With Advent starting and the Christmas season following it, it’s time to think about all the overlap between literature and liturgy. Sometimes a liturgy will take central place in a novel, such as the baptism in Hardy’s Tess of the d’Urbervilles or the wedding at the end of any marriage plot. Many liturgies themselves are a collection … More A Literary Kalendar for December
There is so much overlap between literature and liturgy. Sometimes a liturgy will take central place in a novel, such as the baptism in Hardy’s Tess of the d’Urbervilles or the wedding at the end of any marriage plot. Many liturgies themselves are a collection of literary genres, ranging from myth to poetry to exhortation, blended with … More A Literary Kalendar
What do we do with old books? I mean really old books. How do we understand them when they seem so alien to us? Time can seem to be the enemy of understanding. Past texts can seem cryptic. We wonder if Chaucer is as ironic as we may like to see him or if we … More How Temporal Distance Helps Us Read
Imagine Arthur pulling the sword from the stone. What season is it? Do you see snow? Does a crisp winter light play over the stone? Now be honest…is Arthur wearing a scarf? I apologize for channeling a Disney scene, but bear with me. The legend of Arthur is very seasonal. The sword is pulled from … More Arthurian Time
July first. It parts the year like the part in a head of hair. I had foreseen it as a boundary marker for me–yesterday one kind of me, tomorrow a different kind. The light-rimmed boundary of the east was July, for June had gone away in the night. July is brass where June is gold, … More July First
I was excited last summer when I heard that Charles Wright would become the Poet Laureate of the United States. I am drawn to the way he meditates on the weather and the change of seasons as though they are life-giving texts and discerns meaning about himself and his mortality. He translates the language of … More “All Things Come from Splendor”: The Poet Laureate Charles Wright
