Tag Archives: Percy Shelley

In Defense of The Merchant of Venice

By Robin Bates | Published: October 18, 2016

Percy Shelley believes that great art transcends the prejudices of its time, even when it is cloaked in them. If he is right, then “Merchant of Venice” is less of a problem play than many people consider it.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged , , , , , | Comments closed

Can Lit Also Be a Force for Evil? A Debate

By Robin Bates | Published: October 22, 2015

The classics are capable to doing great good but can they also do harm? Even as they powerfully open up the mind to new possibilities, can they also close it down? A debate.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments closed

How Poets Are the Legislators of the World

By Robin Bates | Published: September 3, 2015

Shelley saw great literature as changing the way we see reality. Sometimes, however, it takes hundreds of years for this to be evident.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged , | Comments closed

Poetry Enlarges the Moral Imagination

By Robin Bates | Published: June 26, 2015

Shelley’s “Defence of Poetry” makes one of the strongest cases in history for how poetry changes the world.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged | Comments closed

Hiding behind the “I” in Lit Essays

By Robin Bates | Published: June 17, 2013

Using “I” in literature essays doesn’t necessarily lead to more engagement with the work.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged , , , | Comments closed

Once We Memorized Poetry

By Robin Bates | Published: February 14, 2012

Memorizing poetry used to be standard classroom practice and poetry was widely popular before the snobs came in.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments closed

Shelley and Non-Violent Resistance

By Robin Bates | Published: July 21, 2011

Blogger Austin Allen credits Shelley’s poem “Masque” with setting in motion the idea of non-violent resistance that we are currently seeing employed throughout the Arab world.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged , , | Comments closed

Eric Cantor and Famous Literary Sneers

By Robin Bates | Published: July 14, 2011

If you’ve been paying any attention to America’s budget battles, you know that Congressional Republicans are currently engaged in a dangerous game of chicken with President Obama over raising the debt ceiling. Today’s post on the subject features a parallel with Macbeth and a glance at famous literary sneers.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments closed

Touching the Divine through Poetry

By Robin Bates | Published: June 19, 2011

Think of religious visionaries as the early poets, those who have found ways to gesture towards (not encapsulate!) the divine. The religious poets who have come after help keep religious language from getting stale.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged , , | Comments closed