I welcome in Autumn with John Keats’s “Ode to Autumn,” which also works as a poem about dying.
Sign up for my weekly newsletter
Author Archives: Robin Bates
Trust the Lord for Spiritual Food
John Newon has a profound take on the manna in the wilderness episode.
E. Nesbit’s Formative Moral Influence on My Life
E. Nesbit’s Bastable books played a major role in my moral foundation.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged David Brooks, E. Nesbit, moral education, Treasure Seekers, Wouldbegoods Comments closed
Use Lit to Teach America Morality
If the U.S. is looking for its moral center, literature can help.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Alasdair MacIntyre, Charlotte Bronte, David Brooks, Jane Eyre, MAGA, Trumpism Comments closed
C.S. Lewis’s Vision of Ecological Hope (in Prince Caspian)
Prince Caspian is a narrative about ecological hope in the face of human darkness.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged “Vision", Bacchae, C. S. Lewis, Environmentalism, Euripides, Prince Caspian, Wendell Berry Comments closed
Bunyan’s Nervous Defense of Fiction
John Bunyan had to fight for Pilgrim’s Progress given Puritan antagonism to fiction.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Defence of Poesy, John Bunyan, Pilgrim’s Progress, Sir Philip Sidney Comments closed
Another Kafkaesque Deportation Story
ICE deportations are Kafkaesque. I revisit “The Trial” to refresh the descriptor.
Posted in Uncategorized Comments closed
Rosh Hashanah: The Light You Seek Hides in Your Belly
This Piercy Rosh Hashanah poem builds a poem about forgiveness and renewal from the image of a dark moon.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged "Head of the Year", Marge Piercy, Midsummer Night's Dream, Rosh Hashanah, William Shakespeare Comments closed
9-11: Waves of Anger, Fear Circulated over the Earth
In a repost from two years ago, I apply Auden’s “September 1, 1939” to 9-11.
Posted in Uncategorized Comments closed