In the drama of envisioning a future for the United States, Joe Biden and Donald Trump both invoked stories about snakes to suggest different views about self-interest and the common good.
Nigerian poet J.P. Clark was activist in his writing.
Guardian Nigeria
The poet J.P. Clark was an environmental activist who stood up for his people in Nigeria’s oil-rich Niger Delta region.
Dispatch rider with pigeons leaving for firing line, His Majesty’s Pigeon Service, November 1917, location unknown.
(William Rider-Rider. Canada. Department of National Defence. Library and Archives Canada, PA-002034)
British poet Wilfred Owen told readers there is no peace for the dying soldier until we fight against the lie that it is sweet and proper to die for one’s country.
John Pepper Clark-Bekederemo.
Courtesy pmexpressngr
We’re supposed to suppress feelings of envy. But what if the kind spurred by school shutdowns, frontline work and cramped apartments are worth exploring – and acting upon?
A younger Dennis Brutus, president of the South African Non-Racial Olympic Committee in Montreal, Canada in 1976.
Neil Leifer /Sports Illustrated via Getty Images
Alfred Tennyson’s passionate book-length elegy was once among the most popular poems in English. Today, it shows us how soulful art can stir us to life and stave off banality.
‘The Dyings have been too deep for me,’ Dickinson wrote in 1884.
Wikimedia Commons
190 years after her birth, Dickinson’s life reminds us of how to confront the depths of loss with courage and hope.
Cylinder seal (left) and modern impression (right) showing two people drinking beer through long straws. Khafajeh, Iraq (Early Dynastic period, c. 2600–2350 B.C.).
Courtesy of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago
Beer was extremely popular in ancient Mesopotamia. Sipped through straws, it differed from today’s beer and was enjoyed by people from all walks of life.
Chaucer at the Court of Edward III by Ford Madox Brown (1821-1893)
Wikiart
A study of the late Keorapetse Kgositsile shows how the poet influenced black American culture. It also shows how his mother and his grandmother’s oral traditions in turn influenced him.