Tag Archives: Emily Dickinson

Stately Pines, Cathedral Towers

By Robin Bates | Published: September 14, 2019

Many American poets have found God in nature, including Longfellow. His “Cathedral Towers” compares pine trees to a church.

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A Light Exists in Spring

By Robin Bates | Published: March 20, 2019

Thursday – First Day of Spring I’ll let Emily Dickinson usher in the new season with “A Light exists in Spring.” I like how the poet describes this time of year as elusive, a sentiment found in a number of other magnificent spring poems, including A. E. Housman’s “Loveliest of Trees” and Robert Frost’s “Nothing […]

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Books Gave Me a Refuge

By Robin Bates | Published: January 15, 2019

Tuesday I’ve been dipping into A Velocity of Being: Letters to a Young Reader, given to me by my good friend Sue Schmidt and recommended by reader Glenda Funk. A range of writers, artists, scientists, philosophers and others were asked to write a letter to young people about the value of reading. Original illustrations accompany […]

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No Frigate Like a Book

By Robin Bates | Published: January 4, 2019

Friday To end the week, I share one of Ilya Milstein’s enchanting illustrations, along with the Emily Dickinson poem that it reminds me of. We start off in a library and, next thing we know, we have been transported “lands away.” I haven’t always admired “There is no frigate like a book,” perhaps because I […]

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Finding God in Nature

By Robin Bates | Published: September 2, 2018

John Gatta’s book “Making Nature Sacred” explores how nature spirituality entered into America’s religions and was noted by its creative writers.

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Inducting Students into an Honor Society

By Robin Bates | Published: May 1, 2018

Our English Department’s Sigma Tau Delta induction ceremony included passages from Willa Cather, Shakespeare, and Emily Dickinson.

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Telling Your Name the Livelong Day

By Robin Bates | Published: January 30, 2018

Insecure people like Trump claim that they know everything whereas poets embrace the words “I don’t know.” Emily Dickinson’s “I’m Nobody” captures the difference between poets and people like Trump.

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Read Poetry To Keep Hope Alive

By Robin Bates | Published: February 1, 2017

Literature that just shows us the grim truth of reality without the possibility of hope calls into question the whole enterprise. Much great literature frames reality in such a way that we can see new possibilities for ourselves.

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Emily Dickinson & Going to Heaven

By Robin Bates | Published: November 5, 2016

In “Going to Heaven,” Emily Dickinson grapples with the idea of heaven but, in her skepticism, concludes that too much focus on the afterlife will draw her attention away from “curious earth.”

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