As I sat at my desk one evening grading papers, I got stuck on a poem. It was the final paper in a stack I’d been working on for nine hours. I stared and stared at it. I read it aloud once, twice, three times. I counted the syllables in each line. I wrote out […]
The classical renewal places great emphasis on the trivium and on language. In contrast to modern progressive education which only “has a mind of metal and wheels,” classical education restores the primacy of the word over the gadget. Rather than the know-how of mechanical manipulation, a language-based education ascends to the transcendentals of truth, goodness,
I love George Herbert’s The Temple—the major hits, the b-sides, everything. The more I read Herbert’s work, the more I realize just how inventive it really is. Take even a minor poem like “Paradise” for example. Like so many works by Herbert, this one is a little Matryoshka doll of meaning—a highly intricate artifact containing
How contemporary poetry can equip students for a richer experience reading the classics.
A Case for Contemporary Poetry in the Classical Curriculum Read More »
Wordsworth and his contemporaries sparked an artistic revolution, the effects of which we’re still feeling.
For many there’s no payoff in reading poetry. It’s not worth the toil. But that’s precisely the point of poetry.
“Menus,” by Blaise Cendrars I. Truffled green turtle liver Lobster Mexican Florida pheasant Iguana with Caribbean sauce Gumbo and palmetto II. Red River salmon Canadian bear ham Roast beef from the meadows of Minnesota Smoked eel San Francisco tomatoes Pale ale and California wine III. Winnipeg salmon Scottish leg of lamb Royal Canadian apples Old
Stillborn Dog In Honey: On The Most Trinitarian Of Poems Read More »
In What Are People For?, Wendell Berry wrote that a poem “may remind poet and reader alike of what is remembered or ought to be remembered – as in elegies, poems of history, love poems, celebrations of nature, poems of praise or worship, or poems as prayers. One of the functions of the music or
Homer’s epic poems tell of rage and war, shipwreck and conquest, friendship and home. The Aeneid, Beowulf, The Song of Roland, and more all tell of brave heroes, fierce battles, and even gruesome monsters. Yet, now, in the minds of too many young men, poetry conjures up images of bongos and greeting cards, with sappy
John Donne on the miraculous circumstances – and ironic implications – of the nativity
When I met the soundtrack of Hamilton, the massively popular Broadway musical that has taken the world by storm, I was astonished. I listened to borrowed CD’s on my commute to work at Messiah College where I teach academic writing, poetry, and creative writing. Never mind what the day held, I hungrily attended to these
How “Hamilton” Is Teaching Us to Love Poetry Again Read More »
One of the talks I will be giving in July in Charleston at the Circe National Conference is about Jonathan Swift’s critique of Modernity. His insights into the problems caused by the modern world are profound and surprisingly relevant even three hundred years later. In a very simplified nutshell: Swift saw that the modern world
A Few Thoughts about Music, Story, and the Death of Poetry inspired by Jonathan Swift Read More »
