Tag Archives: Emily Dickinson

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.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "We never know how high we are", Henry V, honor societies, Oh Pioneers!, Sigma Tau Delta, Willa Cather, William Shakespeare | Comments closed

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.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "I'm Nobody", Wislawa Szymborska | Comments closed

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.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "Some Keep the Sabbath Going to Church", "Speech to the Young", Audre Lorde, Gwendolyn Brooks, Langston Hughes, racism | Comments closed

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.”

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "Going to Heaven", death and dying, Heaven | Comments closed

Doctors Need Lit To Stay Human

By Robin Bates | Published: August 30, 2016

A doctor argues that continuous reading of literature is essential to keep doctors balanced and to help them deal with the problems that come with the profession.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "I measure every grief I meet", Colorless Tsukuru, death and dying, Doctors, Karen Joy Fowler, Kazuo Ishiguro, medical profession, Never Let Me Go, We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves | Comments closed

Emily Dickinson’s “Smart Misery” of Doubt

By Robin Bates | Published: July 23, 2016

Emily Dickinson struggled with religious doubt all of her life. Because she desperately wanted to belief, some of her poems show her faith being tested.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "Of Course I Prayed", "The World is not Conclusion", belief, Bible, Christianity, Doubt, Faith, Jesus, John Calvin | Comments closed

To Strengthen Your Caring, Read Lit

By Robin Bates | Published: November 26, 2015

When we become numb to the world’s horrors, the problem is not the numbness but the insufficient attention paid. Reading lit can help us overcome compassion fatigue

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged compassion fatigue, Iris Murdoch, mass media, Plato, Simone Weil | Comments closed