In which I compare Austen’s Marianne and Willoughby to Dante’s Paulo and Francesca.
Tag Archives: Sir Walter Scott
Eternally Damned after Reading a Book
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Castaway", "Task", Alexander Pope, Dante, Desire, Essay on Man, Inferno, James Thomson, Jane Austen, Relationships, Seasons, Sense and Sensibility, William Cowper Comments closed
A Man with Soul so Dead
Sir Walter Scott describes Trump perfectly in “My Native Land.” “Living shall forfeit fair renown, and doubly dying shall go down.”
A Wretch Concentered All in Self
Look to Sir Walter Scott, not to Shakespeare, to sum up Donald Trump’s exit.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "My Native Land", 2020 election, Donald Trump, Julius Caesar, King Lear, Richard III, William Shakespeare Comments closed
The Case for Memorizing Poetry
To bolster yourself against this age of anxiety, memorize robust poetry. Other poetry works as well.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Kubla Khan", "La Belle Dame sans Merci", "Second Coming", "Soldier Rest", "Building of the Ship", "My Candle Burns at Both Ends", "Props assist the House", "Say Not the Struggle Nought Availeth", Arthur Clough, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Emily Dickinson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, If, John Keats, Memorizing poetry, Rudyard Kipling, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Butler Yeats Comments closed
How Sleep the Brave
Memorial Day Looking back over the blog, I’m surprised that I have never posted William Collins’s “How Sleep the Brave” on Memorial Day. According to Samuel Johnson’s Lives of the Poets, Collins “loved fairies, genii, giants, and monsters,” and we see him merging fantasy, nature imagery, and high-minded allegory in this tribute to fallen soldiers. […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Soldier Rest", "How Sleep the Brave", Memorial Day, war poems, William Collins Comments closed
Dickens Returned Xmas to Medieval Roots
Dickens’s “Christmas Carol” didn’t so much invent Christmas as we have come to know it as take it back to its medieval roots.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Charles Dickens, Christmas, Christmas Carol, Marmion, Pickwick Papers Comments closed
Our Christmas Owes Much to Walter Scott
While Charles Dickens can be credited with resurrecting Christmas, Sir Walter Scott paved the way in “Marmion” with his depiction of Christmas and pre-Christmas banquets.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Charles Dickens, Christmas, Christmas Carol, Marmion, origins of Christmas, Victorian Christmas Comments closed
A Holiday Gathering of the Bates Clan
The holiday gathering of our family has me thinking of Sir Walter’s Scott’s poem about the gathering of the MacGregor clan.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "MacGregor's Gathering", Absolom and Architophel, family gatherings, John Dryden Comments closed
