This Scott Bates poem protesting aerial killing machines could apply to today’s drone program.
A rainbow sighting led to a discussion about how humans often turn to nature for guiding metaphors.
Blake captures the tragic clash between childhood innocence and worldly corruption that we witnessed in Sandy Hook.
The opening ceremonies of the 2012 London Olympics were rich in literary allusions.
Also posted in Barrie (J. M.), Shakespeare (William) | Tagged "Jerusalem", Children's literature, James Barrie, Olympics, Peter Pan, Richard II, Sports, Tempest, William Blake, William Shakespeare |
With names from Salinger and Blake, my two new grandchildren have promising destinies.
Also posted in Salinger (J. D.), Shakespeare (William), Sterne (Lawrence) | Tagged Children, Four Zoas, J. D. Salinger, King Lear, Laurence Sterne, names, To Esme with Love and Squalor, Tristram Shandy, William Blake, William Shakespeare |
Literary allusions are flying fast and free in this primary season.
Also posted in Bunyan (John), Carroll (Lewis), Hawthorne (Nathaniel), Melville (Herman), Milne (A. A.) | Tagged Alice in Wonderland, Herman Melville, John Bunyan, Lewis Carroll, Moby Dick, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Pilgrim's Progress, Presidential campaign, Scarlet Letter, William Blake |
Businessman David Whyte turns to poetry to hold on to his soul in the corporate world.
William Blake’s “Jerusalem” has been used for both religious and patriotic purposes. One must negotiate the relationship between religion and politics very closely since God can get bent to serve narrow agendas, and this poem is frequently misinterpreted.
Did the god that made the elegant strokes of Roger Federer also make the bruising style of Nadal? Like William Blake gazing at the lamb and the tiger in “Tyger, Tyger,” we can only shake our heads bemused.
Young McIlroy, bidding to become the youngest golfer to win the Master’s since, yes, Tiger, found himself cast in the role of Icarus. Flying close to the bright sun of fame, the wax in his wings melted and he plummeted to earth in a debacle that scorched the eyes to watch.
Film Friday The World Series between the Texas Rangers and the San Francisco Giants gives me an excuse for posting on what is, in my opinion, the greatest movie on baseball. Among the many virtues of Ron Shelton’s Bull Durham are its literary allusions and its literariness. Each year Annie Savoy (Susan Sarandon) chooses to [...]
In his August 29 Washington Mall speech, rightwing television commentator Glenn Beck attacked (among other things) the notion that Christianity should be concerned with issues of social justice. He accused Barack Obama and liberation theology of distorting Jesus’s message. For the President, Beck said, it’s all about victims and victimhood; oppressors and the oppressed; reparations, [...]
from Songs of Innocence and Experience My Introduction to Literature class (focus on Nature) has just moved from Robinson Crusoe to William Blake, and we are seeing in the 18th century a conflict similar to one we are witnessing today over the environment. Defoe’s protagonist is an advocate of the “drill, baby, drill” approach to nature although, [...]
