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  • Paul Laurence Dunbar
    March 2, 2021 Evan Robertson

    Paul Laurence Dunbar

    From his beloved poem, Sympathy, which he wrote in 1899 while working as a clerk at the Library of Congress.  On the most immediate level, the poem was a response to the stifling confinement and heat he felt as he worked...

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  • The Inferno
    February 23, 2021 Evan Robertson

    The Inferno

    The opening line of Dante's Inferno sets up the Divine Comedy’s epic, allegorical journey through hell, purgatory and heaven. Everything about the story, structure, and poetry aims for symmetry and balance, and it's no accident that the poem begins exactly...

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  • The Great Gatsby
    February 9, 2021 Evan Robertson

    The Great Gatsby

    The final line of The Great Gatsby, the Fitzgerald novel that defined the jazz age. It was the era that ushered in modernity, a time of material excess, liberation and intoxication. But even in the midst of the party, Fitzgerald could sense the toll such...

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  • William Shakespeare
    February 5, 2021 Evan Robertson

    William Shakespeare

    "We are such stuff as dreams are made on; and our little life is rounded with a sleep." - William Shakespeare From Act IV of The Tempest, this line is spoken by Prospero, as he compares his magical illusions "melted into...

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  • On Love
    February 2, 2021 Evan Robertson

    On Love

    Happy February! We're not the roses and chocolate types, but there's something about February that instigates reflection on that noblest of human emotions: Love. Here's a roundup of our more romantic work.  For the romantic idealist. Do you dare with...

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  • Maria Rainer Rilke
    January 22, 2021 Evan Robertson

    Maria Rainer Rilke

    "How can I pluck my soul apart?  How could it break away from you?  Oh, for some remote place,  Still and quiet, unmoved  By your resounding depths.  But every touch  Draws us together,  As a violin’s bow  That from two...

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