Tag Archives: John Milton

My Time at Sewanee Military Academy

By Robin Bates | Published: October 23, 2025

The latest installment of “my life in literature” series, this one involving my high school years in a military academy.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged adolescence, Catcher in the Rye, Great Gatsby, Homer, Iliad, J.D. Salinger | Comments closed

Some Good News, Thanks to the Sun

By Robin Bates | Published: July 14, 2025

Bill McKibben reports good news about the world’s conversion to solar so here are poems praising the sun from Larkin and Milton.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged “Solar", Paradise Lost, Philip Larkin, solar power | Comments closed

God the Father as Loving Protector

By Robin Bates | Published: June 14, 2025

Imagine God, not as an angry father demanding punishment for sin, but a loving father holding us lovingly in His arms. Happy Fathers Day.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "Shoulders", John Donne "Hymn to God the Father", Naomi Shihab Nye, Paradise Lost | Comments closed

Imagine the Fall from Eve’s Perspective

By Robin Bates | Published: April 15, 2025

A Danielle Coffyn poem, posted in response to Republican’s patriarchal efforts to discourage women from voting (the SAVE act).

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "If Adam Picked the Apple", Danielle Coffyn, Feminism, misogyny, Paradise Lost, SAVE act, Trumpism | Comments closed

Berry and Milton on Love and Hate

By Robin Bates | Published: March 20, 2025

Wendell Berry’s insight into the nature of hate recalls Satan’s soliloquy in “Paradise Lost.” It also helps explain Trumpist resentment.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "Sabbath Poems", Paradise Lost, resentment, Trumpism, Wendell Berry | Comments closed

Trump and Satan, Both Miserable

By Robin Bates | Published: January 14, 2025

Trump is as miserable as Milton’s Satan (and also a character in a Trollope novel). Unfortunately, like Satan, he does all he can to pull others into his well of misery.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Anthony Trollope, Beowulf, Christopher Marlowe, Doctor Faustus, Donald Trump, Paradise Lost, resentment, ressentiment, Small House at Allingham | Comments closed

The Call To Step into That River

By Robin Bates | Published: January 11, 2025

Luke, Milton and Malcolm Guite are all enthralled with the moment when Jesus, at the moment of his baptism, fully realizes that he–and all of us–are God’s belovèd and delight.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "Baptism of Christ", Epiphany, John the Baptist, Malcolm Guite, Paradise Regained | Comments closed