Saturday, February 10, 2024

Saturday Good Reads - Feb. 10, 2024


For a project I’ve been working on, I spent a fair chunk of Wednesday and Thursday reading poems by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. One poem is one of his best-known works, although not under its official title of “The Landlord’s Tale” from Tales of a Wayside Inn. Better known as “Paul Revere’s Ride,” it is still a soul-stirring poem. At the Society of Classical Poets, Andrew Benson Brown asks the question, whatever happened to great poetry? He sees Longfellow as one of the last of the great American poets. 

Speaking of great poetry, it may not be a popular thing to say these days, but the father of Western civilization has long been recognized to be the Greek poet Homer. Joshua Katz at New Criterion writes about the importance of Homer and the poetic tradition.

 

I had a comment exchange with a friend this week; we represent opposite sides of the political spectrum, but we still manage to keep it civil and mutually beneficial. The great American political divide didn’t happen overnight, nor has it been a development only since the 1960s. As Shaun Rieley at The Imaginative Conservative writes, the divide can be traced back to the late 18th century, and the conflict of competing ideas (and ideologies) began with Edmund Burke and Thomas Paine.

 

More Good Reads

 

Faith

 

The Worst Thing Was Not the Last – Erin Ahnfeldt at Mere Orthodoxy.

 

Anna Who Waited: How the Means of Grace Sustain the Grieving – Peter Witkowski. 

 

Six Encouraging Resources to Prepare Your Heart for Lent – Michele Morin at Living Our Days.

 

Music

 

The Art of Composition: Eremo by Jeff Johnson and John Van Deusen – Kevin Belmonte at All Nine Muses.

 

Art

 

An expert’s guide to Frans Hals: five must-read books on the Dutch Old Master – José da Silva at The Art Newspaper.

 

Change – Sonja Benskin Mesher. 

 

Albert Turpin, Painter – Spitalfields Life. 

 

British Stuff

 

Britain Can’t Protect Its Own Government Ministers from Islamists – Oliver Wiseman at The Free Press.

 

Poetry

 

Falling Out of Love with Lyric Poetry – Jason Guriel at The Millions.

 

“God’s Own Descent”: Dante, the Incarnation, & Frost’s “The Trial by Existence” – Myah Gebhard at The Imaginative Conservative.

 

Submissions are open for the Rhina Espaillat Poetry Award – Plough Magazine.

 

The Cardinal – Paul Wittenberger.

 

Life and Culture

 

Rights and Duties – Frank DeVito at Front Porch Republic.

 

Opiods Decimated a Kentucky Town. Recovering Addicts Are Saving It – Sam Quinones at The Free Press.

 

Why Hillsdale Stand Alone – Aaron Renn.

 

Falling Slowly – Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova



 Painting: Young Clergyman Reading, oil on canvas by Martin Rørbye (1803-1848), Art Institute of Chicago

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