Libraries as described by poet Paul Engle are sometimes repositories of dynamite, sometimes of comfort.
Tag Archives: William Shakespeare
The Dangerous Power of Libraries
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Library", Anna Karenina, C. S. Lewis, Grand Canyon, Julius Caesar, Leo Tolstoy, libraries, Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, Lolita, Louisa May Alcott, Merchant of Venice, Paul Hamilton Engle, Tempest, Vladimir Nabokov Comments closed
Trump as Chaucer’s Pardoner
Think of Trump as Chaucer’s Pardoner, a conman who thinks he can trick people he’s revealed his tricks to.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Donald Trump, Election 2024, Falstaff, Geoffrey Chaucer, greed, Harold Bloom, Kamala Harris, Pardoner's Prologue and Tale Comments closed
Biden, Macbeth, and Passing the Torch
An MSNBC commentator cited a line from “Macbeth” to characterize Joe Biden’s decision not to run for a second term/
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Donald Trump, Joe Biden, Macbeth, succession, treason Comments closed
Shakespeare Stood Up for Immigrants
As Trump and MAGA call for mass deportations, Shakespeare asks us to see the world from the immigrants’ point of view.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Book of Thomas More, immigrant policy, immigrants, xenophobia Comments closed
Why Fiction Terrifies People
I announce my forthcoming book and contrast it with a similar book–“Dangerous Fictions”–coming out soon.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Beloved, Ben Jonson, Better Living through Literature, book bans, Christopher Marlowe, Dangerous Fictions, Harold Bloom, Hesiod, Homer, Iliad, Lyta Gold, Odyssey, Oscar Wilde, Picture of Dorian Gray, Plato, Toni Morrison Comments closed
On Lear and Turning 73
Poet David Wright finds retirement lessons in “King Lear.” And aging lessons as well.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Lines on Retirement after Reading Lear", Aging, Carl Jung, David Wright, King Lear, W. B. Yeats Comments closed
On Portia, Milosz, and Pardoning Trump
Should Biden pardon Trump. This article, citing “Merchant of Venice” and a Milosz poem, argues no.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged "Incantation", Czeslaw Milosz, Dante, Donald Trump, Inferno, Isaiah, Merchant of Venice, mercy, Presidential pardoning power, Salman Rushdie Comments closed
Literature in Time of War
Poetry has always been present in times of war but with mixed success at improving conditions.
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged burning books, Ernest Hemingway, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Hitler, Homer, Iliad, King John, Louis Untemeyer, Modern American and British Poetry, Nadezhda Mandelstam, Osip Mandelstam, Robert Graves, Stalin, Uncle Tom's Cabin Comments closed
