In the early 1930s, Langston Hughes flirted with Communism, as his poetry from the time period makes clear. However, he never lost sight of his own people and his poetry reflects his desire to unite the plight of the African-American with that of the oppressed worker throughout the world in hopes of a better life for all.
Though George Herbert was an Anglican rather than any of the non-conformist sects and clearly appreciated the physical beauty of high church cathedrals and rituals, his poetry clearly portrays a Calvinist theology, indicated that he refused to take part in the separatist debates of his time, preferring rather to chart a middle way between the extremes many around him were pursuing.
Russian Ark is a tour through Russian culture via the St. Petersburg museum-cum-palace The Hermitage. I really can’t tell you much about the story, though (what story there is involves the narrator and a French man he somehow meets as he travels through The Hermitage’s history and their discussion of Russian culture–the French guy is [...]
