Writing about your childhood and teen years is hard, not just because of the natural tendency to make ourselves the heroes of our stories, which can often lead to being really understanding about why you did dumb shit but not so much about the other people who were (or weren’t) there, and not just because … Continue reading Reclamation Part 6
I love Julia Alvarez
I've liked her poetry for a long while, but I especially love what she's done with the AP's request for an inaugural poem. I've written before about my problems with Frost's poem for Kennedy, and it shouldn't be a surprise that I wasn't alone. Alvarez voiced many of the same reservations, though in a far … Continue reading I love Julia Alvarez
I guess I can see that
A couple of days ago at Sadly, No, Mister Leonard Pierce looked at some responses to the National Review Onine's symposium on books. To the question "If there were only one book on conservatism you could recommend to a newcomer, what would it be and why?" Richard Brookheiser answered "The Complete Poetry of Robert Frost. … Continue reading I guess I can see that
It’s not less travelled
Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken" is probably one of the best known poems of the 20th century, but for entirely the wrong reason. I teach it nearly every semester in my Interpretation of Poetry classes, not so much because I enjoy it, but because I'm tired of hearing people invoke the final three lines … Continue reading It’s not less travelled
Another Poem to Love 