Tag Archives: John Donne

Donne and Climate Change Denial

By Robin Bates | Published: June 2, 2015

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

By Robin Bates | Published: May 19, 2015

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

By Robin Bates | Published: January 16, 2015

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

Can Donne Help Us Cope with Death?

By Robin Bates | Published: November 12, 2014

Meditations on Margaret Edson’s “W;t”–with further reflections on whether Donne’s poetry can help us handle death.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "Death Be Not Proud", "If Poisonous Minerals", "Valediction: Forbidding Mourning", death and dying, Hamlet, Margaret Edson, Margaret Wise Brown, May Justus, Runaway Bunny, W;t, William Shakespeare | Comments closed

Don’t Underestimate Your Students

By Robin Bates | Published: October 29, 2014

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.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Margaret Edson, teaching, W;t | Comments closed

The Limitations of Cerebral Teaching

By Robin Bates | Published: October 24, 2014

Teaching literature must be more than just a cerebral affair.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Margaret Edson, teaching, Wit | Comments closed

A Bright Torch Shines to Show the Way

By Robin Bates | Published: June 1, 2014

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

Magnificent Women in the Sick Room

By Robin Bates | Published: August 22, 2013

Tolstoy shows us deathbed vigils can spur us to a deeper engagement with life.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "Do Not Go Gentle", "Valediction: Forbidding Mourning", Anna Karenina, death and dying, Dylan Thomas, George Eliot, Leo Tolstoy, Middlemarch | Comments closed

Poetry Needed to Understand Trinity

By Robin Bates | Published: June 2, 2013

John Kennedy advocated poetry to avoid arrogance, which is good advice when it comes to understanding the Trinity.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Holy Sonnet XIV, John F. Kennedy, Religion, Trinity | Comments closed