Category Archives: Uncategorized

Jo, Nell, Tiny Tim Needed Vaccines

By Robin Bates | Published: December 1, 2024

Victorian lit is filled with scenes of children dying of diseases we now have cures for. Does Trumpism want to go back to those days?

By Robin Bates | Published: November 30, 2024

Gwendolyn Brooks’s poem “truth” dramatizes the conflict between disturbing hope and familiar darkness. Think of it as an Advent poem.

By Robin Bates | Published: November 28, 2024

Ruth Krauss’s children’s literature, often illustrated by Sendak, recognized and empowered me as a child.

By Robin Bates | Published: November 27, 2024

Think of Wordsworth’s “Tintern Abbey” as a gratitude poem appropriate for Thanksgiving.

By Robin Bates | Published: November 26, 2024

Kipling’s “Recessional,” written as a warning to the British empire, applies as well to America today.

By Robin Bates | Published: November 25, 2024

Reading childhood favorites to invalids can have a restorative effect.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged reading therapy | Comments closed

By Robin Bates | Published: November 25, 2024

Pete Heseth, Trump’s nominee for Sec. of Defense, is indistinguishable from the guardians in “Handmaid’s Tale.”

By Robin Bates | Published: November 23, 2024

A Malcolm Guite sonnet to celebrate “Christ the King Sunday.” The poet offers other metaphors than “king,” which is fine by me.

By Robin Bates | Published: November 21, 2024

South Korea’s 4B movement, aimed at toxic men, may owe something to Aristophanes’ “Lysistrata,” written 2500 years ago.