When I was growing up as one of four boys, we thought of ourselves as Dumas’s musketeers. We have now lost one of our number.
Tag Archives: death and dying
On Losing One of the Musketeers
Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Alexander Dumas, brotherhood, Man in the Iron Mask, Three Musketeers | Leave a comment
Jesus, Fishing, and Everlasting Life
Mary Oliver makes a Eucharistic feast out of a fish she has caught, bringing to mind Jesus’s injunction to become “a fisher of people.”
Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "And Death Shall Have No Dominion", "Do Not Go Gentle", "Fish", Dylan Thomas, eucharist, life after death, Mary Oliver | Leave a comment
Atkinson Uses Lit to Explore Dying
Atkinson, in “A God in Ruins,” uses literary fragments to explore the process of dying. She includes excerpts from Shakespeare, Blake, Hopkins, Wordsworth and others.
Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "Adlestrop", "God's Grandeur", "Holly and the Ivy", "Lamb", "Ministry of Angels", "On First Reading Chapman's Homer", Edmund Spenser, Edmund Thomas, Gerard Manley Hopkins, John Keats, Kate Atkinson, Love in Ruins, Midsummer Night's Dream, Spring and Fall, Tempest, William Blake, William Shakespeare | Comments closed
On Atkinson, Trollope, and Death
Kate Atkinson is masterful in how she sprinkles literary allusions throughout her novels, which give her special insight into challenging subjects such as death.
Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Anthony Trollope, Barchester Towers, God in Ruins, Kate Atkinson, Last Chronicle of Barset, Warden | Comments closed
Remembering Our Loved Ones
In which I explain why Ljubljana is a special place to remember my oldest son. Rossetti’s “Remember Me” brings him back.
Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "Remember Me", All Souls Day, Christine Rossetti, Slovenia | Comments closed
The Green Knight’s Lesson: Love Life
A Loren Eiseley passage on seeing his blood put me in mind of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, where Gawain has a similar revelation.
Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "In Blackwater Woods", Barbara Kingsolver, Loren Eiseley, Marie Borroff, Marie Popova, Mary Oliver, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight | Comments closed
Happy Marriages Are NOT All Alike
For my wedding anniversary, I turn to my favorite literary couple: Levin and Kitty in “Anna Karenina.”
The Novel that Moved Me the Most in 2023
Through O’Farrell’s “Hamnet,” I found myself mourning my own son.
Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Blue Sword, grieving, Hamlet, Hamnet, Hero and the Crown, Maggie O'Farrell, Robin McKinley, William Shakespeare | Comments closed
Sir Gawain and the Winter Solstice
“Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” pits paganism’s Winter Solstice against Christmas. But reconciliation is possible.
Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Charles Dickens, Christmas, Christmas Carol, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Winter solstice | Comments closed
