To bolster yourself against this age of anxiety, memorize robust poetry. Other poetry works as well.
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Tag Archives: John Keats
The Case for Memorizing Poetry
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Kubla Khan", "La Belle Dame sans Merci", "Second Coming", "Soldier Rest", "Building of the Ship", "My Candle Burns at Both Ends", "Props assist the House", "Say Not the Struggle Nought Availeth", Arthur Clough, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Emily Dickinson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, If, Memorizing poetry, Rudyard Kipling, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Sir Walter Scott, William Butler Yeats Comments closed
Stately Pines, Cathedral Towers
Many American poets have found God in nature, including Longfellow. His “Cathedral Towers” compares pine trees to a church.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Ode to a Nightingale", "Some Keep the Sabbath Going to Church", "Cathedral Towers", Emily Dickinson, forests, God in nature, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Comments closed
Ensnar’d with Flow’rs I Fall on Grass
Friday I found utterly dispiriting this past week’s Democratic debates in which candidates lasered in on tiny differences while a fire rages all around us. I haven’t wanted to relax my vigilance regarding Donald Trump since autocrats win when we become so worn down that we stop paying attention. Nevertheless, these two wretched debates made […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "August", "Ode to Autumn", "Garden", Andrew Marvell, Birches, English gardens, Robert Frost, summer, To His Coy Mistress Comments closed
A Keats Poem for Class Reunions
Wednesday This past weekend I attended my 50th high school anniversary and relived life at Sewanee Military Academy from 1965-69. Some of my former classmates talked of these having been the happiest years of their lives, which brought to mind a poem I learned at SMA while practicing for the regional poetry competition. In some […]
Does Lit Crit Make Lit Less Fun?
Friday My Ljubljana colleague Jason Blake alerted me to a Chronicle of Higher Education article that wrestles with the question of whether studying literature should be fun. It’s a fairly confused piece, with Baruch College’s Timothy Aubry conflating a number of issues better treated separately. Nevertheless, it’s worth a response because Aubry addresses questions that non-academics […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Feminism, formalism, ideology, Marxism, New Criticism Comments closed
Fall, Season for Beautiful Depression
Those suffering from depression will find a kindred spirit in this gorgeous St. Vincent Millay poem about autumn.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Blue Heron", "To Autumn", Autumn, bi-polar illness, Depression, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Mary Oliver, Seasons Comments closed