Position
Academic Background
Sample Courses   
Teaching Philosophy
Research & Interests   
Notable Academic Appointments & Awards
Publication Highlights   
Selected Scholarly Presentations

                                                                          View Other Faculty Profiles

• Professor Emeritus of English

Academic Background        

• Brown University - Ph.D., 1970
• Villanova University - M.A., 1964
• Assumption College - B.A., 1962

• The Romantic Age in England
• Modern Poetry
• Contemporary Poetry
• Creative Writing in Poetry
• War and Literature
• Mating and Mind in the Contemporary Period (Liberal Arts Honors)

Teaching Philosophy

   Since retiring in July, 2008, although I am not likely to teach major courses in the near  future, I will be open to inquiries about brief tutorials from time to time, details to be  established by the student(s), myself and the College. My vision of the teacher's  role remains largely the same, including careful attention to depth of perspective, maximum ease and efficiency of learning, imagination and humor (wherever possible), and the joy of discovery for both teacher and student. Depth, first of all, helps to combat national and ethnic stereotypes, racial "color coding," sexism, in short, any oversimplification that pits people against each other for superficial reasons.

   Efficiency I've had to learn the hard way, earlier making things too difficult or obscure for myself and students, in time devising methods to ease transitions with clear goals in mind for the day at hand and the course as a whole. Imagination and humor are qualities that all students enjoy; as a poet and translator I try to enhance that enjoyment, for no one ever grows too old to invent, make jokes and envision a beautiful future. Finally, the joy of discovery, noted by Aristotle centuries ago as a fundamentally human trait (and I love to explore the ancient Greeks for their wisdom and joy), arises out of the interchange, student and teacher both surprising each other with what they know, where they have traveled, how they have reached their conclusions and who they might learn from next.

Research & Interests

Homer remains a principal focus. Since publishing my translation of the Odyssey with  The Johns Hopkins University Press in 2004, I have moved along on a translation of the  Iliad. It should be completed next year and  published in 2011.

Washington's Night is also a major concern. This epical work about George Washington in December, 1776, has required a great deal of historical research about both Britain and the young America in the 18th century. A principal theme which has emerged is that of fairness: how did Americans hope to treat people more fairly than George III had, the King of England, in the years from 1750 to 1780?     

Gone Games is another major concern. Most of the work in this, my third book of poems, has now been published in various magazines, and I am currently trying to publish the work as a book.  A recurring question: To what extent do the games of a former generation, especially the love games, survive into the present and suggest ways into the future?

"The Love Book" is a fourth area of keen interest I share with my wife, Dr. Beatrice Beebe. Our "Love Paper," now under consideration by a psychoanalytic journal, focuses on the quality of understanding between lovers, including that between mothers and infants. The paper explores "the optimal range" (a good title for the book version eventually), denoting a balance between preoccupation with oneself and with the other.

In recent years I have begun "a story in verse" about Woodrow Wilson, World War I and  the League of Nations. It follows up on Washington's Night by asking, How shall America take its best values, abroad?  I would be most interested in exchange of ideas about this tumultuous period from 1906 to 1921.

The Book of Jeremiah has absorbed my attention in the past year. I have begun translating his Biblical Hebrew into English poetry that tries to approximate closely the prophet's music and meaning.

Notable Academic Appointments and Awards

• Invitation to become the first Poetry Editor for The International Journal of Psychoanalytic Self Psychology from William Coburn, Editor, April, 2009.
• Bestowal of the rank of  Professor Emeritus of English at Providence College, July, 2008.
• Invitation to address the Departments of English, Classics and Linguistics at Stanford University, California, October 2004, in a Colloquium Series on the Rhythms of Poetry funded by the Mellon Foundation.
• Invitation from the National Institute for the Psychotherapies in New York City to deliver the Keynote Address at their 24th Graduation Ceremony, June 2000, at the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society on the topic, "Psychoanalysis and Art: A Fruitful Bond? Or a Fantasy World?"
• Invitation from the National Endowment for the Arts to act as Translation Counselor, July-August, 2004, 2002 and 2000.

Publication Highlights

• 'After the Crossing,' 'All Night March,' 'Alone Companions' and 'Unfinished Business
   at White Plains,' War, Literature and the Arts, Twentieth Anniversary Edition, 2008
• The Iliad of Homer (translation), The Johns Hopkins University Press (forthcoming)
• The Odyssey of Homer (translation), The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004; paperback version, 2006.
• Needle Man (poems), Chestnut Hills Press, Towson, MD, 1999.
• "Gone Games" (poetry sequence), Confluence, Volume 9 (1998), pages 36-41.
• The Aeneid of Virgil, (translation; library and paperback editions) University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, MI, 1995.
• The Aeneid of Virgil (translation, collectors' edition), Donald Grant Press, Providence, RI, 1991.
• After a Cremation (poems), Thorp Springs Press, Berkeley, CA, 1974.

Selected Scholarly Presentations and Activities

• March 2009: at the Carmine Street Bistro in New York City, I read poetry from my ongoing 
  story in verse called Wilson's Day
• September 2008: hosted by the Classics Department at Saint Olaf College in Northfield, 
  Minnesota, I lectured on the question, 'What Do We Really Want in a Translation,'
  focusing mainly on my Homer
• December 2006: at Sarah Lawrence College, Bronxville, NY, a presentation of my translation of Homer's Odyssey with emphasis on dance in action and in poetry
• March 2005: on the Pembroke campus of Brown University, Providence, RI, I conducted a seminar focused on the problems of translation, especially the bonds between music and meaning
• October 2004: hosted by the Classics Department and The Johns Hopkins University Press at Baltimore, MD, I analyzed ideas about guest and host in the Odyssey and read from my own translation of Homer
• August 2004: at Cornelia Street Cafe in New York City, I presented my recent poetry and translation exploring the topic, 'The Real Troy, Then and Now'
• April 1996: at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, KY, I lectured on the difficulties of translation with special focus of Virgil's Aeneid   
• March 1995: at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, MA, I offered a multimedia
  presentation arguing for a close approximation to both sound and sense in translating poetry such as Virgil's 

View Other Faculty Profiles