Not a news flash: it's a bad idea to unilaterally disarm, and hope the bad guys will be nice enough not to attack. This was written in 1919 - just after…
"Paul Revere's Ride" is set on the night of the Battle of Lexington and Concord, April 1775. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote it in 1860 or 1861, just as the Civil War…
Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) - poet, short-story writer, and novelist - was also a journalist and editor. When he became famous, his fellow journalists constantly badgered him. His recently rediscovered poem "The Press,"…
The Scots gave us "Hogmanay" (their name for the celebration of New Year's Eve) and Robert Burns, whose version of a Scottish folk song, "Auld Lang Syne," is popular from…
The title of this post comes from "Silver Ships," whose author, Mildred Plew Meigs, lived 1892-1944. Since the copyright status isn't clear, I won't paste the poem here: instead, I'm sending…
"The Sea Gypsy" - Richard Hovey (1864-1900) I am fevered with the sunset, I am fretful with the bay, For the wander-thirst is on me And my soul is in…
This view of Scranton, Pennsylvania, shows the new roundhouse of the Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western Railroad. The painting was commissioned by the president of the railroad ca. 1856. I love the way the train…