Month: August 2017
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“F**k You, Death.”
We’ve been reading about Death in Robert Frost’s and Emily Dickinson’s poems. They’ve both got different voices, and different “angles” on dying. Now we have our friend, Dylan Thomas, the scotch-slugging, chain-smoking Welsh poet who gives us a little advice on facing our own death. “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” is one…
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Emily’s Fly
We’re reading Emily Dickinson now, some of her greatest hits (she had tons). Emily was a poet from the 19th century, from Massachusetts, who wrote like, I don’t know, ten billion poems and stuffed them in drawers, cabinets, under her bed; I picture her entire house wallpapered in them. Only a handful were published in…
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How I Read a Poem
I remember when my seventh grade English teacher, Mrs. Lauderback, assigned us Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken.” She read it aloud, paused a couple of seconds, lifted her head from the book and asked us, “Okay, so, what does the poem mean?” I bet that happened to some of you. In that moment,…
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Cell Phones and Loneliness
Here’s an interview I came across on National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered,” it’s about a new study on cell phones, loneliness, mental health, etc.: Smart Phones & Loneliness
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Wandering Thoughts on Aesthetics
1. Here’s the Oxford English Dictionary definition of “aesthetics:” “Concerned with beauty or the appreciation of beauty; Giving or designed to give pleasure through beauty. Basically, it’s the study of art–its creation (by the artist), and its appreciation (by the one who loves art). One thing about art: it’s not real. It’s artificial. A mountain range…