Tag Archives: Alfred Lord Tennyson

Can Poetry Stop This Man?

By Robin Bates | Published: January 22, 2017

Poetry may not have been able to stop Donald Trump, but it has its ways of mounting resistance. Poems by Tennyson, Auden, and Yeats explain how.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "In Memory of W. B. Yeats", "To a Friend Whose Work Has Come to Nothing", Donald Trump, In Memoriam, Joyce Carol Oates, William Butler Yeats | Comments closed

Personal News: A 2018 Retirement

By Robin Bates | Published: January 5, 2017

In June 2018, after 38 years of teaching college, I will retire. I don’t want to go out like Walter Savage Landor’s old man–“the fire is low

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, retirement, teaching, Walter Savage Landor | Comments closed

My Great Grandmother Read for Courage

By Robin Bates | Published: July 14, 2016

Reading over the memoirs of my great grandmother, I have been impressed by how reading literature helped her get through the hard times. The authors included Tennyson, George Eliot, Susan Warner, and Charlotte Yonge.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "May Queen", ancestors, Charles Kinglsey, Charlotte Yonge, Daisy Chain, family memoirs, George Eliot, Heir of Redcliffe, Mill on the Floss, Oscar Wilde, Susan Warner, Wide Wide World | Comments closed

Peyton: Old Age Hath Yet His Honor

By Robin Bates | Published: February 4, 2016

Two narratives clash on Super Bowl Sunday: the return of the king vs. the aging king that must be overthrown. Is Peyton Manning Odysseus and the Panthers the suitors? Or is he the dragon who must yield to the next generation?

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Football, Homer, Odyssey, Peyton Manning, Sports, Super Bowl, Ulysses | Comments closed

Love & the Red Fool-Fury of the Seine

By Robin Bates | Published: November 14, 2015

Tennyson, responding to Paris massacres in the 1840s, asserts his faith in love and in social truth. Our challenge is to continue to believe this in the wake of the recent terror attacks.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged In Memoriam, Paris terror attacks, Terrorism, violence | Comments closed

Chaucer’s Squire Meets Tennyson’s May Queen

By Robin Bates | Published: May 6, 2015

Love is in the May air. As I look at the College students hand in hand, I think of the men as Chaucerian squires, the women as Tennysonian May queens.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "May Queen", "May", Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer, maypole dances | Comments closed