Kimmel’s joke about Melania Trump, for which she is attacking him, has precedents in Chaucer, John Gay, and Wilde. Stephens’s poem “The Shell,” meanwhile, captures the travesty of the DoJ vs. Comey.
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Tag Archives: Geoffrey Chaucer
Chaucer’s Life-Affirming Christianity
British Christianity has always had a strong connection with nature. Chaucer taps into this tradition in the opening lines of Canterbury Tales.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Canterbury Tales, Cult of Ēostre, Easter, fertility religions Comments closed
Listen Carefully, the Books Are Whispering
A Charles Simic poem celebrating the magic of libraries.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "World is too much with us", Charles Simic, libraries, Wife of Bath, William Wordsworth Comments closed
“Better Living” Emerged from a Midnight Epiphany
In the latest installment of “A Life Lived in Literature,” I recount the origins of “Better Living through Beowulf.”
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Alexander Pope, Benjamin Franklin, blogging, Daniel Defoe, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Great Gatsby, Jane Austen, Poor Richard’s Almanack, Pride and Prejudice, Rape of the Lock, Robinson Crusoe, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Wife of Bath Comments closed
A Woman 600 Years Ahead of Her Time
If Chaucer’s created a timeless and transcendent character in the Wife of Bath, it is because he listened–really listened–to women.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Beowulf, Christian misogyny, Defence of Poetry, Feminism, Harold Bloom, Percy Shelley, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Wife of Bath, William Shakespeare Comments closed
I Am the Bread of Life
Jesus declared that he was “the bread of life.” These poems explore the metaphor.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Blessing the Bread", "Book of Verses", "Corpus Christi", "Meditation on John 6:51", "Ode to Bread", "Stepping Westward", Christ, Denise Levertov, Edward Taylor, eucharist, Evelyn Underhill, Lynn Ungar, Omar Khayyam, Pablo Neruda, Philip Pullman, Rubaiyat, Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale Comments closed
Trump as Chaucer’s Pardoner
Think of Trump as Chaucer’s Pardoner, a conman who thinks he can trick people he’s revealed his tricks to.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Donald Trump, Election 2024, Falstaff, greed, Harold Bloom, Kamala Harris, Pardoner's Prologue and Tale, William Shakespeare Comments closed
Harris’s Laugh and the Wife of Bath
Kamala Harris’s big-hearted laugh puts her in Chaucer’s Wife of Bath territory. Trump is more like the Pardoner.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Donald Trump, Kamala Harris, Laughter, Pardoner, Wife of Bath Comments closed
Austen’s Revolutionary Style
Austen may have innovated a way to blend satire with romance as a way to protect us from heartbreak.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Emma, Emma Bovary, free indirect style, Gustave Flaubert, Henry Fielding, Horace, ironic romance, Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility, Tom Jones Comments closed