Word & Song by Anthony Esolen

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September 2023
"Men of Harlech"
Songs such as this have fallen out of favor in our times. But they teach us to meet with courage whatever battles we are called upon to fight.
 • 
Debra Esolen
13
Ulysses
Tennyson presents Ulysses as a hero, but an ambiguous hero who cannot rest or ever satisfy his longing to know, but by restless action.
1
On the Waterfront (1954)
On the Waterfront is a perfect film. Not one scrap of dialogue is flat or forced. Not one shot is overdone. And the performances are unforgettable.
 • 
Anthony Esolen
11
"A Man's a Man for a' That"
There used to be poets in the world whose songs brought a people together, and such was Robert Burns.
 • 
Anthony Esolen
2
"Christian, Dost Thou See Them?"
Our hymn this week has a most striking melody; you can comb through a thousand hymns and you’d be unlikely to find another one like it.
 • 
Anthony Esolen
3
ANDREW
St. Andrew went to the Greek lands to preach, as far north as Scythia, notorious for being just on the boundary between the civilized and the savage.
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Anthony Esolen
4
"Blue-Tail Fly"
Burl Ives was the first to record this classic 19th century American folk song.
 • 
Debra Esolen
12
"How It Strikes a Contemporary"
In Browning's poem, the poet is the Corrector, not by legal means, but by honest observation and wise, careful judgment.
 • 
Anthony Esolen
Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)
Judgment at Nuremberg is not always an easy film to watch.  But the old country judge does what is right. And right is right, to the end of time.
3
The Aim Was Song
Frost contrasts the wind that blows as it will, and man the judge, the artist, who teaches the wind to blow in a certain way, to make music.
 • 
Anthony Esolen
5
Jesu, Priceless Treasure
This hymn plumbs the depth of our hopes and fears. It gives the faithful words of defiance against evil and its temptations, dark nights of the soul…
 • 
Anthony Esolen
7
© 2023 Anthony Esolen
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