It is too often the case that the line separating the domain of the thing we call “matter” and “spirit” is far too firmly drawn in the sand, resulting in a schismed sense of reality- or “two opposing realities” having no commensurability to one another. But are these two worlds truly as disconnected as some…
Tag: Poetry
Vicarious Explorations into Genius: Hymn to Intellectual Beauty Analyzed
It has become commonplace to assert that artistic beauty is relative existing only in the eye of the beholder. This abused statement has become almost a parody in our modern age, as everything becomes art, and everything- regardless of its ugliness becomes raised to a pedestal of beauty. This loss of any principled standards of…
To What Purpose are We Drawn to Tragedy: A Study of Shakespeare’s Hamlet
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
Dante’s Commedia, or How to Escape a Modern Inferno
By David Gosselin This is the accompanying article to a lecture given by the same author, as part of the RTF Lecture Series “The Renaissance Principle Across the Ages“. Many today would consider Dante Alighieri a “Dead White European Male” of dubious relevancy. However, Dante is in fact alive and well, as are so many…
JFK’s Defense of the Poetic Principle: The Artist as the Unacknowledged Legislator of Society
Many know of John F. Kennedy as a great patriot and world citizen. Too many however are unaware of Kennedy’s profound understanding of the purpose of poetry in the moral education of society. Describing his understanding of the mind of Leonardo Davinci during a worldwide tour of the Mona Lisa, the young president said: “Today,…
Paul Laurence Dunbar’s Fight for an American Classical Renaissance
In this lecture by Magdalena Therrien, she will discuss the life and inspiration that is Paul Laurence Dunbar, who became the acknowledged “poet laureate of the African American people,” while living throughout a politically tumultuous time, when the old South fought a battle to restore the old “Slavocracy” in alliance with Wall Street and abolish…
Lessons from a Grecian Urn Part Two: The Paradox of the “One” and the “Many”
By David Gosselin This is Part 2 to the series on Keats’ “Ode to a Grecian Urn”. Part 1 can be found here. Chapter II: What is Poetry? The yearning for harmony and perfection is an innately human desire. What else can satisfy this thirst for perfection, if not art? Even nature, in its infinite…
An Introduction to Friedrich Schiller: Theater Considered as a Moral Institution
by Cynthia Chung I know of only one secret to guarding man against depravity, and that is: to arm his heart against weakness. – Friedrich Schiller’s Theater Considered as a Moral Institution As within any period of time, the question is repeatedly asked “What is the Role of the Artist?” That is, what is the…
The Key to Unlocking the Secret of Poe’s Mellonta Tauta
By Gerald Therrien Today, when we think of Edgar Allan Poe, we think of the writer of wild and fantastic tales, and of stories of that brilliant detective, C. Auguste Dupin (the anti-Sherlock-Holmes), and of wonderful poems, like The Raven, The Bells and El Dorado. But we should also think of a young man (following…