At this time of year, I sometimes wonder why I signed up for this gig. Stacks of ungraded essays are strewn “far and wee” across my study, and only the knowledge that I have completed my student essays in the past assures me that I will make it through this batch. In my hour of […]
Tag Archives: William Wordsworth
Essay Grading and the Great Wall of China
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged After Apple-Picking, Franz Kafka, Great Wall of China, Robert Frost, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, teaching, Work Comments closed
Nature or Poetry? Choose Both
“The world is filled with the grandeur of God.” “The sounding cataract haunted me like a passion.” In my last two posts, I reported how poetry sprang to mind as I walked through some of California’s natural wonders, specifically Big Basin Redwoods State Park and Yosemite National Park. Today I meditate on the relationship of […]
The Cataract Haunted Me Like a Passion
Ansel Adams, Yosemite Falls Julia, Toby (our youngest son) and I visited Yosemite National Park for the first time last week, and I am still vibrating from the stunning rock faces and gorgeous waterfalls. It was remarkable to see what seemed, at a distance, to be thin, almost delicate, streams of water pouring from great […]
How Lost Innocence Can Breed Monsters
Continuing the theme of lost innocence leads me to a discussion of Stephen King, America’s master of horror. Whether you like him or not, King is the bestselling author in the world because he taps effectively into our collective nightmares. One of these nightmares is over losing touch with our childhood innocence, and there is […]
Posted in Uncategorized Also tagged Intimations of Immortality, It, lost innocence, Stephen King Comments closed
Coping with the Loss of Childhood
As I have been writing on dreams of lost innocence and the challenges of growing up, I thought I’d write on one of the great poems on the subject. In “Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood” Romantic poet William Wordsworth wrestles with his deep sense of loss. (You can read the entire poem […]
