Tag Archives: Alexander Pope

Hope Springs Eternal in the NFL Draft

By Robin Bates | Published: April 27, 2013

The NFL draft perfectly exemplifies Alexander Pope’s passage about hope.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Essay on Man, hope, NFL, NFL draft | Comments closed

The Right Wing’s War on Science

By Robin Bates | Published: April 2, 2013

Tim O’Brien describes a character for whom facts are formed by sensation. Sounds like today’s right wing.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Dunciad, GOP, political discourse, politics, Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien | Comments closed

Justice’s Alimentary Imperative

By Robin Bates | Published: February 15, 2013

Alexander Pope understood that justice is best served on a full stomach.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged judges, judicial system, Rape of the Lock | Comments closed

The End of the World As We Know It?

By Robin Bates | Published: December 21, 2012

A number of poets have written poems about the apocalypse. But it’s always figurative, never literal.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "Hellas", "Second Coming", "Stanzas from the Grand Chartreuse", Apocalyptic literature, Between the Acts, Dunciad, Matthew Arnold, Mayan Apocalypse, Virginia Woolf, William Butler Yeats | Comments closed

Federer: Floating Butterfly, Stinging Bee

By Robin Bates | Published: July 9, 2012

In the immortal words of Muhammad Ali, Roger Federer floated like a butterfly, stung like a bee as he won his 7th Wimbledon title yesterday.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged J. R. R. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings, Muhammad Ali, Rape of the Lock, Roger Federer, Sports, Tempest, tennis, William Shakespeare, Wimbledon | Comments closed

Literary Reflections on QEII’s Coronation

By Robin Bates | Published: June 5, 2012

A. S. Byatt points to the renewal symbolism that Britain found in the the coronation of Queen Elizabeth 60 years ago.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged A. S. Byatt, Coronation, Diamond Jubilee, Elizabeth II, Rape of the Lock, Royalty, Virgin in the Garden | Comments closed

The Rape of John Lauber’s Locks

By Robin Bates | Published: May 14, 2012

The high school incident where Romney forcibly cut a classmate’s hair is less “Lord of the Flies” and more “Rape of the Lock.”

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged bullying, Lord of the Flies, Mitt Romney, Rape of the Lock, William Golding | Comments closed

Reading for Fun, the Best Education

By Robin Bates | Published: September 7, 2011

In “Northanger Abbey,” Jane Austen advocates the ideal way to raise one’s kids: encourage them to read good literature and they will learn the life lessons that they need.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "Elegy to the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady", Alice in Wonderland, James Thompson, Jane Austen, Lewis Carroll, Measure for Measure, Northanger Abbey, Othello, Reading to children, Seasons, Twelfth Night, William Shakespeare | Comments closed

And Universal Darkness Buries All

By Robin Bates | Published: July 15, 2010

Yesterday I talked about irresponsible political commentators and politicians and how they reminded me of the scribblers that John Dryden was worried about in the 1680’s. In the 1740’s Alexander Pope was even more pessimistic about the threat they posed. In The Dunciad he imagines an inevitable cultural slide until “universal darkness buries all.” Harold […]

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Dunciad, Education, politics, satire | Comments closed