By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
‘Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains.’ Who said, or wrote, this well-known sentence? Karl Marx? Vladimir Lenin?
Not either of those political figures, but someone who lived quite a long time before either of them.
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
‘Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard are sweeter’. This line is among the most famous quotations found in the work of John Keats (1795-1821). But what does the line mean, and how should we analyse it? How can ‘unheard’ melodies be of any use to anyone?
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 of this well-known quotation and discover precisely what it means.
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
‘It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.’ This famous biblical quotation is found in the Gospels, in Matthew 19:24, Mark 10:25, and Luke 18:25. Jesus speaks these words, but in what context – and was he actually referring to camels?
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
‘A pair of star-cross’d lovers’ is a well-known phrase from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. The Prologue’s description of Romeo and Juliet as ‘star-cross’d lovers’ has become one of the most emblematic phrases from the whole play, neatly encapsulating the doomed nature of their love affair from the outset.