Tag Archives: hope

Despite Trump, “The Land Holds Us Still”

By Robin Bates | Published: December 7, 2016

On this one-month anniversary of the 2016 election, I look back at two authors who meditated on what to do next immediately after hearing the news. Terry Tempest Williams looks to nature while Zadie Smith looks to the music to be found in multiethnic harmony.

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Hoping against Hope in the Face of Death

By Robin Bates | Published: February 25, 2015

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.”

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Finding Hope in a Captured Fish

By Robin Bates | Published: October 16, 2014

Elizabeth Bishop’s “The Fish” works as a powerful meditation on hope.

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What Does It Mean to Hope against Hope?

By Robin Bates | Published: October 15, 2014

What does it mean to hope against hope? Emily Dickinson and an analytic philosopher weigh in.

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Holding On to Radical Hope

By Robin Bates | Published: January 1, 2014

The Crow nation used a vision to hold on to its identity in the face of white threats. Literature can function in similar ways.

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Hope Springs Eternal in the NFL Draft

By Robin Bates | Published: April 27, 2013

The NFL draft perfectly exemplifies Alexander Pope’s passage about hope.

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Finding Hope amidst the Growing Gloom

By Robin Bates | Published: October 16, 2012

Hardy’s “Darkling Thrush” conjures up hope in dark times.

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