Virgil 14
Working the Soil in American Literature: A Review of Ethan Mannon’s Georgic Mode
Do we love the soil and the creatures put in our stead, or do we prefer the images our devices project at us? While the choice is not always so…
I Sing of Shoes and the Man
But the dark events of that afternoon have remained with me and have prompted a question that I have often wrestled with, fruitfully, I think, but never to a clear…
Finding Arcadia: The Garden in the Cosmos in Latin Literature
Paul Krause examines the politics of Latin literature and discovers a desire for peace and joy, a peace and joy found in an intimate environment of beauty which the poets,…
Laying Waste Our Fields
“That day when Turnus raised the flag of war… The high commanders… From every quarter drew repeated levies And laid the wide fields waste of their field hands.” Virgil, The…
Asking for Direction in Baffling Times
"All Italians, all the Oenotrian land, Resorted to this place in baffling times, Asking direction; here a priest brought gifts..." Virgil, The Aeneid What do I do now? I often…
A Sweet Gift from Heaven
“The heavenly gift of honey...” Virgil, The Georgics Thus Virgil opens his final book of The Georgics. Perhaps these words rolled off his pen with hardly a thought; or maybe…
One Faithful Bee
“Some have affirmed that bees possess a share Of the divine mind and drink ethereal draughts; For God, they say, pervades the whole of creation." …
Learning from the Bees
“Passing their lives under exalted laws, Alone they recognize a fatherland And the sanctity of a home, and provident For coming winter set to work in summer And store their…
The Gift of Spring
“Nor would the stress Of life be bearable for tender things Did not so long a respite come between The cold and heat, and heaven’s indulgence grant This comfort to…
The Heart, in Suffering
“Some day, perhaps, remembering even this Will be a pleasure.” Virgil, The Aeneid, I Aeneas and his men have endured much since leaving Troy. And of course they left only…
Virgil and Valentines
“Duty-bound, Aeneas, though he struggled with desire To calm and comfort her in all her pain, To speak to her and turn her mind from grief, And though he sighed…
A Husband in Winter
“At the very moment when the vine has shed Its latest leaves and the cold north wind has shaken The glory from the woods, at that same moment The lively…
Longing for Home Over Glory: An Artful Interpretation of the Epic Poems by Homer and Virgil
Dramatic paths to glory are viewed with skepticism in our modern democratic age. As Tocqueville suggests, “amongst democratic nations ambition is ardent and continual, but its aim is not habitually…
Is Western Civilization Un-American?
Thoughts on the "Andrew Jackson versus Mr. Peanut" debate.