Tag Archives: W. H. Auden

Can Art Thwart Trump? A Debate

By Robin Bates | Published: December 28, 2016

In which I argue with a writer who claims that art and artists have an inflated sense of their power and that they are irrelevant in the battle against Donald Trump.

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Is Freedom More Powerful than Fear?

By Robin Bates | Published: December 13, 2015

Obama in his Oval Office speech on terrorism said that “freedom is more powerful than fear.” Dostoevsky’s Grand Inquisitor would beg to differ.

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And the Light Shineth in the Darkness…

By Robin Bates | Published: November 29, 2015

Auden’s Advent section in “For the Time Being” captures the pessimism that many feel about the world today. Luckily, the poem moves on to the Christmas promise.

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Can Poetry Respond Adequately to Evil?

By Robin Bates | Published: November 15, 2015

Americans turned to Auden’s “September 1, 1939” following 9-11, and it can inspire and guide us following the Paris terror attacks.

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Lit vs. the Evils of History–More Debate

By Robin Bates | Published: October 26, 2015

While literature can seem helpless in the face of history’s cataclysms, it proves far more durable than the events that seem to overwhelm it.

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The Spurs as Auden’s Unknown Citizen

By Robin Bates | Published: June 15, 2013

The San Antonio Spurs as so perfect that they’re boring–like Auden’s “Unknown Citizen.”

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I Thought That Love Would Last Forever…

By Robin Bates | Published: September 30, 2012

The death of a beloved cousin is throwing me into the primal pain described by Tennyson and Auden.

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A Time of Rare Beasts, Unique Adventures

By Robin Bates | Published: January 1, 2012

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.

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The Perfection and Poetry of Tyrants

By Robin Bates | Published: November 16, 2011

W. H. Auden’s chilling “Epitaph on a Tyrant” matter-of-factly shows the deadly but seductive simplicity that characterizes dictators like Qaddafi and Assad.

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