Our looming fiscal cliff can be imagined as Coleridge’s “deep romantic chasm” in “Kubla Khan.”
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Tag Archives: Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Kane: Sunny Pleasure Dome, Caves of Ice
Film Friday I’m teaching Citizen Kane currently in my American Film class and am struck, once again, by the influence that Coleridge’s “Kubla Khan” had on the movie. My father and I tried to make this case in an article that we wrote on Citizen Kane a number of years back (described here), and while the editors […]
Essay Grading and the Great Wall of China
At this time of year, I sometimes wonder why I signed up for this gig. Stacks of ungraded essays are strewn “far and wee” across my study, and only the knowledge that I have completed my student essays in the past assures me that I will make it through this batch. In my hour of […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged After Apple-Picking, Franz Kafka, Great Wall of China, Robert Frost, teaching, William Wordsworth, Work Comments closed
Washing Away Michael Vick’s Sins
Spiritual Sunday In a follow-up to yesterday’s post on football quarterback Michael Vick, I want to elaborate further on Coleridge’s argument for penance. Penance is not only the right thing to do. It also can make you feel very, very good. Coleridge gives us images in Rime of the Ancient Mariner that drive this point […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Football, Michael Vick, Redemption, Religion, Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Sin, Sports, T. S. Eliot, Wasteland Comments closed
Europe and America, Fantasy Projections
North Americans have regarded Europe as a cultural Mecca for a long time and often use their summer vacations to travel there as though on a pilgrimage. This has been true of a number of American writers, including Mark Twain, Henry James, the ex-patriots of the 1920’s (Fitzgerald, Hemingway, Gertrude Stein), and T. S. Eliot. […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Concert Stages of Europe, Culture, Dominion, Erica Johnson Debeljak, forbidden bread, Inert Landscapes of Gyorgy Ferenc, Jack Hodgins, Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner, Richard Ford, Tamas Dobozy, Travel Comments closed
When It’s Hard to Pray
Spiritual Sunday I’ve been thinking about why it’s sometimes hard to pray for help. Perhaps it’s because asking for help seems an affront to our prideful self sufficiency. Perhaps it’s because we fear that we are not worthy to receive it. I think of how Coleridge’s ancient mariner is so filled with self-loathing that he […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Ground's Generosity", Earnest Hemingway, In Our Time, Prayer, Religion, Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner, Rumi Comments closed