Monthly Archives: December 2022

Winter Solstice and Desert Places

By Robin Bates | Published: December 20, 2022

In “Desert Places,” Frost finds despair in a handful of snow. Maybe he also has in mind Melville’s discourse on whiteness in “Moby Dick.”

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An Xmas Story about Political Polarization

By Robin Bates | Published: December 19, 2022

Elizabeth Gaskell wrote a Christmas story in 1848 about rival political factions learning to get along. One can dream.

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Dickens’s Evolving View of Christmas

By Robin Bates | Published: December 19, 2022

Dickens didn’t so much invent Christmas–or even reinvent it–as supercharge it. “A Christmas Carol” was key in the endeavor.

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Oliver’s “Bobcat” as an Advent Poem

By Robin Bates | Published: December 17, 2022

Mary Oliver’s “Bobcat” can be read as a poem about the Advent promise.

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French Team Resembles a Skunk Cabbage

By Robin Bates | Published: December 15, 2022

How is the French soccer team like a skunk cabbage? I show how using a Mary Oliver poem.

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To Know the Dark, Go Dark

By Robin Bates | Published: December 15, 2022

If Wendell Berry’s “To Know the Dark” is about exploring depression, then Thomas Moore in “Care of the Soul” has some interesting ideas on the subject.

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Kindred’s Race Lessons

By Robin Bates | Published: December 13, 2022

Butler’s “Kindred” awakens us to our racial blindnesses.

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Musk Needs a Shakespearean Fool

By Robin Bates | Published: December 12, 2022

The world’s wealthiest man attempted comedy the other night but was booed off the stage. Shakespeare would understand.

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France and England’s Titanic Match

By Robin Bates | Published: December 11, 2022

To capture France-England’s titanic World Cup struggle, I turn to Ralph Ellison and Christina Rossetti.

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