Tag Archives: Midsummer Night's Dream

Check Out the Bard for Halloween

By Robin Bates | Published: October 30, 2019

Shakespeare does a great Halloween. Check out Hamlet, Julius Caesar, Macbeth, and Midsummer Night’s Dream.

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Shakespeare Hated Bullies

By Robin Bates | Published: February 5, 2019

Tuesday Last week a reader accused me of anti-Semitism for defending Merchant of Venice. While I’m always willing to learn new things about myself—personally, I think I have more trace elements in my system of sexism, racism, classism, homophobia, and ableism than of anti-Semitism—the response sent me back to early recollections of the play. For […]

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Teaching Lit in Ljubljana

By Robin Bates | Published: November 21, 2018

I share my experiences teaching Shakespeare and post-colonial literature in Slovenia.

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Fishing in the Mind

By Robin Bates | Published: July 12, 2018

Thursday Can art be so vivid that it supersedes actual experience? Billy Collins makes such a claim in “Fishing on the Susquehanna in July,” where he conjures up images that may resonate with those who fish, even though Collins isn’t among them. His own experience, he freely admits, comes from museum paintings. Art precedes life, […]

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Nature Lit Has Healed for Centuries

By Robin Bates | Published: December 5, 2017

For years my Intro to Lit class has had a nature theme.

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Shakespeare for a Midsummer Wedding

By Robin Bates | Published: June 5, 2017

A couple of years ago a former student opted for a “Midsummer Night’s Dream”-themed wedding. For many reasons, it was a perfect choice.

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Climate Change, Fairies Fighting

By Robin Bates | Published: March 6, 2017

Some of the extreme climate events we are currently experiencing are described in “Midsummer Night’s Dream,” where they are the result of fairy infighting

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After Surgery, World Is No Longer a Monet

By Robin Bates | Published: February 20, 2017

My brain is still trying to adjust to my new eye following cataract surgery, which has me thinking of various passages about seeing in “Midsummer Night’s Dream.” My having an operation, I also opted for a different path than Claude Monet, at least according to this wonderful Lisa Mueller poem.

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The Bard Does Halloween

By Robin Bates | Published: October 30, 2015

In honor of Halloween, check out what Shakespeare had to say about ghosts. When his graves yawn and yield up their dead, they produce apparitions that are genuinely frightening.

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