Author Archives: Robin Bates

Her Maker’s Maker, Her Father’s Mother

By Robin Bates | Published: March 29, 2025

Donne’s “Annunciation” poem uses playful paradox and witty word play to capture the marvelous moment of St. Gabriel’s visit to Mary.

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Trump, Hitler: Two Storytelling Narcissists

By Robin Bates | Published: March 27, 2025

Trump’s takeover of the Kennedy Center stems from his fascination with and manipulation of culture, which he shares with Hitler.

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Kafka and America’s Disappeared

By Robin Bates | Published: March 26, 2025

America is “disappearing” people, bringing to mind the fate of K in Kafka’s “Trial.”

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Trump’s Pecksniffian Trans Ban

By Robin Bates | Published: March 25, 2025

Trump’s executive order banning trans from the military has been described as Pecksniffian, an allusion to the villain in Dickens’s “Martin Chuzzlewit.”

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To Resist Trump, Be Like Odysseus

By Robin Bates | Published: March 24, 2025

The Trump resistance started off like Telemachus overwhelmed by the suitors but, like Odysseus upon his return, it is starting to get strategic.

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Trump’s Viking-Like Threats

By Robin Bates | Published: March 23, 2025

The Weiss law firm has caved to Trump’s threats, in effect (this according to the Bulwark’s Krystol) paying the Dane-geld. This is reference to a Kipling poem.

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Earth’s Crammed with Heaven

By Robin Bates | Published: March 22, 2025

Barrett Browning’s captures nature’s transcendent meaning through the image of the burning bush in “Aurora Leigh.” Also writing about the bush is Michael Lewis.

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Berry and Milton on Love and Hate

By Robin Bates | Published: March 20, 2025

Wendell Berry’s insight into the nature of hate recalls Satan’s soliloquy in “Paradise Lost.” It also helps explain Trumpist resentment.

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On Watching Spring Come In

By Robin Bates | Published: March 19, 2025

Thomas Gray’s beautiful “Ode on the Spring” looks to the insect world for lessons on life.

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