As I recall, my local library when I was a kid (shout-out to the Thornhill Branch of the St. Louis County Public Library!) had a summer reading program for youth for which the goal was reading fifty books. Can this be right? You’d add a metallic star sticker to a big public chart each time you read one, and you’d get […]
Category Archives: Poetry
March
16
Continuing Ed
posted by Lynne Nugent
When I graduated with my PhD, I vowed never again to take any more classes in my life, except in yoga or perhaps felting. Soon enough, however, I found myself hearing about friends’ syllabi and thinking, “That sounds like an amazing class!” and feeling a twinge of nostalgia for my student days. And now I’ve […]
February
19
Endings
posted by Stacy
I realized last week something that I probably always knew – my favorite part of a book (or poem or story or movie) is the ending. In two different courses with two wildly different texts in front of me (a collection of contemporary Chinese short stories and a poem from 1633), I gushed in front […]
February
14
Love & Poetry
posted by Laura
In honor of today, my favorite love poem: number six from Sonnets from the Portuguese by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Go from me. Yet I feel that I shall stand Henceforward in thy shadow. Nevermore Alone upon the threshold of my door Of individual life, I shall command The uses of my soul, nor lift my […]
Moonlight
posted by Laura
Moonlight Sara Teasdale It will not hurt me when I am old. A running tide where moonlight burned Will not sting me like silver snakes; The years will make me sad and cold, It is the happy heart that breaks. The heart asks more than life can give, When that is learned, then all is […]
October
08
Poetry for the Weary
posted by Stacy
I went to a poetry reading on Monday night. It had already been a long day of student meetings and emails to catch up on – not to mention helping with the First Year Career Expo all afternoon. So, needless to say, I was dragging by the time I sat down next to my department […]
On the Topic of Terrifying Children’s Literature
posted by Laura
One of our family’s favorite poets to read is Ogden Nash. He takes up hilarious, unusual topics and delivers them with such endlessly clever and surprising rhymes. I have much more to say about him another day, but Lynne’s post on Beatrix Potter and dark narratives for children got me thinking about one of Nash’s […]
You Must Revise Your Life
posted by Laura
When I taught various sections of Interpretation of Literature in graduate school over the course of some years, my major texts would shift and change. Pride and Prejudice one semester. Frankenstein another. Love in the Time of Cholera one semester. Everything is Illuminated another. And drama? Never the same play twice. Swapping out texts was an opportunity […]
August
22
What Laura is Reading Now
posted by Laura
Years ago, I was listening to an episode of This American Life when I heard a segment — and a voice — that I will never forget. It was my first encounter with David Rakoff. Part of an episode on “Frenemies,” the segment — a fictional wedding toast-in-verse given by the bride’s ex-boyfriend — was […]
June
19
Mommy Daddy Evan Sage
posted by Laura
It’s probably no surprise that I’m a person who is content to browse in a bookstore for hours. It’s my idea of a perfect lazy afternoon or date night. Browsing, I think, is like treasure-hunting; I scan and skim and scour until — eureka! — I discover that I am holding a veritable treasure chest […]
Lettered Ladies 
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