Looking back over the past year, I repost an essay on John Donne’s “Valediction: Forbidding Mourning” and climate change denial. Given that 2015 has been the warmest year on record and that “the weather outside is frightful,” Donne’s comments about “moving of th’ earth” are only too relevant.
Tag Archives: John Donne
Donne’s Warning about Climate Change
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Good Morrow, "Valediction: Forbidding Mourning", climate change, extreme weather, global warming Comments closed
Donne’s Lovers, Spooky at a Distance
Tuesday Adam Gopnik makes some nice literary allusions in a recent New Yorker essay-review of George Musser’s Spooky at a Distance, which is about the history of quantum entanglement theory. Entanglement, also known as non-locality and described by Einstein as “spooky at a distance,” claims that two particles of a single wave function can influence each other, even […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud", "Valediction: Forbidding Mourning", Albert Einstein, Anthony Trollope, entanglement, fantasy, Lyrical Ballads, non-locality, Science, science fiction, William Wordsworth Comments closed
Donne and Climate Change Denial
Somewhat unexpectedly, John Donne’s “Valediction Forbidding Mourning” gives insight into climate change denial.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Good Morrow, "Valediction: Forbidding Mourning", California drought, climate change, flooding, global warming, Texas flooding Comments closed
10 Memorable Poetic Pick-Up Lines
10 memorable pick-up lines from poetic greats. Try them at a bar near you.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Flea", "Phyllis Be Gentler", "The Lover", "To His Mistress Going to Bed", "To the Virgins to Make Much of Time", Andrew Marvell, Aphra Behn, Cyrano de Bergerac, Edmond de Rostand, Jane Austen, John Wilmot, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Pride and Prejudice, Robert Herrick, Rover, To His Coy Mistress, Twelfth Night, William Shakespeare Comments closed
Peter Wimsey vs. Oklahoma Executions
With Oklahoma resuming its executions yesterday, we need the reminders that Dorothy Sayers and Oscar Wilde give us about holding on to our humanity.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Ballad of Reading Gaol", "Eclogue for the Marriage of the Earl of Somerset", Busman's Honeymoon, Charles Warner, death penalty, Dorothy Sayers, lethal injection, Oscar Wilde, Samuel Johnson Comments closed
Don’t Underestimate Your Students
Rule #1 for literature teachers should be to listen carefully to your students’ responses. There may be hidden wisdom in even the most unpromising ones.
The Limitations of Cerebral Teaching
Teaching literature must be more than just a cerebral affair.
A Bright Torch Shines to Show the Way
John Donne’s “Ascension” captures the paradoxes of the resurrection and ascension.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Ascension", Christianity, Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ, poetic muse, the Ascension Comments closed
