Yeats’s “Easter, 1916” is a profound meditation on activism, including on the poet’s ambivalent feelings about Dublin’s Easter Rising.
Monthly Archives: April 2023
Terrible Beauty Born from Easter 1916?
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Easter 1916", David Mamet, Easter uprising, Irish independence, Maud Gonne, Paul Muldoon, Terrorism, W. H. Auden, William Butler Yeats Comments closed
The Theatricality of Martyrdom
While visiting a Dublin exhibit of the Easter, 1916 Rising, I thought both of a Borges short story and Yeats’s famous poem about the event.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Easter 1916", Dublin, Easter Rising, Ireland, Irish independence, Jorge Luis Borges, Theme of the Hero and the Traitor, W. B. Yeats Comments closed
Leaving Ireland to Fight
One option for Irishmen leaving the country has been fighting for other countries. Yeats captures this in “An Irish Airman Foresees His Death.”
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Irish Airman Foresees His Death", Ireland, Irish emigration, W. B. Yeats, war Comments closed
Is Your Life Epic? Ask the Gods
A visit to an Irish literature museum alerted me to this Patrick Kavanagh about what makes something epic.
The Stone Is Rolled–I’m Whole, I’m Held
Note: If you wish to receive, via e-mail, (1) my weekly newsletter or (2) daily copies of these posts, notify me at [email protected] and indicate which you would like. I promise not to share your e-mail address with anyone. To unsubscribe, send me a follow-up email. Spiritual Sunday The story of doubting Thomas is fertile ground for […]
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Doubting Thomas sort-of-sonnet", Brothers Karamazov, Doubt, doubting Thomas, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Grand Inquisitor Comments closed
The Sleepy Sound of a Tea-Time Tide
We’re currently visiting Anglesey, Wales and can thus appreciate John Betjeman’s idyllic poem about the bay.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Bay in Anglesey", ancestral roots, Anglesey, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Wales Comments closed
Heaney and the Good Friday Agreement
Looking back at Northern Ireland’ Good Friday agreement, Clinton has cited a Seamus Heaney poem. There’s good reason for this.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Cure at Troy", Bill Clinton, Good Friday agreement, Ireland, Irish Troubles, Joe Biden, Northern Ireland, Philoctetes, Seamus Heaney Comments closed
Fighting Back against Book Censors
Judy Blume weighs in on book bans while a Washington Post pundit shows how we can find ways to resist.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Are You There God It's Me Margaret, book bans, censorship, Deenie, Forever, Judy Blume, libraries Comments closed
For England, Buttercup > Melon Flower
“Oh to be in England now that April’s here”–and not in Italy, with its gaudy melon flowers!
