Monthly Archives: November 2023

Why the GOP Is Quoting 1984

By Robin Bates | Published: November 30, 2023

American authoritarians appropriating Orwell’s “1984” for their own use is itself an Orwellian move.

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Hamlet Taught Us a New Way to Grieve

By Robin Bates | Published: November 29, 2023

In “Hamlet,” Shakespeare taught the world a powerful new way to grieve.

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Does Hamlet Speak for Generation Z?

By Robin Bates | Published: November 28, 2023

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.  Wednesday My faculty reading group has plunged into Hamlet, and our engagement […]

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Biden and Auden’s Unknown Citizen

By Robin Bates | Published: November 27, 2023

Auden’s “Unknown Citizen” looks better now than when the poet wrote the poem.

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Bloom: The Bard Invented the Human

By Robin Bates | Published: November 26, 2023

I examine how Harold Bloom believes that Shakespeare changed history.

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Our Country, a Land of Poverty

By Robin Bates | Published: November 25, 2023

Blake calls out those who claim to be Christians while mistreating the poor.

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Expressing Thanks Is Its Own Reward

By Robin Bates | Published: November 23, 2023

Thanks giving is not (as Milton’s Satan) contends, a burdensome debt but the key to deep joy.

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A Wordsworth Thanksgiving Poem

By Robin Bates | Published: November 22, 2023

In which I read Wordsworth’s “Tintern Abbey” as a Thanksgiving poem.

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Clifton on JFK’s Assassination

By Robin Bates | Published: November 21, 2023

In “november 21, 1988,” Clifton looks back at JFK’s assassination and sees it as a day when history changed forever.

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