In this lecture, Cynthia Chung discusses whether there is a purpose to tragedy beyond merely being tragic and whether this was the intention of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Along with a study of the play, two performances are compared and juxtaposed to determine what Shakespeare intended for his audience. Featured Cover Image: “Hamlet’s Vision” by Pedro Americo
Tag: Poetry
SONG OF THE CRAB NEBULA or “The Shadow of a Magnitude”
By Dan Leach Long before the first eyes ever saw me Floating like a ghost upon the night, Long before human minds even feebly Pierced beyond their dimly shrouded sight, I was there, though clothed in different raiment, Blazing like your own, my brother sun, Over unimagined reaches distant, When your…
Book Review: Voices on the Wind by Daniel Leach
By David Gosselin It is absurd to think that the only way to tell if a poem is lasting is to wait and see if it lasts. The right reader of a good poem can tell the moment it strikes him that he has taken an immortal wound – that he will never get over…
Beyond the Lines: On Shelley’s “Ode to a Skylark”
By David Gosselin “To a Skylark” is perhaps one of the greatest nests of poetic paradoxes in the history of English poetry. Its language is shaped around the creation of ironical images, starting with the enigmatic “Hail to thee, blithe Spirit/Bird thou never wert!” and proceeding to describe “unpremeditated art,” “a cloud of fire” and…
Profiles in Poetry: Friedrich Schiller
By David Gosselin “Trust me, the fountain of youth, it is no fable. It is running Truly and always. Ye ask, where? In poetical art.” – Friedrich Schiller, The Fountain of Youth Friedrich Schiller was born on November 10th, 1759 in Marbach, Württemberg. He was without question one of the greatest poets and dramatists to…
Dark Ages: What Are They and Are We Headed for One?
“Dark Age” is a term bandied about shamelessly in discourse, but in its strictest sense a dark age occurs when a society completely loses literacy. This presentation will explore three dark ages: the Greek Dark Ages after the fall of Mycenean society (11th-8th centuries BC); the Nubian “X-Group” after the fall of the Kushite Empire…
Shall We Allow Poets in the Republic?
By Gerald Therrien Much has been written and read about Plato banning poets from the republic – why would he do that? The poet, John Milton, wrote a humorous and ironic poem, ‘On the Platonic Idea as it Was Understood by Aristotle’, that ends – ‘… Ah, Plato, unfading glory of the Academe,If you were…
Learning to Think Like Mencius During a Time of Crisis (Full Reading)
Full Readings Will Now Be Available in the Menu Bar. Since ancient times, philosophers have sought the remedy to humanity’s recurrent plunges into war, division, chaos, ignorance and all the moral, temporal and spiritual ills that accompany those disharmonies. In ancient Greece, this effort was spearheaded by Plato (427-347 BCE) and his school of disciples…
Escaping Paradise: Huxley’s Island and the Food of the Gods?
By David Gosselin (originally published on The Age of the Muses) “If most of us remain ignorant of ourselves, it is because self-knowledge is painful and we prefer the pleasures of illusion.” ― Aldous Huxley Parting with our illusions is never easy. We love them as though they were the real thing. Indeed, the power of…
Symposium: The Edgar A. Poe You Never Knew
On June 8, 2019 a symposium hosted by the Rising Tide Foundation titled “The Edgar Allan Poe You Never Knew” was held in Montreal Canada. 160 years of slanders begun by Rufus Griswold and enemies of Poe have kept alive a false image of this great poet which this event intended to disprove. The first…