And did those feet in ancient time Walk upon England’s mountains green: And was the holy Lamb of God, On England’s pleasant pastures seen! And did the Countenance Divine, Shine forth upon our clouded hills? And was Jerusalem builded here, Among these dark Satanic Mills? William Blake Not facts first, truth first. G. K. [...]
It little profits that an idle king, By this still hearth, among these barren crags, Match'd with an aged wife, I mete and dole Unequal laws unto a savage race, That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me. I cannot rest from travel: I will drink Life to the lees: All times I [...]
Here are the ten qualities to notice about the next poem you read. By “poem,” I mean lyric poem, the shortest, most concentrated form of the poetic activity of representing human action in order to understand that action and, therefore, ourselves, one of the most delightful ways of fulfilling the Apollonian dictate, “Know thyself.” With [...]
Maurice Baring’s novel "The Lonely Lady of Dulwich" takes us from the calm before the storm, through the storm itself, to the peace that emerges after it. It would not be appropriate to reveal the lonely lady’s secrets, which are for the readers of the novel to discover for themselves. "Conversation Piece" (G.K. Chesterton; [...]
Dante’s globalism, his vision of the whole, is not confined to the earth but extends to the entire universe. This includes the invisible, spiritual world as well as the visible, corporeal one. It embraces the human and the divine, the natural and the supernatural… it celebrates the victory of hope over despair. “The things of [...]
John Keats’ “Great Odes” constitute the pinnacle of classical poetry in the English language and have continued to inspire every generation since his death, attesting to their grounding in universal principles of the human spirit. When John Keats died in Rome on February 23, 1821, at the age of 25, the world lost one of [...]
Hilaire Belloc was one of a rare breed, which today might be considered an endangered species. He was what was called a man of letters and a man who refused to be pigeonholed, who refused to be labeled, who refused to be restricted by any sphere of specialty. Mercifully, he lived in an age in [...]
The poetry of John Keats is a window into the mad genius of the Romantics: their lusts and hopes; their ambitions and ignorance; their radicalism and fantasies. In reading Keats, one is simultaneously scandalized and sympathetic to the longing of the Romantic heart. “The best things we have come from madness.” John Keats died only [...]
The beauty of art comes in many forms, shapes and sizes. It is rendered in metal, stone, sound, movement, oils, watercolours and words. It ranges in scale from the majestic splendour of the great cathedrals to the diminutive glory of the finest crafted jewellery, from the grandeur of the greatest epic poems to the sonorous [...]
The warm joys of "The Odyssey" are not necessarily the “feel-good” kind. They’re sharp and unexpected, like splinters of hope. This is not just a tale of a lone hero who overcomes adversity and completes a journey, not just about survival and homecoming. It’s also about the pearls to be harvested from suffering. You remember [...]
Long before I knew what literary criticism was, I was a boy, living and growing up in southwestern Minnesota, a remote part of the world... Since then, I've come to that age where I've retired from what I've done with the decades of my life. Over those “professional” years, I shied away from being called [...]
The “Paradiso” has much to tell us about happiness, the perfection of the intellect, the nature of true freedom, the flourishing of community, the role of love in education, and the profound connection that the good and the true have to beauty. “For we shall see him as he is.” 1 John 3:2 The focus [...]
For nearly two thousand years, the pilgrimage to the Holy Land has been the pinnacle of Christian religious experience and a byword for trust in divine providence. There is one place that captivates the pilgrim more than all the rest. Because in the most consequential of lands, it is the most consequential city this side [...]
Lovers of great children’s literature have probably read and enjoyed “The Selfish Giant” by Oscar Wilde, which Wilde had originally written for his own children, reading it to them with tears in his eyes. In the story, the Giant is healed of his selfishness by the love of a child. Angered by his discovery that [...]