Leaning forward in the black and white armchair, I slowly close the back cover of The Rector of Justin, with whom I have spent much of the last day. It is fiercely cold outside and I can see the wind whipping violently through the bare trees and tall weeds of the seemingly endless snow-covered fields. […]
“Barn Burning” is one of William Faulkner’s most widely read short stories, second perhaps only to “A Rose for Emily”. But where “Emily” is Faulkner’s most digestible story, “Barn Burning” is the ideal introduction to Faulkner’s unique and sometimes difficult literary aesthetic. I’ve long claimed that very few people actually love William Faulkner, unlike, say,
“BARN BURNING” AND FAULKNER’S UNIQUELY ANACHRONISTIC AESTHETIC Read More »
Virtuous Pagans Awakened from his first swoon by a “monstrous clap of thunder,” Dante finds that they have crossed Acheron and are now positioned “on the very brink of the valley called the Dolorous Abyss, the desolate chasm where rolls the thunder of Hell’s eternal cry” (Canto IV.7-9). Yet, as they descend into the first
The Good of Intellect Dante’s voyage into hell formally begins in Canto III as his guide, Virgil, reach the entry gate. Above the gate, carved in stone, is the foreboding inscription: “I AM THE WAY INTO THE CITY OF WOE. I AM THE WAY TO A FORSAKEN PEOPLE. I AM THE WAY INTO ETERNAL SORROW.
– “Homo sum, humani nihil a me alienum puto“, or “I am a human being, I consider nothing that is human alien to me.” – “Know thyself.” We are reading The Aeneid in my Ancient Literature class, and we’ve just spent a few days watching Troy burn to the ground. It is epic. Most of
Stars & Resurrection “This fell at the first widening of the dawn as the sun was climbing Aries with those stars that rode with him to light the new creation.” (Canto I.37-39) We know so little of stars now. Drowned by the wrong kinds of light, we seldom glimpse them, let alone enjoy them. When
Recently, I began teaching The Inferno, the first and best known part of Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy, for the first time in several years. Sadly, I had forgotten much of its beauty and power. To ensure that my current encounter sticks a bit longer, I have decided to blog my way through hell, drawing attention
Our friend Martin Cothran is the author of Memoria Press’ Traditional Logic, Material Logic and Classical Rhetoric programs, and is an instructor of Latin, Logic, Rhetoric, and Classical Studies at Highlands Latin School. He currently serves as senior policy analyst with The Family Foundation of Kentucky. His articles has have appeared in the Cincinnati Enquirer,
“Recuerdo” by Edna St. Vincent Millay We were very tired, we were very merry– We had gone back and forth all night on the ferry. It was bare and bright, and smelled like a stable– But we looked into a fire, we leaned across a table, We lay on a hill-top underneath the moon; And
Yesterday we posted an article by one Mr. Andrew Kern in which the author attacks progressive education for the way it teaches children to read. He claims that “…when we teach reading, we treat the child like she is a mechanism learning a process. We do not teach it like she is a person interacting
A Footnote to All Prayers by C.S. Lewis He whom I bow to only knows to whom I bow. When I attempt the ineffable name, murmuring Thou, And dream of Phaedian fancies and embrace in heart Symbols (I know) which cannot be the thing Thou art. Thus always, taken at their word, all prayers blaspheme,
POTW: CS Lewis, Limping Metaphors, and Groanings Too Deep For Words Read More »
Rod Dreher is a senior editor and blogger at The American Conservative. He has written and edited for the New York Post, The Dallas Morning News, National Review, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, the Washington Times, and the Baton Rouge Advocate. Rod’s commentary has been published in The Wall Street Journal, Commentary, the Weekly Standard, Beliefnet,
Words of Wisdom: Rod Dreher on Reading The Odyssey for the First Time Read More »
