A lovely Christopher Merrill poem about a boy juggling a soccer ball.
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Author Archives: Robin Bates
Was Oedipus Deserving of a Red Card?
The World Cup is leading to some great literary tweets from my English professor son.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Bluesky, Oedipus, Sophocles, Tobias Wilson-Bates, World Cup Comments closed
Children as Devouring Mice?!
Images of devourment show up in children’s lit (“Children’s Hour,” “The Night Kitchen,” “Little Black Sambo,” “Runaway Bunny”), speaking to an inner tension in kids.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged children’s literature, Goodnight Moon, grandchildren, Helen Bannerman, In the Night Kitchen, Little Black Sambo, Margaret Wise Brown, Maurice Sendak, Runaway Bunny Comments closed
U.S. Soccer and the Ancient Mariner’s Curse
After Trump intervened with FIFA to overturn a red card, the USMT still lost. It was as though the Greek goddess Nemesis had intervened.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Donald Trump, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Great Gatsby, Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, U.S Men’s Team, World Cup Comments closed
Beowulf and “the Viking Row”
The “Viking Row” buoyed the Norwegian soccer team, bringing to mind a literary seafaring Scandinavian (i.e., Beowulf).
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Beowulf, Erling Haaland, Norwegian soccer team, World Cup Comments closed
Finding Deep Rest in a Still Room
A John Greeleaf Whittier poem making a strong case for communal worship.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged “Meeting", communal worship, John Greenleaf Whittier, Quakers Comments closed
My Early Literary Civics Lessons
In which I explore the works that contributed to my vision of being an American.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Oh Captain My Captain", “Nancy Hanks", American Twins of the Revolution, Clansman, Declaration of Independence, July 4th, Lucy Fitch Perkins, Rosemary Benét, Thomas Dixon, Walt Whitman Comments closed
Harry Kane as Henry V Redux
In which I compare England transcendent goal scorer Harry Kane to Shakespeare’s Henry V.
Reading Changes Us in Foundational Ways
In which I share an excerpt from Maryanne Wolf’s “Reader, Come Home: The Reading Brain in a Digital World.”