Tag Archives: Soccer

Ted Lasso and Mary Oliver??

By Robin Bates | Published: October 11, 2026

Ted Lasso ends season four with a VoiceOver reciting Mary Oliver’s “When Death Comes.” I explore why.

By Robin Bates | Published: July 1, 2026

In which I compare England transcendent goal scorer Harry Kane to Shakespeare’s Henry V.

By Robin Bates | Published: June 23, 2026

A Diane Ackerman poem from the 1970s celebrating the beautiful game.

By Robin Bates | Published: August 20, 2023

When it comes to American women’s soccer, the American right has been rooting for Casey to strike out.

By Robin Bates | Published: December 15, 2022

How is the French soccer team like a skunk cabbage? I show how using a Mary Oliver poem.

By Robin Bates | Published: December 11, 2022

To capture France-England’s titanic World Cup struggle, I turn to Ralph Ellison and Christina Rossetti.

By Robin Bates | Published: July 16, 2018

As if losing to France weren’t bad enough, Croatia had to receive its second-place medals in the rain, bringing to mind Laforgue’s poem “Sad, Sad.”

By Robin Bates | Published: July 14, 2014

In honor of Germany’s World Cup victory, here is the poem that serves as the foundation of their national anthem

By Robin Bates | Published: July 5, 2014

The hackneyed poems of Edgar Guest actually capture the effort put forth by the U.S. Men’s Soccer Team.