recite a passage from “Hamlet” when I pour my mother’s ashes into the ground.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Comments closed