In which I read Robert Frost’s “I Have Been Acquainted with the Night” as an Advent poem.
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Tag Archives: Depression
Walking Down the Saddest City Lane
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Derealized or Appareled in Celestial Light?
Wordsworth arrived at the underlying idea of “Intimations of Immortality” from a childhood experience that sounds like what psychology now calls depersonalization-derealization disorder.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Depersonalization-derealization disorder, Intimations of Immortality, William Wordsworth Comments closed
Fall, Season for Beautiful Depression
Those suffering from depression will find a kindred spirit in this gorgeous St. Vincent Millay poem about autumn.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Blue Heron", "To Autumn", Autumn, bi-polar illness, Edna St. Vincent Millay, John Keats, Mary Oliver, Seasons Comments closed
Wordsworth and a Depressed Philosopher
When utilitarian John Stuart Mill’s philosophy led him into despair, Wordsworth’s poetry saved him.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Mock on, Aldous Huxley, Brave New World, Englightenment, Giver, Jeremy Bentham, John Stuart Mill, Lois Lowry, Tintern Abbey, Ursula K. LeGuin, utilitarianism, William Blake, William Wordsworth Comments closed
Lincoln Transformed Depression thru Lit
Melancholy threatened to paralyze Abraham Lincoln in his early years. Literature helped him give voice to his depression and taught him how to turn it into an asset.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Dream", "Raven", Abraham Lincoln, Edgar Allan Poe, First Inaugural Address, Macbeth, Manfred, unipolar disease, William Shakespeare Comments closed
Poetry: Sure Solacer of Human Cares
For those trapped in gloom, Emily Bronte reminds us that the Imagination is there to provide us with solace.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged 2016 presidential election, Emily Bronte, grieving, Imagination Comments closed
The Eternal Doesn’t Want To Be Bent by Us
Rilke draws on the story of Jacob and the Angel in his poem “The Man Watching.” We grow, he writes, by “being defeated, decisively, by constantly greater beings.”
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Man Watching", Bible, Genesis, Jacob and the angel, Rainer Maria Rilke Comments closed
The Violins of Autumn
I still remember memorizing, as a child in a French school, Paul Verlaine’s deliciously sad “Chanson d’automne.”
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Chanson d'automne", Aging, Autumn, Fall, Paul Verlaine, Seasons Comments closed