Tag Archives: W;t

Hamlet Taught Us a New Way to Grieve

By Robin Bates | Published: November 29, 2023

In “Hamlet,” Shakespeare taught the world a powerful new way to grieve.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Angus Fletcher, Beowulf, grieving, Hamlet, William Shakespeare, Wonderworks | Comments closed

Can Donne Help Us Cope with Death?

By Robin Bates | Published: November 12, 2014

Meditations on Margaret Edson’s “W;t”–with further reflections on whether Donne’s poetry can help us handle death.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "Death Be Not Proud", "If Poisonous Minerals", "Valediction: Forbidding Mourning", death and dying, Hamlet, John Donne, Margaret Edson, Margaret Wise Brown, May Justus, Runaway Bunny, William Shakespeare | Comments closed

Don’t Underestimate Your Students

By Robin Bates | Published: October 29, 2014

Rule #1 for literature teachers should be to listen carefully to your students’ responses. There may be hidden wisdom in even the most unpromising ones.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged John Donne, Margaret Edson, teaching | Comments closed

Donne as an Aid to Teenage Angst

By Robin Bates | Published: January 21, 2010

Well, the semester is underway. Yesterday I began teaching one of my favorite classes, the early British Literature survey (Literature in History I). Along with Beowulf, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the Wife of Bath, Doctor Faustus, Twelfth Night, King Lear, and Paradise Lost, I will be teaching the poetry of John Donne. I […]

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "Good Morrow, adolescence, John Donne, Margaret Edson, New Criticism, teaching | Comments closed

Don’t Underestimate Students

By Robin Bates | Published: January 20, 2010

I begin my two literature classes today and, as always, am filled with trepidation. Will I be the teacher my students need me to be? Margaret Edson’s play W;t reminds me that, if I stay true to the literature, all will be well. W;t, functions in part as a criticism of those college literature professors […]

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "Valediction: Forbidding Mourning", John Donne, Margaret Edson, teaching | Comments closed

The Limitations of Cerebral Teaching

By Robin Bates | Published: January 19, 2010

The new semester begins today. Margaret Edson’s play W;t is a useful reminder of where I should put my priorities as I begin teaching. When my career started out, I had a number of things in common with Vivian Bearing, the English professor and Donne scholar in W;t. I too reveled in the complexity of texts, […]

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged death and dying, John Donne, Margaret Edson, teaching | Comments closed

The Tolling Bell Says You’re Not Alone

By Robin Bates | Published: January 15, 2010

I talked yesterday about the poet being like one blundering around in the dark, making utterances that some, in their suffering, find consoling. The poet doesn’t know which poems will reach which readers. To make another analogy, he or she is like Queequeg, carefully constructing a coffin that then, after he is dead and in […]

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged death and dying, John Donne, Loss of a child, Margaret Edson, Meditation 17 | Comments closed

Doctors, Bad Bedside Manners, and Poetry

By Robin Bates | Published: January 12, 2010

Margaret Edson In Margaret Edson’s W;t there is a doctor, Jason, who has taken her 17th century poetry class as a challenge. As he puts it, You can’t get into medical school unless you’re well-rounded. And I made a bet with myself that I could get an A in the three hardest courses on campus. […]

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged death and dying, Doctors, John Donne, Margaret Edson, Medical Care | Comments closed

Wit Won’t Cushion Us against Death

By Robin Bates | Published: January 8, 2010

Will John Donne’s “Death Be Not Proud” help one handle the fact that one has cancer? It is significant that the cancer victim and Donne scholar in Margaret Edson’s W;t is rejecting her poet by the end of the play. I’m actually not sure whether this particular poem would help any cancer patient. There’s a […]

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "Death Be Not Proud", "If Poisonous Minerals", death and dying, John Donne, Margaret Edson | Comments closed