To teach students how to understand and respond to violence, Beowulf is a go-to work.
Tag Archives: John Milton
Which Literary Conman Is Trump?
To understand Trump as conman, I compare him to the King and the Duke, Mac the Knife, Melville’s Confidence Man, Satan & Iago.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Beggar's Opera, Confidence Man, conmen, Donald Trump, Herman Melville, Huckleberry Finn, John Gay, Mark Twain, Othello, Paradise Lost, William Shakespeare Comments closed
Trump’s Satanic Plans for July 4
Wednesday As Donald Trump will be doing his best tomorrow to transform our nation’s celebration of its founding ideas into a celebration of himself, I turn to another figure who is just as narcissistic. I’ve written in the past how both Satan and Trump are driven above all by spite. Today I focus on how […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Donald Trump, July 4 celebration, pageantry, Paradise Lost Comments closed
We Have Here the Stuff of Paradise
Spiritual Sunday Spring has broken all over southern Tennessee, giving me the occasion to run Edwin Markham’s wonderful “Earth Is Enough.” His view, I believe, is similar to what Jesus meant by heaven on earth. We are to find heaven in ourselves and heaven in our surroundings, not wait until we die. To focus overmuch […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Earth Is Enough", Book of Common Prayer, Edwin Markham, Nature, Paradise Lost Comments closed
In Praise of Literary Biography
I share a discussion I had with John Stubbs, author of riveting biographies on Swift, Donne, and the cavalier poets.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged John Stubbs, Jonathan Swift, literary biography, Modest Proposal, Paradise Lost Comments closed
Read to Resist: An Introduction
Thursday I share today the introduction to my upcoming book, which is still in draft form and whose title I keep changing. Latest title: Read to Resist: Classic Lit Provides Tools for Battling Trump and Trumpism. I’m still not entirely satisfied with that and so will keep tinkering. In any event, here’s my first attempt […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Alexander Pope, Beowulf, Donald Trump, Dunciad, Go Set a Watchman, H. G. Wells, Harper Lee, Invisible Man, Leo Tolstoy, Othello, Paradise Lost, To Kill a Mockingbird, Trump resistance, War and Peace, William Shakespeare Comments closed
Imagining Little Ocean’s Future
Looking for the literary significance of my latest grandchild, I turn to Walcott, Whitman, Masefield, Coleridge, and Byron. What emerges is a mystical seeker.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking", "Sea Fever", "Tales of the Islands", baby names, Derek Walcott, J. D. Salinger, John Masefield, Laurence Sterne, Lord Byron, Lucille Clifton, Paradise Lost, Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, To Esme with Love and Squalor, Tristram Shandy, Walt Whitman, William Blake Comments closed
Apples That Taste of Earth and Song
Apples bring out poetic creativity, all the more so because the West has seen them as the forbidden fruit. I share here a selection of tempting apple poems.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "August", "eve's version", "Song of the Wander Aengus", apples, Charles Algernon Swinburne, Christina Rossetti, fruit, Goblin Market, Grace Schulman, Grimm Brothers, Lucille Clifton, Paradise Lost, Snow White, temptation, the fall, William Butler Yeats Comments closed
Putin’s Seduction of Donald Trump
Think of Putin as Satan, Trump as Eve, and Adam as the GOP in a reenactment of Paradise Lost.
