Homer explores the difficulty of a young man living up to his famous father. It’s a problem that continues with fathers and sons.
Tag Archives: Alfred Lord Tennyson
Is Old Age Becoming Overrated?
A “New Yorker” article on aging turns to literature to debunk the notion that aging is a good thing.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Vanity of Human Wishes", "Sailing to Byzantium", "Tithonous", Aging, Aristotle, As You Like It, Ecclesiastes, Geoffrey Chaucer, Gulliver's Travels, Jonathan Swift, King Lear, Merchant's Tale, old age, Plato, Rasselas, Samuel Johnson, Ulysses, William Butler Yeats, William Shakespeare Comments closed
The Anxiety of Harold Bloom
The late Harold Bloom longed to be a Samuel Johnson but never got there.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Anxiety of Influence, Harold Bloom, Samuel Johnson, T. S. Eliot Comments closed
Let Us Sail into the Promise of the Day
E. A. Robinson’s “Children of the Night” finds spiritual hope in a dark world.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Children of the Night", Doubt, E. A. Robinson, Faith, In Memoriam Comments closed
Frank Lloyd Wright’s Crannied Wall
Monday On the way back from a family function in Iowa, Julia, my mother and I stopped off in Springfield, Il. Yesterday we visited the spectacular house that Frank Lloyd Wright built for Dana Thomas in 1902-04. Upon entering the structure, we were greeted by a statue bearing the label of a Tennyson poem. Looking […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Flower in a Crannied Wall", architecture and nature, Dana Thomas House, Frank Lloyd Wright Comments closed
Fathers & Sons: He Goes His Way, I Mine
Wednesday The talk with my son that I described in Monday’s post reminded me of talks with my own father where I was sure he was wrong. I’ve since concluded that I was not as right as I thought I was and that our disagreements came down to our different life arcs. Our arguments came […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Blaise Pascal, Jean Paul Sartre, Rasselas, Samuel Beckett, Samuel Johnson, Ulysses, Westword Ho! Comments closed
Will Odysseus Shape 2020 Election?
Monday I won’t take credit for this but Washington Post’s Molly Roberts recently penned a very Better-Living-with Beowulf type column where she contrasted two Democratic presidential candidates by examining which version of the Odysseus/Ulysses story they prefer. Her piece gives me an excuse to apply other versions of the story to various 2020 contenders. Roberts […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged 2020 election, Aeneid, Beto O'Rourke, Donald Trump, Finnegans Wake, Homer, James Joyce, Joe Biden, Joseph Campbell, Odyssey, Pete Buttigieg, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Ulysses, Virgil Comments closed
Fantasy Keeps Dreams Alive
Thursday In Monday’s and Tuesday’s posts (see here and here), I laid out the outlines of my first “Wizards and Enchantresses” class, which I’m currently teaching as part of Sewanee’s Lifelong Learning Program. The first class I devoted to Merlin, the second will focus on Morgan Le Fay, the third will take up Shakespeare’s Prospero, […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Arthurian tales, Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, fantasy, Idylls of the King, J. R. R. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings, Mark Twain, Merlin, Once and Future King, Sword in the Stone, T. H. White Comments closed
Poetry Was Used to Bolster the Lost Cause
When the Silent Sam statue was erected in 1913, a speech associated it with defending white womanhood and quoted Tennyson.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Confederate statues, Lost Cause, Princess, Silent Sam Comments closed
