Because everyone loves a good story
Tolkien, Heaney, and Beowulf
Youth is wasted on the young, and college classes are wasted on college students. When I was a junior in college, I took a History of Modern English class that seemed, at the time, drier than dust and older than dirt. To this day,…
“The Writer”: A Poem by Richard Wilbur
Today I’d like to share with you a poem by Richard Wilbur. If you were around last year on Past Watchful Dragons, you’ll know I shared many of my favorite poems with you then, so we’ll consider today a bonus poem. I found this…
To Revenge or Not To Revenge? The Count of Monte Cristo and Shakespeare’s The Tempest
Recently I had an literary epiphany. Two stories I’d known for decades finally collided with each other in my mind and fused into a new idea: I saw two ways to approach revenge when I contrasted Edmond Dantes with Shakespeare’s Prospero. The Comparison Catalyst…
Skyscrapers, Social Media, and Science: C.S. Lewis on “Progress”
Proof number 793 that I’m an old soul: I resonate with a poem that laments the evils of progress…from 100 years ago. On my latest reading of C.S. Lewis’s The Pilgrim’s Regress, I came across this powerhouse of a poem in the last chapter….
An Allegorical Conversion Story: C.S. Lewis’s The Pilgrim’s Regress
This week I finished re-reading C.S. Lewis’s The Pilgrim’s Regress, and guys—it was thrilling. Seems like an odd description for a spiritual allegory from almost a century ago, but it’s true. I’d read it before, maybe during high school, so I found plenty of…
On Pickwick, Dickens, and a New Crush
Will you despise me if I admit that, while I’ve loved reading since I was a wee child, I’d never been much of a Charles Dickens fan? I know. It’s heresy. He’s one of the greats, and I had tried (from time to time)…
How God Saved Me: An Easter Story
Growing up, I heard the gospel (the good news that Jesus came to forgive us) from every angle: from my parents, church, story books, vacation Bible school, evangelists, and even Christian children’s records. Yes, records. I’m that old. But somehow my takeaway was always,…
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