Poetry - Scott J. Pearson’s Book Review

The Epic of Gilgamesh: A Poetic Version

By Scott J. Pearson | June 17, 2023June 17, 2023 by Scott J. Pearson

The Epic of Gilgamesh, the truly ancient of ancient stories, is vitally important to civilization for several reasons. First, it’s a really good story talking about the meaning of life, much like Job is to the Bible. Second, it provides a window into early civilization with the view that humans have always been, well, relatively human. It’s a timeless classic. Finally, it’s a religious work from a non-Roman, non-Hebrew, and non-Greek source. It illustrates the…

Poetry

Call Us What We Carry: Poems by Amanda Gorman

By Scott J. Pearson | February 21, 2022February 21, 2022 by Scott J. Pearson

This review is less of a recapitulation of this work and more of a persuasive piece for you to buy and read it. Through her words, Gorman shows us what it means to be an American. Through her experiences – unabashedly black, unabashedly young, and unabashedly colored by the COVID pandemic – she weaves together a script that is unabashedly American and recalls moments in our history to point the way forward. She organizes her…

Fiction-Stories History Poetry Religion-Philosophy

The Ballad of the White Horse by G.K. Chesterton

By Scott J. Pearson | June 15, 2020June 16, 2020 by Scott J. Pearson

This poem attempts to mark a great historical event in English history. It does so not by chronicling history but by celebrating the human spirit. King Alfred the Great, against all odds, defeated Danish invaders in the year 878. The Battle of Ethandune went a long way in establishing the constitutional unity of an English people. Chesterton, writing over a millennium later, sought to use his prodigious talents to excite the English people to embrace…

Poetry Religion-Philosophy

The Inferno of Dante: A New Verse Translation

By Scott J. Pearson | May 24, 2020 by Scott J. Pearson

Dante’s Divine Comedy is famously organized into three sections: hell (inferno), then purgatory, and finally paradise. The first section (hell) is generally considered the greatest of the three, and Robert Pinsky attempts to re-translate the verses in this edition. Dante intentionally wrote the Divine Comedy in the Italian of commoners (instead of the Latin of scholars) so that the masses could read it. Therefore, it is appropriate for Pinsky to translate the Inferno in a…

Fiction-Stories History Poetry Religion-Philosophy

The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri

By Scott J. Pearson | April 12, 2020 by Scott J. Pearson

Dante’s famous The Divine Comedy lies at the intersection of art and theology. I love artful renditions of theology. Further, it is known as the best work of poetry ever to grace the language of Italian. Therefore, I decided to look for a good translation. I’ve enjoyed Longfellow’s poetry in the past, and when I saw that he undertook an adaptation, I chose to give it a go. Unfortunately, Longfellow seemed to stick a little…

History Language Poetry

Old English Poetry: An Anthology

By Scott J. Pearson | March 28, 2020March 28, 2020 by Scott J. Pearson

Old English contains the oldest literature written in the English language. As such, it is key to understand not only historically but also linguistically. Many educated people are familiar with the epic poem Beowulf, but for most, that poem is the only source material studied before Chaucer (who writes in Middle English). This anthology fills in the gap with entertaining and enlightening poems. One cannot help but picture Anglo-Saxons sitting around the fire and sharing…

Poetry

Collected Poems: 1909 – 1962 by T.S. Eliot

By Scott J. Pearson | February 24, 2020February 24, 2020 by Scott J. Pearson

T.S. Eliot surely resides in history as one of the greatest twentieth-century poets in the English language. He spanned the American-English landscape in life as well as in literature. His poetry is replete with imagery yet relatively devoid of obvious meaning. Even a poem entitled “Ash Wednesday” (a seemingly religious topic) skirts on just conjuring a sense of beauty in the reader and avoiding a tone traditionally reminiscent of a church. Of course, one poem…

History Poetry

Beowulf

By Scott J. Pearson | February 9, 2020February 9, 2020 by Scott J. Pearson

Like many, I have not touched this work since my class on British Literature in high school. I have learned a lot since then, and my capacity for processing great literature has only increased. This book, perhaps the first great work in the English language (Old English, that is), has remained the same. Today, I read it in one afternoon and loved every minute of it. Raffel’s translation brings out the drama of the tale…

Biography-Memoir Poetry Writing-Communication

T.S. Eliot: A Life by Peter Ackroyd

By Scott J. Pearson | January 26, 2020January 26, 2020 by Scott J. Pearson

T.S. Eliot was one of the great poets in the English language during the twentieth century. He grew up in St. Louis and after graduating from college, moved to England. He loved his new country so much that he eventually became a subject of the English king. He wrote noted poems and plays over his lifespan. He also worked as a banker and as an editor for a publishing firm. The author of this biography…

History Poetry

Murder in the Cathedral

By Scott J. Pearson | January 20, 2020January 20, 2020 by Scott J. Pearson

The greatest work of verse by the great American/English poet T.S. Eliot was not in a poem (though some readers of The Waste Land might disagree). It is surely Murder in the Cathedral. In a short play, Eliot shows his mastery of the British form of Church and State. In so doing, he sends a message that those who do not practice justice shall some day receive vengeance. The story of the 12th-century Archbishop of…