Poet Helen Mitsios thinks back to a perfect summer–as perhaps some of us are doing as the weather turns chilly.
Monthly Archives: September 2022
Remembering Summers Long Ago
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Seventh Sense", Audre Lorde, beaches, Helen Mitsios, summer, young love Comments closed
Think of Russia as Dr. Frankenstein
Thursday I came across a fascinating account by Harvard English professor Diedre Lynch about teaching Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein to Ukrainian students via zoom. One student was even taking the class while Russian soldiers prowled the streets outside. Because Ukrainian education has been interrupted, the government set up these on-line classes for its students. Lynch says […]
Posted in Uncategorized Comments closed
What Made Roger Federer Special
Recently retired Roger Federer had a quality possessed by the 17th century Cavalier poets.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Adam's Curse", "Requiem for Sonora", "Song", "To Lucasta Going to War", If, John Suckling, Mark Kingwell, Peter Bodo, Rafael Nadal, Richard Lovelace, Richard Shelton, Roger Federer, Rudyard Kipling, sprezzatura, To Althea from Prison, W. B. Yeats Comments closed
Read to Resist Fascism
Book bans are spreading around America. Neil Gaiman makes an impassioned plea for libraries.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged book bans, Charles Pierce, Douglas Adams, libraries, Neil Gaiman Comments closed
Russia’s Falstaffian Mobilization
Russia’s current mass mobilization at times resembles Falstaff’s recruitment in Shakespeare’s Henry IV plays.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Henry IV Part II, Russian mobilization, Russo-Ukrainian War, William Shakespeare Comments closed
I Am Lazarus, Come Back from the Dead
Eliot makes devastating use of the parable of the rich man and Lazarus in “Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.”
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Gather ye rosebuds while ye may", "To His Coy Mistress", Andrew Marvell, carpé diem poetry, Lazarus and the rich man, Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, Robert Herrick, T.S. Eliot Comments closed
The Light You Seek Hides in Your Belly
Piercy’s Rosh Hashanah poem uses new moon symbolism to powerful effect.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Head of the Year", Days of Repentance, Marge Piercy, Rosh Hashanah Comments closed
Fiona as Coleridge’s Mad Lutanist
Coleridge’s “Dejection Ode” can be used to describe Puerto Rico’s current torment but also to show the possibility of healing.
Ukraine Must Unite Athena with Poseidon
The ancient myth about Athena and Poseidon, historian Snyder argues, captures what Ukraine needs today in its battle with Russia.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Bacchae, Euripides, Fascism, Philoctetes, Russo-Ukrainian War, Timothy Snyder Comments closed
