Poet’s writing about the Ascension often focus on our tangled lives.
Tag Archives: Tintern Abbey
He Took Us with Him to the Heart of Things
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Ascension", "Crown: Ascension", "Sonnet for Ascension Day", Henry Vaughan, John Donne, Malcolm Guite, William Wordsworth Comments closed
A Wordsworth Thanksgiving Poem
In which I read Wordsworth’s “Tintern Abbey” as a Thanksgiving poem.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Dorothy Wordsworth, Nature, Thanksgiving, William Wordsworth, Wye River Comments closed
On Revisiting Intense Experiences
Returning to my alma mater reminds me of Wordsworth returning to the Wye River in “Tintern Abbey.” That he shares the experience with his sister makes it even more relevant.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Tortoise Shout", college reunions, D. H. Lawrence, Overstory, Richard Powers, William Wordsworth Comments closed
Imagination’s Transformative Power
The Romantics saw the literary imagination as a powerful transformational force.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged M.H. Abrams, Mirror and the Lamp, Preface to Lyrical Ballads, Romanticism, William Wordsworth Comments closed
Through Lit, We Learn Compassion
Tuesday My brother Sam, an enthusiastic Unitarian Universalist, gave me Karen Armstrong’s Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life for Christmas, and I was pleased that the author sees literature playing a major role. In today’s post I share how she draws on the ancient Greeks. Armstrong writes, “All faiths insist that compassion is the test […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Prelude", Aeschylus, compassion, Eumenides, Euripides, Heracles, Homer, Iliad, Oedipus at Colonus, Oresteia, Sophocles, William Wordsworth Comments closed
Returning to the Misty Past
John Gatta’s “Spirits of Place” is helping me understand why I have chosen to retire in my home town. Wordsworth, Stowe, Homer, and Frost help out as well.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Death of the Hired Man", "Pulley", George Herbert, Harriet Beecher Stowe, home, Homer, John Gatta, Odyssey, retirement, Robert Frost, Sewanee, Uncle Tom's Cabin, William Wordsworth Comments closed
Wordsworth and a Depressed Philosopher
When utilitarian John Stuart Mill’s philosophy led him into despair, Wordsworth’s poetry saved him.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Mock on, Aldous Huxley, Brave New World, Depression, Englightenment, Giver, Jeremy Bentham, John Stuart Mill, Lois Lowry, Ursula K. LeGuin, utilitarianism, William Blake, William Wordsworth Comments closed
Transfiguration: I Saw a Tree inside a Tree
Here’s a Christian Wiman poem for Transfiguration Poem that gets at those moments when the veil is momentarily lifted and we see into the life of things.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged " Transfiguration, "From a Window", Christian Wiman, William Wordsworth Comments closed
