Bitter the sound. Bitter the sight. Bitter the taste and touch. Bitter the world. Bitter the night. Bitter the broken and the best. Bitter then, bitter now. Bitter the lonely life and death. Perhaps instead, Let us look, listen, and let. Let us be the letters, That make bitter better As dawn makes darkness light….
Author: Bex
Yarico
Preface The story of Inkle and Yarico, as originally recorded in Richard Ligon’s 1673 book, A True and Exact History of Barbados, was taken and embellished by Richard Steele, a writer for The Spectator, and published on March 13th, 1711. This publication fed social conversations and debates on many heated topics including slavery, colonialism, and…
To W. Whitman
Whitman, you heard the rain as I hear it now,Did you not?I lay and I listen,And I think of you—I think of how you thought of me;How you listened to the wavesLap against the ferry as you crossed that dayIn Brooklyn;How you felt the sea mist against your skin,And the sun upon your face.I feel…
For My Niece on the Day After Her Birth
A new line has emergedOn this canvas of life;Been etched into the slateOf existence. Of all the linesThat have appeared before —Of the borders, barricades, and bounds —This line transcends them. I see it as Lily Briscoe’s final touch;Yet rather than birthed from mortal hands and eyes,It was (it always was) a vision divine. In…
Protestant and Catholic Providence in Shakespeare’s Hamlet
William Shakespeare possessed a remarkable ability to vigilantly observe conflict, comprehending the eminent pain on every side of it, and express multiple perspectives through his interpretation. He demonstrates this empathetic perspective within each of his tragic plays so that the audience can experience the agony of the protagonists, and at the same time, completely understand…
Ideal
“You’re so good,” they told her.“A perfect example of goodness and grace—A role model people can look up to.”And with this message, she staked her flag,Mapped out the house, drew the borders,Carved out the earth, laid the foundation,And built the home—One false brick after the other,Each fashioned through willful labor and toil;Each infused with doubt…
Unpleasant Imagery and Voice in Jonathan Edwards’ Sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”
Jonathan Edwards was a man of deep religious conviction. His theological and philosophical opinions display in him a desire to offer the world controversy and a depth of insight uncommon at the time. This desire is particularly evident in his work, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. This text was originally presented as…
Symmetry and Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw
Symmetry is a difficult term to justly define when dealing with subjects other than physical imagery and visual experience. In such examples, it is merely the matching of one image to another close beside. However, in literature, philosophy, and thought, it becomes a much more complicated subject to identify. Such is the case with the…
Distorted and Distant Hope: Denial versus Acceptance in Tennyson’s “Mariana” and “Tears, Idle Tears”
In the wake of his closest friend, Arthur Hallam’s passing and even prior to it, Alfred, Lord Tennyson created many literary works that either centered on a theme of loss and grief or that held hints of it subtly beneath their surfaces. From this textual focal point, Tennyson demonstrated not just a struggle to accept…
Lady Bertilak’s Temptations in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Temptation is evidently a common theme that appears throughout medieval writing. Reasons for this frequency likely reside in the influence of the Christian church—the clergy’s emphasis on humanity’s sin and shortcomings to create for the church dependency and revenue through indulgences. It could also be representative of the value system at the time. Knights were…