The despairing teacher in this Vernon Scannell poems needs to focus on his students, not on himself.
Monthly Archives: July 2025
Thoughts on Teaching as School Begins
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged “Aging Schoolmaster", Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, Charles Dickens, Hard Times, pedagogy, school, Vernon Scannell Comments closed
Shaw’s Don Juan in MAGA America
Shaw’s play “Don Juan in Hell” came to mind when I visited the du Pont museum, featuring their gunpowder business.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Dante, Don Juan in Hell, George Bernard Shaw, Inferno, Jesse Ball du Pont, MAGA, Man and Superman, racism, white supremacy Comments closed
Let Us Sleep Now
Poetic passages that capture my current feelings of exhaustion.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged “Garden of Prosperine", Charles Algernon Swinburne, Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Wilfred Owen Comments closed
Channel Your Inner Gandalf
Gandalf challenges the allied forces to stand tall against Sauron. Don’t underestimate such principled stands.
Gentle Exemplar, Help Us in Our Trials
It’s no surprise to learn to Malcolm Guite’s love George Herbert. Both poets grapple with doubts and fears and use poetry to reconnect with God.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Denial", “Sonnet for George Herbert", George Herbert, Malcolm Guite Comments closed
Hammett’s Autocratic Fantasy
Hammett’s “Red Harvest” is an autocratic fantasy that has little basis in reality—but it still guides some people who support Trump.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Dashiell Hammett, Donald Trump, GOP, nihilism, Red Harvest, Yojimbo Comments closed
Ibsen Advice for Resisting Trump
I reflect on Stockmann’s “you should never wear your best trousers when you fight for freedom and truth” in Ibsen’s “Enemy of the People.”
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Enemy of the People, Fascism, Henrik Ibsen, Jesus, Merrick Garland Comments closed
