The Cave: Plato’s Fable and Christian Salvation
Picture men dwelling in a sort of subterranean cavern with a long entrance open to the light on its entire width. Conceive them as having their legs and necks fettered from childhood, so that they…
Category: Best of F&F Archive
At the Sign of the Blue Boar: A Robin Hood Poem
Under the oak tree, long ago, We lived with merry Robin Hood, Who taught us how to bend the bow And live aright in green Sherwood Now let us part the leaves again, And find…
Aragorn’s Victory Song: A Lord of the Rings Poem
I see a fire behind your eyes That darkness cannot quell; As ashes from the mountain rise, You’ll storm the gates of Hell Mornie Utulie, Horo! - The ancient lava from the earth Is cool…
The Real McCoy: Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin Novels
“The historical novel, as I learnt with some concern after I had written two or three, belongs to a despised genre,”1 wrote Patrick O’Brian. At the heart of his Aubrey-Maturin novels, however, is not adventure…
Our Lady of Britannia
Thou stood on Newgate Arch and graced Pendragon’s shield Cardigan bore thy taper and Walsingham thy seal Humbly we now beseech thee as at thy feet we kneel: Our Lady of Britannia, ora pro nobis!…
It Begins with Light: A Londoner’s Conversion to Catholicism
I’m not a Cradle Catholic. I’m a convert. Actually, a fairly recent convert: I was received into the Church on Easter Vigil, 2013. I’m sure I wouldn’t have made it to this point without the…
A Glimpse of Reality: An Analysis of Alfred Lord Tennyson’s “The Lady of Shalott”
“On either side the river lie, long fields of barley and of rye…” These are the opening lines in Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s famous poem, “The Lady of Shalott”. The poem, loosely based on the tale…
God’s Humble Instrument
She was tiny and pale, with thin blond hair, an angelic face, and enormous blue eyes. She was six years old. And she had leukemia. I felt the familiar tightness in my throat when another…