Tag Archives: John Dryden

Inheriting My Mother’s Poetry Column

By Robin Bates | Published: July 4, 2022

My mother having been incapacitated by a series of strokes, I will be taking over her poetry column in the local newspaper.

By Robin Bates | Published: October 12, 2021

In Dryden’s Absalom, we see a politician who has Donald Trump’s ability to sway a crowd.

By Robin Bates | Published: October 6, 2021

Dryden’s “Absalom and Architophel” can be applies to the GOP’s current anti-democratic principles.

By Robin Bates | Published: September 13, 2021

Biden’s suspense wearing thin on vaccine resistance reminds me of King David in Dryden’s “Absalom and Architophel.”

By Robin Bates | Published: March 1, 2021

I look at how thinkers over the centuries have viewed so-called popular or lightweight literature.

By Robin Bates | Published: August 27, 2020

Dryden’s “beware the fury of a patient man” applies to the speech that Obama gave last week at the Democratic National Convention.

By Robin Bates | Published: August 14, 2018

Dryden’s “Absolom and Architophel” describes unscrupulous politicians that we would find familiar today.

By Robin Bates | Published: January 14, 2015

In “Absolom and Architophel,” Dryden warns against unscrupulous figures exploiting the hysteria following plots like the Paris massacre.

By Robin Bates | Published: December 22, 2014

The holiday gathering of our family has me thinking of Sir Walter’s Scott’s poem about the gathering of the MacGregor clan.