Tag Archives: Intimations of Immortality

Preserved in God’s Golden Sap

By Robin Bates | Published: October 28, 2023

In Karr’s spiritual vision, we are like precious insects, preserved in the glowing amber of God’s love.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "Meditatio", Mary Karr, Meditation, William Wordsworth | Comments closed

God Reaches Us through Art

By Robin Bates | Published: September 2, 2023

I share a talk about the relationship between God and creativity. Authors mentioned: Shelley, Homer, Plato, Silko, Walker, Clifton.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "Ode to the West Wind", "the light that came to lucille clifton", Alice Walker, Artist's Way, Ceremony, Color Purple, Creativity, Homer, Ion, John Milton, Julia Cameron, Leslie Marmon Silko, Lucille Clifton, Paradise Lost, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Plato, poetic muse, Republic, William Wordsworth | Comments closed

For England, Buttercup > Melon Flower

By Robin Bates | Published: April 10, 2023

“Oh to be in England now that April’s here”–and not in Italy, with its gaudy melon flowers!

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "Auguries of Innocence", "Elegy on a Country Churchyard", "Flower in a Crannied Wall", "Home Thoughts from Abroad", Alfred Lord Tennyson, England, flowers, Robert Browning, Thomas Gray, William Blake, William Wordsworth | Comments closed

Poetry Complements the Intellectual Life

By Robin Bates | Published: July 27, 2021

In the grip of an arid intellect resulting in depression, philosopher John Stuart Mill turned to poetry.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Depression, John Stuart Mill, Lord Gordon Byron, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, utilitarianism, William Wordsworth | Comments closed

Coping with Aging through Poetry

By Robin Bates | Published: July 25, 2018

Wordsworth has written some of the world’s great poems for coping with aging.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "Prelude", Aging, death and dying, Tintern Abbey, William Wordsworth | Comments closed

The Declining English Major

By Robin Bates | Published: July 2, 2018

An English prof, sensing obsolescence, turns to “In Memoriam” (also Fowles, Wordsworth & Arnold).

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "Dover Beach", Alan Bennett, Alfred Lord Tennyson, English major, French Lieutenant's Woman, History Boys, Humanities, In Memoriam, John Fowles, Matthew Arnold, William Wordsworth | Comments closed

Teach Us All You Can of Saying Yes

By Robin Bates | Published: June 3, 2018

Like Eli, Nancy Schaffer looks for instruction from the child Samuel after he hears God calling.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "Calling", Nancy Schaffer, Samuel, William Wordsworth | Comments closed

Derealized or Appareled in Celestial Light?

By Robin Bates | Published: December 7, 2017

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, Depression, William Wordsworth | Comments closed

Visit Puerto Rico with Wings of Healing

By Robin Bates | Published: October 8, 2017

Read through hurricane-weary eyes, Coleridge’s “Dejection: An Ode” promises soulful hope.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "Dejection: An Ode", Hurricane Maria, hurricanes, Puerto Rico, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Wordsworth | Comments closed