April 20, 2024
A Reason for Writing
No word that is not flesh, he said, Can hold my wavering ear; but when The golden physical flesh is dear, I dance in a glory like your glory With […]
April 20, 2024
Two of a Kind
The personal man looked up and said, “This moon revolves for me.” The general man looked up and said, “Once in this dust I’m free.” The personal man and the […]
April 20, 2024
The Ivory Tower on Wheels
Andre Maurois once remarked that the artist takes to artistic creation as “une consolation de ne pouvoir vivre” This brilliant (though unoriginal) bit of psychology is intriguing alongside what is […]
April 20, 2024
Death by Rarity
I fear, I fear the rarity Of night hawk, swift, ruby throat; I fear extinct The roseate spoonbill and snowy egret slain By no known enemy, Slain by no known […]
April 20, 2024
Earth’s History
The sweet pea once opened Does not close its fragile heart again, Of the invader space it is victim Like a city besieged by heartless men. A trivial note, a […]
April 20, 2024
Literature and Power
Sometimes we of the English-teaching profession must wonder whether our social function is anything more than pious—whether we are expected to do more than perform levitical chores in the temple […]
April 20, 2024
The Graduate Student in English
Though many of them are utterly unaware of the conflict which Mr. Tate has helped to bring into focus, the graduate students of English are as concerned with it as […]
April 20, 2024
If We Care Enough
The good thing about English teaching in America these last thirty years is a kind of mellow reasonableness and balance. Gushing over masterpieces has not been much indulged; the wizard […]
April 20, 2024
Scholars as Critics
The basic function of the literary scholar was clearly indicated by Dr. Johnson when he remarked that “all works which describe manners require notes in sixty or seventy years” if […]
April 19, 2024
Literary History vs. Criticism
The modern English department is notoriously easy to attack; and it is most obviously exposed to attack by the stupid, or trifling, or plainly muddle-headed books, articles, dissertations, and theses […]
April 19, 2024
Nothing but Maps
Now for us there is nothing but maps; and the old names of cities where a king lived or our father died and suddenly a sign seen in a foreign […]
April 19, 2024
Karl May: Hitler’s Literary Mentor
The Wild West is still wild and wonderful and very far away—for the boys in Leipzig, Breslau and Hanover. The names of Arizona, Texas, New Mexico, Rio Grande, Sierra-de-los-Organos, Rianca […]