Archive - Word & Song by Anthony Esolen

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Philip Nicolai, 1599; translated by Catherine Winkworth

Dec 20, 2022

Valentine’s Day is fast approaching, and that should be a time when we consider the delight that men and women take in one another, and rightly so. But…

Feb 9

When Lent arrives, Christians who follow the liturgical season will often sacrifice minor pleasures, like sweets, or, better still, will try to perform…

Feb 21

John Henry Newman, 1833. Have you ever noticed that hymns of repentance are among the gentlest of all? For with repentance comes the sweetness of…

Jan 24

For almost 200 years, some people in the west have tried to replace hope with optimism, not for persons but for the whole human race. The thing about…

Mar 13

Word of the Week

Jan 9

Anthony Esolen on How and Why to Read Poetry

Dec 9, 2022

Anthony Newley / Leslie Bricusse

Jan 21

Word of the Week. It’s the day when Chaucer sets his whimsical poem, The Parliament of Birds (1381) – they’re chattering about love, of course, and what…

Feb 13

“Take that!” hollers Yosemite Sam, a Roman legionnaire, banging a caged lion on the head for roaring when he didn’t expect it. “Maybe that’ll larn ya to…

Jan 16

The quality of mercy is not strained;/ It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven/ Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest;/ It blesseth him that…

Feb 22

The scene is a small cottage, in a crisp winter night, and the poet Coleridge is awake beside the low fire, and his sleeping infant son. He looks to…

Jan 25

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