Newt Gingrich reminds me of “the young man carbuncular” in “The Wasteland,” “one of the low on whom assurance sits as a silk hat on a Bradford millionaire.”
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Tag Archives: T. S. Eliot
Newt Gingrich, Shades of The Wasteland
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Newt Gingrich, politics, Presidential race, Wasteland Comments closed
A Time of Rare Beasts, Unique Adventures
Spirit may seem less accessible after Christmas is over, Auden tells us, but that means we should focus all the more on seeking it out.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Christmas Oratorio", "Hollow Men", Spirituality, W. H. Auden Comments closed
The Presidential Candidates in Wonderland
Should we dismiss all the rhetoric coming from the Republican presidential candidates as the gryphon in “Alice in Wonderland” dismisses the “off with their heads” commands of the Queen of Hearts?
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Golf Links", "Hollow Men", Alice in Wonderland, Cleghorn (Sarah), Lewis Carroll, politics, Republicans, Sarah Cleghorn Comments closed
At 60, a Comfortable Old Scarecrow
Having just turned 60, I’ve been thinking of Teiresias. Wise though the blind seer may be, his advice doesn’t help others that much. Aging, in other words, appears to require humility.
Nothing So Sensible as Sensual Inundation
Poetry, with its eye on what really matters, can help us taste food again. Mary Oliver’s “Plum Trees” reminds us to eat with full awareness.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Plum Trees", Andrew Marvell, Food, Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, Mary Oliver, Sensuality, To His Coy Mistress Comments closed
March Madness Ends with a Whimper
“This is the way the world ends, not with a bang but a whimper.” Eliot’s well-known conclusion to “The Hollow Men” (read the poem here) came to mind after watching the Butler Bulldogs lose to the Connecticut Huskies 53-41.The game was so bad that it takes a masterpiece of modernist despair to do it justice.
Epiphany from a Camel’s Point of View
Scott Bates’s version of the epiphany focuses on a camel’s point of view. This camel doesn’t end up in Bethlehem but his work is no less holy.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Fable of the Third Christmas Carol", Epiphany, Religion, Scott Bates 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, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Sin, Sports, Wasteland Comments closed
George Steinbrenner, Not a Hollow Man
Sports Saturday Mistah Steinbrenner—he dead. So I imagine T. S. Eliot announcing the death of the legendary Yankee owner this past week. That’s because, if one goes by Eliot’s famous 1925 poem “The Hollow Men,” one could not say that “the Boss” was “Shape without form, shade without colour,/ Paralysed force, gesture without motion.” In fact, an […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Hollow Men", Baseball, George Steinbrenner, Sports Comments closed