Tag Archives: Waste Land

Blog Fragments Shored against My Ruins

By Robin Bates | Published: December 26, 2024

In which apply a line from T.S. Eliot’s “Waste Land” to this very blog and suddenly understand the project in a new way.

By Robin Bates | Published: November 30, 2024

Gwendolyn Brooks’s poem “truth” dramatizes the conflict between disturbing hope and familiar darkness. Think of it as an Advent poem.

By Robin Bates | Published: August 1, 2024

Harris rejuvenating the race after taking over from Biden brings to mind the myth of the fisher king.

By Robin Bates | Published: June 27, 2024

Jonathan Foster recent poetry collection “Indigo: The Color of Grief” powerfully captures the death of his child.

By Robin Bates | Published: May 18, 2024

There’s a Pentecostal scene in “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” that captures the excitement of the Holy Spirit’s descent.

By Robin Bates | Published: May 12, 2024

The Stormy Daniels-Trump encounter resembles the sordid sex scene found in T.S. Eliot’s “Waste Land.”

By Robin Bates | Published: April 29, 2024

A Mary Oliver poem about grieving as I remember my eldest, who died 24 years ago on this day.

By Robin Bates | Published: April 4, 2024

Swinburne’s “Garden of Proserpine,” a good poem for when you’re feeling fed up with life.

By Robin Bates | Published: February 1, 2024

If the groundhog sees its shadow today, will it fall into existential despair?–which is Eliot’s response to shadows in “The Waste Land.”