After an exhausting semester, I feel like Tennyson’s Arthur after his final battle. I’m spending my winter break with my wife and my mother in Sewanee, Tennessee, my version of Avalon.
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Tag Archives: Alfred Lord Tennyson
Federer, Unlike Ulysses, a Family Man Hero
Time and again with Roger Federer, thinking he is nearing his end, I have cited Tennyson’s “Ulysses.” He keeps proving me wrong. One reason may be because he has a different relationship with his family than Tennyson’s protagonist has.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Aging, Roger Federer, tennis, Ulysses, Venus Williams Comments closed
Great Pro-War Literature Doesn’t Exist
In which I argue that great pro-war literature doesn’t exist, including “The iliad” and “War and Peace.” (Both works are magnificent; I just don’t see them as pro-war.)
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Charge of the Light Brigade", anti-war literature, Catch 22, Donald Trump, Ernest Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls, Homer, Iliad, Joseph Heller, Leo Tolstoy, Naked and the Dead, Norman Mailer, Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien, war, War and Peace Comments closed
Little Flower, If I Could Understand
In celebration of Earth Day and as scientists protest anti-science measures in Washington, Tennyson’s “Flower in the Crannied Wall” is a good poem to revisit. Tennyson holds the tiny flower as a scientist might but then honors its immense complexity.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Flower in the Crannied Wall", religion and science, Science Comments closed
The Soldier Knew Someone Had Blundered
Donald Trump is refusing to take responsibility for the failed Yemen raid where a Navy Seal was killed, along with 30 civilians. The raid brings to mind the “Charge of the Light Brigade,” although more appropriate might be the Rudyard Kipling sequel, where the poet blasted England for failing to take care of the survivors.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Charge of the Light Brigade", "Last of the Light Brigade", Donald Trump, Navy Seals, Rudyard Kipling, Yemen raid Comments closed
One Equal Temper of Heroic Hearts
Federer and Nadal resumed their legendary rivalry in the Australian Open finals and played a match for the ages. They are both old in tennis terms and by all rights should have been surpassed by the next generation. Therefore Tennyson’s “Ulysses” seems the proper poem to acknowledge them.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Australian Open, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Sports, tennis, Ulysses Comments closed
Can Poetry Stop This Man?
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
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
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