Oliver Sacks, as he is dying, shares Milton’s wonder at a night sky “powdered with stars.”
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Tag Archives: death and dying
Dying and a Night Powdered with Stars
Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged astronomy, John Milton, Oliver Sacks, Paradise Lost | Comments closed
Soldier, Rest, Thy Warfare O’er
In “Soldier Rest,” Sir Walter Scott captures how inviting death can look to those caught up in battle’s throes.
Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "Strange Meeting", Lady of the Lake, Memorial Day, Sir Walter Scott, war, Wilfred Owen | Comments closed
Mourning Lincoln, Mourning My Son
Whitman’s mourning of Lincoln in “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d” also captures what it feels like to lose a child.
Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd", death of a child, elegies, mourning, Walt Whitman | Comments closed
A Fatal Diagnosis, an Almost Ghost
A good friend has just been diagnosed with stage four ovarian cancer, putting me in mind of a poem by Lucille Clifton when she learned of her husband’s lung cancer diagnosis.
Whitman’s Poem a Lesson for War Hawks
In “The Wound-Binder,” Walt Whitman refuses to glorify war and only shows its bloody aftermath–a good thing to remember on the 150th anniversary of the Civil War’s final day.
Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "Dulce et Decorum Est", "Wound-Binder", Civil War, Walt Whitman, war fever, Wilfred Owen | Comments closed
Hoping against Hope in the Face of Death
Following philosopher Adrienne Martin, I meditate on what it means to “hope against hope” or to have “unimaginable hope.” The texts I use are “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,” “Beowulf,” and “Wizard of Earthsea.”
Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Afghanistan, Beowulf, hope, Military, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Ursula K Le Guin, Wizard of Earthsea | Comments closed
San Luis Rey, a Bridge of Love
Wilder’s “Bridge of San Luis Rey” is a powerful book for those who have lost friends.
Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Bridge of San Luis Rey, Grief, Thornton Wilder | Comments closed
Singing a Lullaby to a Dead Child
I write about the lullaby I sang to my dead son and a Eugene Field poem it reminds me of.
Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "Wynken Blynken and Nod", death of a child, Eugene Field | Comments closed
Can Donne Help Us Cope with Death?
Meditations on Margaret Edson’s “W;t”–with further reflections on whether Donne’s poetry can help us handle death.
Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "Death Be Not Proud", "If Poisonous Minerals", "Valediction: Forbidding Mourning", Hamlet, John Donne, Margaret Edson, Margaret Wise Brown, May Justus, Runaway Bunny, W;t, William Shakespeare | Comments closed