A Charles Simic poem celebrating the magic of libraries.
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Tag Archives: Wife of Bath
Listen Carefully, the Books Are Whispering
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "World is too much with us", Charles Simic, Geoffrey Chaucer, libraries, William Wordsworth Comments closed
“Better Living” Emerged from a Midnight Epiphany
In the latest installment of “A Life Lived in Literature,” I recount the origins of “Better Living through Beowulf.”
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Alexander Pope, Benjamin Franklin, blogging, Daniel Defoe, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Geoffrey Chaucer, Great Gatsby, Jane Austen, Poor Richard’s Almanack, Pride and Prejudice, Rape of the Lock, Robinson Crusoe, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Comments closed
How Toxic Masculinity Imprisons Men
Those men who are embracing toxic masculinity make themselves vulnerable since it’s so easy to deflate them. Lady Montagu pointed this out in an 18th century poem.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Epistle from Mrs. Yonge to Her Hustand", Chaucer, Country Wife, cuckold jokes, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, male anxiety, Sigmund Freud, toxic masculinity, William Wycherley Comments closed
A Woman 600 Years Ahead of Her Time
If Chaucer’s created a timeless and transcendent character in the Wife of Bath, it is because he listened–really listened–to women.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Beowulf, Christian misogyny, Defence of Poetry, Feminism, Geoffrey Chaucer, Harold Bloom, Percy Shelley, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, William Shakespeare Comments closed
Harris’s Laugh and the Wife of Bath
Kamala Harris’s big-hearted laugh puts her in Chaucer’s Wife of Bath territory. Trump is more like the Pardoner.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Donald Trump, Geoffrey Chaucer, Kamala Harris, Laughter, Pardoner Comments closed
St. Paul, St. Thecla, and the Wife of Bath
The Wife of Bath threads between visions of marriage articulated by St. Paul. In the process, she articulates a far more spiritual vision than that propagated by misogynist monks of the period.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Christian misogyny, Geoffrey Chaucer, Sexism, St. Paul Comments closed
Fantasy Frees Us from Narrow Thinking
Friday I share today a new insight that I gained from my recent Lifelong Learning class about “Wizards and Enchantresses.” To set it up, I first share my theory of fantasy. As I see it, fantasy is always oppositional in its invocation of magic and the supernatural. If it flourished in the wake of the […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Enlightenment, fantasy, Fundamentalism, Geoffrey Chaucer, scientism Comments closed
Chaucer’s Friar and Abusive Clergy
Wednesday Like many, I had hopes that Pope Francis’s Vatican meeting on clergy sexual abuse would yield something substantial, and like many I have been disappointed. The pope, according to the New York Times, decided that the best way for the church to address the problem lay not in issuing an edict from Rome but […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Catholic Church, clergy sexual abuse, Friar's Tale, Geoffrey Chaucer, Pope Francis Comments closed