According to Johanna Winant, close reading is having a moment. I discuss what close reading a literary text means to me.
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Monthly Archives: January 2026
Beyond Close Reading: A Discussion
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Beowulf, close reading, Johanna Winant, John Stuart Mill, New Criticism Comments closed
Our Mad King’s Greenland Obsession
William Cowper’s poem about Moravian missionaries in Greenland sees a purer faith than that practiced in more temperate climes.
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King and the Reality of Police Violence
in “Bullet Points,” Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Jericho Brown calls out the reality of police violence.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged “Bullet Points", Jericho Brown, Martin Luther King, police violence Comments closed
Love Attends the Cana Wedding
Poet Marjorie Pickthall tells the story of the Cana wedding from the point of view of the bridegroom. Jesus’s attendance changes everything.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged “Bridegroom of Cana", Marjorie Pickthall, Wedding at Cana, Weddings Comments closed
My Early Years as a Teacher
In a continuation of my memoir, I look at my first year of teaching at St. Mary’s College of Maryland, including the shift I would make to elicit meaningful essays.
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Pullman’s Debt to the Romantic Poets
In Secret Commonwealth and Rose Field, Pullman takes inspiration from the great Romantic poets in his quest to keep the imagination open.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Ode to the West Wind", "World is too much with us", “Aeolian Harp", Biographia Literaria, fantasy, Imagination, Intimations of Immortality, Percy Shelley, Philip Pullman, Rose Field, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Secret Commonwealth, Tintern Abbey, W. H. Auden, William Blake, William Wordsworth Comments closed
Pullman’s Warning about Closed Societies
In Pullman’s “Rose Field,” there is an eloquent critique of ideological purists.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Philip Pullman, religious fundamentalists, Rose Field Comments closed
Pullman’s Resounding Fantasy Defense
In his latest novel, Pullman shows the dangers of a world that turns its back on the imagination.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Capitalism, Imagination, materialism, Philip Pullman, religious fundamentalism, Rose Field, skepticism Comments closed
Lord Byron’s Call to Battle Tyrants
Nicole Renee Good’s murder by an ICE agent may be (to use images from a Byron lyric) be the thorn in the couch that awakens mass resistance.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged “Journal in Cephalonia", ICE violence, Lord Byron, Nicole Renee Good, Phil Ochs Comments closed