Tag Archives: grandchildren

The Joys of Revisiting Childhood Favs

By Robin Bates | Published: July 4, 2021

Among the joys of being a parent and grandparent is revisiting childhood books.

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To Esmé, without the Squalor

By Robin Bates | Published: June 15, 2021

I reflect upon a significant literary antecedent for my eldest granddaughter’s name and what it means.

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The Children’s Hour

By Robin Bates | Published: June 30, 2019

Monday I am retooling a post that I wrote five years ago to apply to yesterday’s visit to my four grandchildren. As the three oldest, Esmé (7), Etta (5), and Eden (3), swarmed over me on their playroom floor, I recalled Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s “The Children’s Hour.” It too features an elder man being swarmed […]

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Nature and “My Babe So Beautiful”

By Robin Bates | Published: May 16, 2016

I saw my latest grandchild for the first time yesterday. Although it was beautiful spring day, Coleridge’s beautiful “Frost at Midnight” came to mind. That’s because the poet imagines “the great universal teacher” imparting a spirit of inquiry to his infant son.

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A Kind of Light Spread Out from Her

By Robin Bates | Published: April 25, 2016

John Steinbeck’s “East of Eden” contributed to the naming of my latest granddaughter.

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My New Granddaughter, Glorious Eden

By Robin Bates | Published: April 11, 2016

I am a grandfather again. My latest granddaughter, Eden Rhys Wilson-Bates, brings to mind “Paradise Lost” and Lucille Clifton’s Garden of Eden poems.

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A Sense of Wonder at the Zoo

By Robin Bates | Published: May 28, 2015

Taking my son to the National Zoo recalled A. A. Milne’s “At the Zoo.” As with Christopher Robin, the elephants were the star attraction.

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New Grandchild Born under a Dancing Star

By Robin Bates | Published: March 7, 2014

To celebrate the birth of my new granddaughter, I turn to Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Shakespeare.

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My Grandson, a “Best Philosopher”

By Robin Bates | Published: March 1, 2013

Having grandchildren has changed my perspective on Wordsworth’s “Intimations of Immortality.”

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