Tag Archives: Nature

Out of the Blackness Every Morning

By Robin Bates | Published: April 5, 2015

Many of Mary Oliver’s poems, including “The Sun,” function well as Easter poems.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "Sun", Easter, Mary Oliver, sunrise | Comments closed

Pesticides vs. Sweetness and Wings

By Robin Bates | Published: February 5, 2015

Monarch butterflies and bees are in grave danger. Poems by Scott Bates and Mary Oliver remind us what we will lose if we don’t move to protect them.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "The Underside of Heaven's Gates" endangered species, bees, environmental devastation, happiness, hive collapse, Mary Oliver, monarch butterflies, Scott Bates | Comments closed

The Peace of Wild Things

By Robin Bates | Published: December 21, 2014

My Intro to Literature class explored how a disconnect from nature leads to existential anguish while opening themselves up to nature provides spiritual nourishment.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "Ancient Mariner, "Egrets", "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud", "Killing the Trees", "Peace of Wild Things", All the Pretty Horses, Bacchae, Barbara Kingsolver, Ceremony, Cormac McCarthy, Euripides, Flight Behavior, Leslie Marmon Silko, Lucille Clifton, Mary Oliver, Midsummer Night's Dream, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, spiritual healing, Wendell Berry, William Shakespeare, William Wordsworth | Comments closed

Marianne’s Passion for Dead Leaves

By Robin Bates | Published: September 18, 2014

In “Sense and Sensibility,” Austen gets us to reflect on the attractions and dangers of Nature.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Classicism, James Thomson, Jane Austen, picturesque, Romanticism, Seasons, Sense and Sensibility | Comments closed

Hydrocarbons Unleash an Angry God

By Robin Bates | Published: September 17, 2014

Euripides’ “The Bacchae” can be read as a parable of climate change denialism.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Bacchae, climate change, Euripides | Comments closed

A Message from the Mower in the Dew

By Robin Bates | Published: August 25, 2014

Robert Frost’s “Tuft of Flowers” helped me grieve for my son in ways I am only beginning to understand.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "Tuft of Flowers", death and dying, grieving, Robert Frost | Comments closed

Monarch Butterflies in Danger

By Robin Bates | Published: June 25, 2014

Barbara Kingsolver’s “Flight Behavior” warns of the threat to monarch butterflies.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Barbara Kingsolver, Endangered Species, Flight Behavior, habitat destruction, monarch butterflies | Comments closed

Earth Hath Nothing to Show More Fair

By Robin Bates | Published: June 17, 2014

An early morning bicycle ride in Madison reminded me of Wordsworth’s “Composed upon Westminster Bridge.”

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "Composed upon Westminster Bridge", Cities, dawn, London, Williams Wordsworth | Comments closed

No Calendar Except for this Bountiful Day

By Robin Bates | Published: May 19, 2014

Derek Walcott’s elegy to his mother unexpectedly doubles as a Commencement poem.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "Bounty", commencement, Derek Walcott, elegies, graduations | Comments closed