The speaker in “Hiroshima Child,” by Turkish poet Nazim Hikmet, has died in the bombing but returns to plead for peace.
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Category Archives: Uncategorized
Pratchett on the Excitement of Invention
Pratchett’s “Raising Steam” highlights the vibrancy of invention and also the importance of a multicultural society in making new inventions work.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged inventors and inventions, J.R.R. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings, multiculturalism, Raising Steam, Terry Pratchett Comments closed
Are You an Eeyore Democrat? Shake It Off
Are Democrats in danger of become Eeyore donkeys? If so, Pooh and Piglet offer a much better response to Trump.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged A.A. Milne, Eeyore Democrats, House at Poor Corner, Matt Labash, Winnie-the-Pooh Comments closed
Killing the Messenger of Bad News
Trump has shot the messenger in firing the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Plutarch, Euripides and Shakespeare have scenes with this dynamic.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Antony and Cleopatra, Bacchae, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Donald Trump, Erika McEntarfer, Euripides, Henry IV Part 2, shooting the messenger, William Shakespeare Comments closed
Worldly Vanity vs. Celestial Wisdom
Johnson’s “Vanity of Human Wishes” was inspired by the famous vanities passage in Ecclesiastes. It’s grim but has an upbeat ending.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged Ecclesiastes, Samuel Johnson, vanity, Vanity of Human Wishes Comments closed
Thoughts on Teaching as School Begins
The despairing teacher in this Vernon Scannell poems needs to focus on his students, not on himself.
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