Monthly Archives: September 2022

Remembering Summers Long Ago

By Robin Bates | Published: September 29, 2022

Poet Helen Mitsios thinks back to a perfect summer–as perhaps some of us are doing as the weather turns chilly.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged "Seventh Sense", Audre Lorde, beaches, Helen Mitsios, summer, young love | Comments closed

Think of Russia as Dr. Frankenstein

By Robin Bates | Published: September 28, 2022

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 […]

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What Made Roger Federer Special

By Robin Bates | Published: September 27, 2022

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

By Robin Bates | Published: September 26, 2022

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

By Robin Bates | Published: September 25, 2022

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

By Robin Bates | Published: September 24, 2022

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

By Robin Bates | Published: September 22, 2022

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

By Robin Bates | Published: September 21, 2022

Coleridge’s “Dejection Ode” can be used to describe Puerto Rico’s current torment but also to show the possibility of healing.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Lin-Manuel Miranda, Samuel Coleridge | Comments closed

Ukraine Must Unite Athena with Poseidon

By Robin Bates | Published: September 20, 2022

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