In this essay, originally published in 1843, the author expounds on the role of poets in the development of a civilized, cultured society. Unavoidably, he has a lot to say on the subject of… Read More

Published by Thomas Nelson, this commentary is not designed to be neutral: its target audience is pretty narrow and specific, and the theological framework behind its scholarship precisely d… Read More

Performed by numerous country, bluegrass, and pop music performers, I’ll Fly Away will soon mark its first centenary: originally written as a church hymn by Alfred E. Brumley in 1929… Read More

In this monthly instalment of my listening tips, I’d like to share a few podcasts and radio programmes that have helped me learn more about this wonderful writer and find renewed appre… Read More

I never had my favourite edition of Frost's poetry, happy to just look up his works online or in cheap paperbacks — until very recently when I got a copy of Selected Poems of Robert Fr… Read More

I'm very happy to introduce the sixth title in the Grammaticus Free Library series. This one is very short indeed — only several pages long — but it's very lovely in its descript… Read More

There are many words in English referring to different (yet often very similar) bodies of stationary freshwater. In this post we'll go through the main ones Read More

With Robert Frost's birthday approaching, in this instalment of my monthly listening tips I present a selection of podcasts on the subject of his life and works – perfect for those unf… Read More

Not long ago, on one of my nature walks I visited a small lake near the town of Barajevo, Serbia. Once I got back home, I searched my library for a poem that would go well with my mental ima… Read More

There is a film adaptation, but read the book first: you won’t be able to put this page-turner down until the very end! Read More

Reading this poem, you immediately find yourself in a wintery nature setting. What T. W. Higginson describes is just a fleeting moment: a wonderful snapshot captured in words Read More

As the winter quickly comes to its end here in the northern hemisphere, it’s time to get some inspiration for new gardening projects. Even if you don’t have a garden, perhaps you… Read More

Over the years I’ve given my students different pieces of advice on how they can improve their vocabulary and listening skills. Some of the more conventional ones I’ve alrea… Read More

Eowyn Ivey’s debut novel The Snow Child, first published in 2012, is a genre-bending tale of longing, conflict and struggle, set in the majestic wilderness of Alaska. An interesting wi… Read More

The poem presented in this post is unlikely to chase your winter blues, to be honest, but it’s an excellent one! Penned by Edgar Allan Poe, ‘Alone’ is a deeply personal and… Read More

As a huge fan of Twin Peaks, I love re-watching the old episodes of this remarkable and memorable TV series. No matter how many times I’ve seen them, there are always some new details… Read More

If you recall, some of the words of the year 2022, chosen by the leading English language lexicographers, were ‘woman’, ‘permacrisis’, and ‘gaslighting&rsq&hell…Read More

William Cullen Bryant was a 19th century American romanticist poet, abolitionist and civil right advocate. Originally a lawyer, he started publishing poems in the early 1820s. Later in the d… Read More

Dear friends and followers of the Grammaticus blog, It’s time for the release of another free ebook! Just in time for Christmas, I’m happy to present a holiday story by Mary E. W… Read More

The temperature is dropping and it’s getting colder and colder outside. What better way to spend a quiet winter evening than with a nice, warm drink and a cosy yet thrilling read! In t… Read More

One of my biggest challenges over the years has been how to organise the things I own. Keeping everything tidy has never been easy for me. Ever since I can remember, I’ve always been s… Read More

Ella Wheeler Wilcox was an accomplished American poet, born in Johnstown, Wisconsin, in 1850. During her lifetime she published numerous books of poetry, as well as several novels other piec… Read More

If you’ve enjoyed The Chosen on Netflix, don’t miss Jonathan Roumie in another role of a religious leader. With some caveats… It’s 1968, Southern California. The hip… Read More

Three words that students often confuse: other, others, and another. What’s the difference between them and when to use which? Read on for a few basic explanations and some grammar pra… Read More

In this post I’d like to draw your attention to several podcast episodes that I’ve recently enjoyed listening to, all on the topic of autumn. Some of them are related to culture… Read More

There’s about a dozen poets that I’ve always felt a special affinity to. Some well-known names are among them, such as Rainer Maria Rilke, Walt Whitman and Robert Frost, but ther… Read More

In this post we’ll do a bit of grammar practice on a special use of the verb ‘have’, namely the causative have. This structure is used when you want to say that you didn&rs&hell…Read More

I first learned about the Greek poet Napoleon Lapathiotis (Ναπολέοντας Λαπαθιώτη&sig&hell…Read More

Recently I’ve shared a bit about one of my special interests – fungi and mushrooms – in the book review of Doug Bierend’s book “In Search of Mycotopia: Citizen… Read More

Over the past three years, possibly as an unexpected effect of the COVID-19 pandemic, lockdowns and social distancing, I’ve found myself exploring something I’d never expressed m… Read More

Dear friends and followers of the Grammaticus blog, I am very happy to present the fourth title in my series of Grammaticus Free Library ebooks, designed primarily for English language learn… Read More

I first read this book a few years ago, in the days leading up to Halloween. I remember searching online for books to get me in the holiday mood, and among all the shiny, glossy titles (and… Read More

Veles counts among the most prominent deities of the Slavic pantheon. He’s one of the so-called horned gods of Europe; like them, he is typically depicted as a mature man, bearded, usu… Read More

In this blog post I’ll present several English-language podcast series on an often discussed but much-misunderstood topic: autism. (As a bonus, I’ve also included a few podcasts… Read More

Based on Sarah Perry’s novel by the same title, The Essex Serpent is a miniseries originally released on the Apple+ streaming platform in 2022. Directed by Clio Barnard, starring Clair… Read More

Howard Phillips Lovecraft, the master of cosmic horror, left a remarkable literary legacy that consists of numerous short stories, essays, and tens of thousands of letters. In spite of the i… Read More

This time of year always brings memories of Bubi, a wonderful cat I used to share my home with: July 23 is the anniversary of her death, while August 8 is marked as the International Cat Day… Read More

[The following post on contronyms in the English language is in Croatian. To access the English version, please click here.] Tijekom učenja engleskog, možda ste primijetili neob… Read More

You may believe in the existence of extraterrestrial life, aliens and unidentified flying objects (UFOs) or not, but you have to admit it’s a fascinating subject. It has an equally fas… Read More

Students at the beginner level often confuse the use of ‘because’ and ‘because of’. In this post I’ll briefly explain the difference between the two, and at the… Read More

Born in Concord, Massachusetts, on 12 July 1817, Henry David Thoreau is one of the key  figures of 19th century American literature. A prolific writer, transcendentalist philosopher and… Read More

Books reviewed: Hal Porter, The Watcher on the Cast-Iron Balcony, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1984 Hillary Rodham Clinton, Living History, Simon & Schuster, New York… Read More

The Weekend Listener is a monthly list of noteworthy podcasts and radio recordings, old and new, curated for your listening pleasure. For more listening tips, please search the website for p… Read More

I don’t know about you, but I just love a nice downpour on a hot summer day. As someone who really doesn’t stand the heat, I appreciate those moments of cool freshness, and I kno… Read More

Unpredictable, emotional, unsettling, relatable on many unexpected levels… Bart Yates’ debut novel is a wonderfully written piece of fiction dealing with the complexity of famil… Read More

As I was having a stroll the other day, I spotted a cute little hedgehog in the grass not far from the footpath. I’m always delighted to see these wonderful, shy, super cute creatures… Read More

Dear friends and followers of the Grammaticus blog, It is my pleasure to present the third title in the series of Grammaticus Free Library ebooks. After ‘The Snow’ by Hugh Wal… Read More

When I was little, I loved lying on the ground, looking at the sky, observing different shapes and forms made by the clouds. I still do it on occasion, and I’m happy to say the fascina… Read More

Neurodiversity is a relatively new term, used to refer to diversity in cognitive functioning. As with other aspects of human experience, it was long assumed that there is such a thing as &ld&hell…Read More

Thomas Wentworth Higginson (1823–1911) was a Unitarian minister active in a number of social causes. He was a radical abolitionist, women’s rights campaigner and freethinker. Alt… Read More

Anne was the youngest of the three celebrated Brontë sisters. Born in 1820, she spent most of her life living with her immediate family in Haworth, Yorkshire. Sadly, she died when she w… Read More

In this post we’ll read a wonderful short poem by Walt Whitman. Titled after its first line ‘A Noiseless Patient Spider’, it’s a two-stanza, free verse poem, in which… Read More

The Weekend Listener is a monthly list of noteworthy podcasts and radio recordings, old and new, curated for your listening pleasure. For more listening tips please search the website for pr… Read More

This vocabulary post is primarily intended for English language learners at B1 level (pre-intermediate). Do you like drinking tea? What’s your favourite blend? Do you put any sugar… Read More

As of 2019, May 21 is observed as the International Tea Day. Joining the observances, in this post we’ll be reading Edmund Waller’s short poem in praise of this wonderful drink w… Read More

Emily Dickinson is one of the most celebrated American poets of the 19th century. Her numerous works—close to 1800 poems!—continue to impress contemporary readers by their freshn… Read More

Looking for some peace and quiet? Robert Frost’s poem ‘A Prayer in Spring’ just might give you some inspiration. As I often mention in my poetry posts, try to read this… Read More

In response to a recent question from several of my students, here’s a grammar post about two confusing verbs: lie and lay. (Actually, it’s three verbs, but we’ll come to t… Read More

In this post we’ll travel to the time of the English Renaissance, with a jolly little music piece written by Thomas Morley. A contemporary of William Shakespeare, Morley (1557&ndash&hell…Read More

“We translate more easily than we know our gratitude to God into our admiration of ourselves.” Hugh Walpole’s 1922 novel The Cathedral is one of the best works of this… Read More

The Weekend Listener is a monthly list of noteworthy podcasts and radio recordings, old and new, curated for your listening pleasure. For more listening tips please search the website for pr… Read More

The poem presented in this post is titled ‘In April’. Written by the celebrated Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke (1875–1926), it was first published in 1902, in the collect… Read More

Ovaj tekst je, uz manje izmene, dostupan i u engleskoj verziji. Present Simple i Present Continuous dva su sadašnja vremena u engleskom prilikom čije upotrebe učenici … Read More

William Carlos Williams (1883–1963) was one of the most important American poets of the 20th century: a modernist of the imagist kind, he was known for using simple and colloquial lang… Read More

In this post we’ll look into the basic differences between two English tenses that students often confuse: Present Simple and Present Continuous (also known as Present Progressive)… Read More

Whitman’s poem featured in this post is a very short one, originally published in the Herald newspaper on 12th March 1888. It just so happened that immediately after its publication, a… Read More

Before there was cable, satellite and terrestrial television, radio reigned supreme as the main source of entertainment. Families would gather round their radio receivers to tune into broadc… Read More

Robert Seymour Bridges was a British poet and the Poet Laureate of the UK from 1913 to 1930. Originally a doctor, he had to abandon his medical practice due to poor health. He spent most of… Read More

A portmanteau (click here for pronunciation) is an old-fashioned type of luggage—a large travelling bag typically made of leather, opening into two equal parts. Thanks to the wri… Read More

The Weekend Listener is a monthly list of noteworthy podcasts and radio recordings, old and new, curated for your listening pleasure. For more listening tips please search the website for pr… Read More

Originally published in 1846, Life is a three-stanza poem by the eldest of the famous Brontë sisters, Charlotte. It appeared in their first, self-published, collection of works which&md&hell…Read More

One of the writing tasks I like to give to my students—new ones in particular—is to write about their favourite films or TV series. It’s a nice way to get to know them bett… Read More

At the very beginning of spring, in this post I’d like to share with you a poem by Thomas Nashe, a prominent English poet and playwright of the Elizabethan era. Titled ‘Spring, t… Read More

Dear friends and followers of the Grammaticus blog, I am happy to share with you the second title in the series of ebooks primarily designed for English language learners. After the succe… Read More

Annette Wynne was an early 20th century American writer of children’s poems. Her debut collection ‘For Days and Days: A Year-Round Treasury of Child Verse’ came out in 1919… Read More

In this post I will present the latest addition to my Latin library, which is a single-volume edition of the 1962 Diurnale Romanum breviary. The post can be read as an addendum to &ls&hell…Read More

Edward Thomas was a British poet, nature writer and literary critic. Born in London in 1878, he was educated at Oxford, and first started his writing career as a book reviewer and prose writ… Read More

Please email me for further information.  To reach the post office, walk farther down the street. Further, farther… What’s the difference? Is it just two different sp… Read More

Charles Turner Dazey was an American writer and playwright born in Lima, Illinois, in 1855. He wrote a number of successful plays, also leaving a mark in the early film history as a writer o… Read More

Randomly picked off a library book shelf the other day, Truman Capote’s last work, Answered Prayers (posthumously published in 1986), was a first for me. Although I’ve been intr… Read More

The Weekend Listener is an eclectic list of noteworthy podcasts and radio recordings, old and new, curated for your listening pleasure. For more listening tips please search the website for… Read More

At the very beginning of this year’s Lenten season, we’re going to read a short poem by Christina Rossetti (1830–1894), the celebrated English poet and writer of devotional… Read More

John Henry Newman was one of the intellectual giants of the Victorian era. Born in London in 1801, he led a long life filled with intellectual curiosity and deep concern with matters of… Read More

Amos Russel Wells (1862–1933) was an American scholar and Christian activist. He authored numerous works, including poetry, essays, young adult fiction and devotional writings. … Read More

At one point or another English learners start noticing words that are unusual in that they have two completely opposite meanings. For example, to bolt something can mean to fasten or to sec… Read More

The Grammaticus blog is no stranger to the works of Sarah Orne Jewett. Her novella The Country of the Pointed Firs is one of my favourite books, and I wrote about it in the review accessible… Read More

It gives me great pleasure to present this week’s guest post—the first ever on Grammaticus. Written by John G. Stamos, ‘A Flower’s Song’ is a wonderful essay on… Read More

A while ago I posted a lengthy grammar article presenting the conditional sentences in English, and in this post we’ll read a poem by Rudyard Kipling that can be used to illustrate con… Read More

The Weekend Listener is an eclectic list of noteworthy podcasts and radio recordings, old and new, curated for your listening pleasure. For more listening tips please search the website for… Read More

Helen Hunt Jackson was born in Amherst, Massachusetts, on 15 October, 1830. A prolific writer, poet, and activist dedicated to the rights of Native Americans, she also happened to be a class… Read More

If you’re a fan of TV shows like Midsomer Murders, you’ll love this book series by Faith Martin. It’s mostly because of the cold, grey and uninviting January weather tha… Read More

Born in Boston, Massachusetts, on 19 January 1809, Edgar Allan Poe is widely recognised as one of the seminal voices of the American literature. Best known as the master of the macabre, his… Read More

One thing I often notice in student papers is the random use of dashes and hyphens. In most cases, people simply use hyphens only, probably because they are easiest to find on computer and s… Read More

Thomas Hardy was an English poet who lived and worked between two literary eras, connecting the legacy of British Romanticism with the early 20th century poetry. Best known as a novelist, th… Read More

U nastavi stranih jezika danas se primjenjuje niz metoda. Neke od njih su tradicionalne, razvijene prije više od jednog stoljeća, dok druge još uvijek imaju status eksperi… Read More

Last time we had a poem by Lord Alfred Tennyson here on the blog, it was his lovely short piece “The Owl”. In this post I’d like to present “Ring Out, Wild Bells&rdqu&hell…Read More

grammaticus Beginning of a new year is the perfect time to reassess one’s priorities and set personal goals for the coming twelve months. I’ve been doing my New Year’s r… Read More

At the very end of 2022, in this post I will present an overview of all the podcasts included in the The Weekend Listener series throughout the past year. In case you’ve missed any of… Read More

We’ve encountered Walt Whitman’s poetry on this blog before: in a longish post where I offered some advice on how to interpret poems, I presented his poem To a Stranger. And now… Read More

In 2021 some of the major dictionary publishers chose words related to the pandemic, unsurprisingly, while others reflected on the broader social issues or tech developments. (If you don&rsq&hell…Read More