Wednesday After defending Brazil strongman Jair Bolsonaro for his assault on Brazil’s rain forests, Donald Trump is now going after our own, with Alaska’s Tongass National Forest the latest natural treasure on the chopping block. When hearing such dispiriting environmental news, I often turn to Wendell Berry, who is sure to articulate my outrage while […]
Melville’s “Clarel” wrestles with faith and doubt and whether science can be reconciled with religion. In the end, the poet tells us to look to the heart, a good Advent message.
For years my Intro to Lit class has had a nature theme.
Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Bacchae, Barbara Kingsolver, climate change, environmental issues, Euripides, Flight Behavior, John Keats, Leslie Marmon Silko, Lord Byron, Lucille Clifton, Margaret Atwood, Mary Oliver, Midsummer Night's Dream, nature poetry, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, William Blake, William Shakespeare, William Wordsworth, Year of the Flood | In “Gift of Gravity,” Wendell Berry finds beauty even in ravaged landscapes. But is there a limit to how much of a devastated landscape he could learn to love?
My Intro to Literature class explored how a disconnect from nature leads to existential anguish while opening themselves up to nature provides spiritual nourishment.
Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "Ancient Mariner, "Egrets", "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud", "Killing the Trees", "Peace of Wild Things", All the Pretty Horses, Bacchae, Barbara Kingsolver, Ceremony, Cormac McCarthy, Euripides, Flight Behavior, Leslie Marmon Silko, Lucille Clifton, Mary Oliver, Midsummer Night's Dream, Nature, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, spiritual healing, William Shakespeare, William Wordsworth | Wendell Berry has a poem addressing a fantasy many of us have had: jettisoning all our mail (and now, e-mail).
Two young student athletes in my Intro to Literature took important lessons from “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” and a Wendell Berry poem.
