By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) ‘Monday’s Child’ is the title sometimes given to a short children’s rhyme, which has been popular for several centuries. Lines such as ‘Monday’s child is fair of face’ and ‘Wednesday’s child is full of woe’ have become well-known; but what was the purpose of […]
Literature
The Curious Meaning of ‘Born in the USA’ by Bruce Springsteen
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) ‘Born in the USA’ is rock music’s ‘The Road Not Taken’: perhaps of all American songs, none has been more consistently misinterpreted than the title track from Bruce Springsteen’s bestselling 1984 album. And when we say ‘misinterpreted’, we don’t just mean people have missed […]
The Meaning of ‘For Now We See Through a Glass, Darkly; But Then Face To Face’
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) ‘For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face’ is a famous quotation from the Bible. But where in the Bible does it appear, in what context, and what does it mean? Let’s take a closer look at the origins […]
A Summary and Analysis of Ambrose Bierce’s ‘The Boarded Window’
‘The Boarded Window’ is a story by the American author Ambrose Bierce, who is also remembered for his witty The Devil’s Dictionary and for his mysterious disappearance in around 1914. Like many of Bierce’s tales, ‘The Boarded Window’ contains elements of the horror genre. The story is about a man […]
10 of the Best Examples of Petrarchan Sonnets Everyone Should Read
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) The Petrarchan sonnet, also known as the Italian sonnet, is the oldest of the two greatest and best-known types of sonnet. Although the invention of the sonnet form precedes him – the Sicilian poet Giacomo da Lentini is thought to have invented the sonnet […]