Tag Archives: Alfred Lord Tennyson

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

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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.

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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?

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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.

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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.

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Strong in Will vs. Time & Fate

By Robin Bates | Published: July 19, 2014

Roger Feder, like Tennyson’s “Ulysses,” braved time and fate and came up just short.

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Expect No Second Charge in Ukraine

By Robin Bates | Published: March 3, 2014

Battling Russian troops 110 years ago in the Crimea, the British light brigade inspired Tennyson. Expect no doomed charge from the West this time.

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Maybe the Gulfs Will Wash Us Down

By Robin Bates | Published: February 8, 2014

Peyton Manning was not Homer’s Odysseus but Tennyson’s Ulysses.

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Eagles Prepare a Thunderbolt

By Robin Bates | Published: January 4, 2014

The Philadelphia Eagles bring to mind Tennyson’s eagle, falling like a thunderbolt.

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