Archives

  • March CJMS
    Vol. 4 No. 1 (2025)

    Editor’s Note

    Welcome to our first issue of 2025; compiling this issue has been a special adventure. For the first time, we received a barrage of poetry from a person who generated it using artificial intelligence! Some of it was quite lovely, but just on principle, we rejected it for publication. It is still important to us that what we publish is written by a human being. I don’t know, perhaps there may come a time when that principle goes out the window?

    For those of us who are more oriented toward English Literature than Linguistics, our first article is a challenge. It was submitted by a newly minted Ph.D. from Nigeria, Halima Samaila Muhammed.  Using the obituary of Robert Mugabe, the former President of the country, she analyses the Logico-Relation of Clause Combination Patterns found in an online newspaper.

    Our second article is by Professor Edward Raupp, in which he explores one of John Milton’s early works, Comus, also known as A Masque Presented at Ludlow Castle. It features a Lady of the highest virtue who resists the seductive efforts of the dishonorable Comus. This work surely dispels any idea that Milton was misogynous. We also present the final Book XII of Dr. Raupp’s epic poem, Ares.

    Our thanks to Eter Churadze for her Georgian-to-English translation of yet another Georgian author, Niko Lortkipanidze. He lived from 1880 to 1944 and was a prolific writer of plays and short stories (called miniatures), as well as a journalist and publisher. He was known for being an astute, critical realist and a popular voice that mirrored Georgian society’s complexities. Eter has given us the translations of two miniatures.

    Our Poetry section is enriched by several submissions from our Nigerian friends. In Spread Across My Lap, Adeniran Abdbasit Adeyemi couches the language of love in evocations of nature. Johanna Ataman returns to our pages with Fingertips, fingertips that trace on a rainy window new art in memory of the old. A young, 16-year-old Abdulrazaq Godwin Omeiza speaks movingly and knowingly of The Weight of Becoming. Maxwell Orah writes with passion and pride in Call Me Black.

    Our final poem is by Tedo Sharadenidze. The One He Never Married is a pithy piece of advice, or perhaps an admonition: don’t complain about what might have been!

    As always, thanks to our contributors, and we extend our invitation to anyone who may be attacked by the creative impulse: we welcome your submissions.

    Warm regards,
    Danna Raupp
    Editor-In-Chief

  • December CJMS
    Vol. 3 No. 4 (2024)

    Editor’s Note

    Welcome to the final 2024 issue of our Journal. It comes with our best wishes to our contributors and our readers for the year ahead.

    Professor Edward Raupp has given us a timely article for the Christmas season. “On the Morning of Christ’s Nativity” is one of John Milton’s early works, written when he was only twenty-one. It already reveals the young poet’s deep involvement with Christian theology and classic poetics. We also continue with Professor Raupp’s epic, Ares: A Poem, Books X and XI.

    The second article in this issue was written by Lia Sazandrishvili when she was only a second-course student in English Philology at Gori State University. She was required to write a Major Research Paper for a course in Critical Thinking. She relates her personal experience as a young child during the 2008 Russian invasion of Georgia, how she was soothed by music, and then expands her research to explore how music can influence different mental health conditions. It is challenging for Georgians to write in English, and we are proud of her courage, and her research and writing skills.

    Our Georgian-to-English translation from Eter Churadze introduces us to yet another renowned Georgian poet, Vladimir (affectionately known as Lado) Asatiani. Lado was only nineteen when he first had a poem published in a Kutaisi newspaper; later works made him a much-loved poet of the 20th century. His promising career was cut short after only seven years when he succumbed to tuberculosis at the age of twenty-six.

    We renew our Artwork section with two sketches by another young student of English Philology, Ketevan Gviniashvili. Her digital drawings reflect a Medieval period with elements of fantasy.

    The short story by Tedo Sharadenidze, All Is Forgiven, begins with a reflection on the meaning of life and ends with a bulldog. How does that happen?

    In our Poetry section, Eliso Khatridze offers two poems that vividly reveal the unsettling, contradictory feelings of the teenage years.

    Our final poem is from Elnaz Shanavazi, from southern Iran. She describes Padlock on each Pulse as a depiction “of the struggles between the body and soul, Man's fear of death, and his efforts to evade fate.”

    As another year comes to an end, we extend holiday wishes to our faithful contributors and readers. We appreciate your creative efforts and hope that our Journal will encourage others to try their hand at writing in English.

    Warm regards,
    Danna Raupp
    Editor-in-Chief

  • September CJMS
    Vol. 3 No. 3 (2024)

    Editor’s Note

    It does not seem possible that summer is gone, and fall is upon us, but welcome to the September issue of our Journal.

    It is with great pleasure that we introduce two new voices in our Poetry section. Elnaz Shahnavazi is from southern Iran, a student of English Literature who writes compelling narrative poetry in which she often uses nature to represent the human experience. Eliso Khatridze is from Georgia, and in addition to being a poet, she has also written and directed an original play that was presented by the Gori Drama Club and Actor’s Studio at their Spring Festival in April 2024.

    Johanna Ataman, from Nigeria, who had been our youngest contributor, has sent us an evocative poem reflecting on racial disparities. We welcome her return to our pages.

    We have a poetic translation from Georgian to English by Eter Churadze. Titsian Tabidze, a cousin of the more famous Galaktion Tabidze, was a victim of Soviet repression. In A Poem – Earthfall he foretells his tragic death. 

    Tedo Sharadenidze has not only given us another short story, Words Never Spoken, but also a scholarly article exploring the value of using Milton’s Samson Agonistes as a tool to teach grammar to students of English as a Foreign Language.

    George Shaduri, our friend at the International Black Sea University, offers us reflections on Jonathan Swift’s A Tale of a Tub.

    Professor Edward Raupp has given us several contributions to this issue. He has written an article investigating the similarities between the biblical character of Samson and Milton’s personal experiences during the tumultuous Restoration period. In addition, we continue the presentation of Books VIII and IX of Ares: A Poem. He has also written a book review of an interesting study of the similarities between the Kartvelian and Sumerian languages, authored by Professor Doctor Anna Meskhi, formerly a Professor at Gori State University. Finally, we have a new section of the Journal, An Opinion Piece: An Essay on Navigating Change in the Post-Soviet Educational System.

    As always, we thank each of our contributors and hope that their efforts presented here will encourage others to write in English for publication. That is our goal with each issue of this Journal.

    Warm regards,
    Danna Raupp
    Editor-in-Chief

  • June CJMS
    Vol. 3 No. 2 (2024)

    Editor's Note

        Summer has arrived, and my rose garden is in glorious bloom. Welcome to the June issue of our Journal.

        We are pleased to greet two new contributors to our Poetry Section: Kote Ergemlidze from Georgia and Psalmuel Benjamin Oluvasheun from Nigeria. They are both young men and both of them deal in their poems with painful aspects of the human condition, death and grief.

        Professor Edward Raupp offers an article reflecting on the journey as allegory; the continuation of his epic, Ares: A Poem, Books VI and VII; and in the Research Section, a playful AI creation about John Milton. (Whoever thought you could be playful about John Milton?)

        Thanks to Eter Churadze for her Georgian-to-English translation that introduces us to another  Georgian poet new to the Journal: Galaktion Tabidze.

        Tedo Sharadenidze returns with another short story, this one about love, but you’re not sure about that until the last line!

        Thanks to all our contributors for sharing their creative efforts. We enjoy and appreciate each one of them.

    Warm regards,
    Danna Raupp
    Editor-in-Chief

     

  • March 2024 CJMS
    Vol. 3 No. 1

    Editor's Note

    Greetings and best wishes for a happy and healthy new year ahead. Once again we have in this first issue of the year a combination of our regular contributors and three authors who are new to our journal. Professor Edward Raupp gives us several contributions: a reflection on John Milton’s convictions about divorce; a continuation of his epic poem, Ares, Books IV and V; and in the Research section, a compendium of literary devices and figures of speech.

    We thank Eter Churadze and Lela Ebralidze for their Georgian to English translations of three poems by Mirza Gelovani, a poet who was conscripted into the Soviet Army during World War II and tragically killed at age 27. Most of his poetry was published posthumously and he became one of the best-loved poets of the Georgian younger generation. Our final translation is by our Associate Editor, Nino Kvitsinadze. She has given us an Introduction and John Milton's Sonnets XI and XII, in both English and Georgian.

    Thanks to Tedo Sharadenidze, a young scholar, teacher, and author from Batumi, for submitting our first short story, The Ship in the Desert, and allowing us to initiate a new section of the journal.

    Our final contributors are poets from the competition held by The Milton Society of Africa. Johanna Ataman is the youngest contributor to our journal, a 15-year-old writer, poetess, and social activist. Her poem, Black Piper, tells the story of an old Black man grieving the loss of his family, at first in denial, then acceptance. Abdullahi Yahaya, who most often writes about the social and political ills of society, here writes instead about love in Touch of Love.

    Our thanks to all of you; we appreciate your contributions to our journal.

    Best Regards,
    Danna Raupp
    Editor-in-Chief 

  • December 2023 CJMS
    Vol. 2 No. 4

    It does not seem possible that another year is ending! In this final issue of the year, we have a combination of regular contributors and several new authors. Professor Edward Raupp reflects on Lucifer’s decision to rebel against God in Paradise Lost; was that a wise decision? In addition, we continue the serialization of Ares: A Poem, Books II and III. We also have two new sections of the journal. In REVIEWS, Dr. Raupp has reviewed Modern Georgia: Poetry and Prose. In RESEARCH RESOURCES he has compiled a list of electronic artificial intelligence resources. We are pleased to offer an article by a second-year Master’s candidate at Gori State University, Natia Tatrishvili. She writes about the patriarchal attitudes toward the role of women in Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew in the 16th century and observes that some of the same attitudes are still found in the traditional Georgian society. Time for a change? Eter Churadze gives us three translations. The first is from English to Georgian, the poem by Edgar Allan Poe, Eldorado. This reminds me that in the first issue of our journal, Eter contributed an interesting article about this poem. Her two other translations are from Georgian to English, two untitled poems by Shota Nishnianidze, a Georgian Soviet poet writing in the genre of Socialist Realism. We are pleased to include two translations from English to Georgian of works by John Milton. Lela Ebralidze gives us Sonnet to the Nightingale; Nino Kvitsinadze’s contribution is Song on May Morning, both written in 1632-1633. We present two more poems submitted to a competition of The Milton Society of Africa. Muhammad Auwal Ibrahim is a multi-award-winning investigative journalist. He writes movingly of the devastation of his country, their society, their spirit. Wellington Ngowu, in a similar vein, writes of a battered and polluted place, and the woes of his people in his homeland of the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. Our final poem is another from Nino Pepanashvili, which tells the story of a hopeless love.

    To make the final publication of our second year even sweeter, I am pleased to welcome Nino Kvitsinadze as the Associate Editor for our journal. As a native Georgian who is fluent in English and a skilled translator, Nino will be a valuable asset for our publication. Welcome, Nino!.

    Our sincerest thanks to all the contributors to our journal; you are much appreciated.

    Warm regards,
    Danna Raupp
    Editor-in-Chief

     

  • September 2023 CJMS
    Vol. 2 No. 3

    Editor’s Note - We are pleased to have several new contributors to this issue. Shorena Lekaidze is a recent graduate of the International Black Sea University with a Bachelor’s Degree in English Philology. She has written an insightful paper analyzing the differences in how male and female authors create their female protagonists in modernist literature. Her fellow graduate from the International Black Sea University, Natia Samadashvili, also has a Bachelor’s Degree in English Philology. She gives us an article that delves deeply into the evils of colonialism. This month Professor Edward Raupp has given us two contributions. The first is an article that offers a fresh interpretation of John Milton’s Sonnet 19. Most often, the focus of scholars is “On his blindness,” but Professor Raupp takes an alternative approach to the sonnet. In addition, we have a new feature: the beginning of a serial presentation of an epic poem the Professor has written about Ares, the God of War. Ares: A Poem follows Milton’s style in Paradise Lost consisting of 12 books of blank verse. In this month’s issue, we present the Preface and Book One: Ares Antecedent, a narrative before the Olympian gods, before the birth of the God of War, when the seeds of war were already in the cosmos. Inevitably, we can expect the voice of the narrator to reflect the author’s own military background in times of war and peace. The illustrations are by two talented Georgian friends, Salome and Mariam Bekauri. In our Translation section, we also have something new: Professor George Shaduri, who teaches American Literature at the International Black Sea University in Tbilisi, and is also a talented musician, has translated into Georgian the lyrics of a rock ‘n’ roll song, Back To Memphis, which captures the American spirit of the 1960s. We are pleased to continue our presentation of poetry which was submitted in a competition sponsored by the Milton Society of Africa. Zaynah Ibrahim Barje is a young Nigerian who finds inspiration in writing and has a strong belief that her writing will inspire others and serve as a great tool for change. Abuchi Onyema, also from Nigeria, is a prolific author and poet who writes with great passion about the conditions in his native country.

    Thank you all for your contributions!

    Warm regards,
    Danna Raupp
    Editor-in-Chief

  • June 2023 CJMS
    Vol. 2 No. 2

    Editor’s Note - Welcome to the second issue of our second year: how time flies! It is with pleasure that we present three articles by second year Master’s Degree students in Anglistics at Gori State University. These young women are exceptional students in that they are the first Master’s candidates to choose to write their theses in English, rather than Georgian. This is a first for this university and we are proud of them for taking on such a challenge. Eter Churadze gives us English translations of two final miniatures from Niko Lortkipanidze, plus a short poem by Paolo Iashvili. We welcome a new contributor to this issue in our translation section, Lela Ebralidze. The American poet, Edgar Allen Poe, is a subject of her scientific research, and it is a pleasure to publish her translation into Georgian of one of his best-known works, Annabelle Lee. We include a contribution in our poetry section which was an entry to a competition held by the Milton Society of Africa (inspired by our own Milton Society of Georgia). Michael Chukwudi is a Nigerian-Indonesian-based author whose poem, DENIAL, addresses the unhealthy events in Nigeria, where injustice is now the order of the day. The poem is a call to restore justice, to shun the evils occurring in his native country. Thank you all, each one of you enriches our Journal!

    Warm regards,
    Danna Raupp

    Editor-in-Chief

  • March 2023 CJMS
    Vol. 2 No. 1

    As we begin our second year of publication, we are delighted to have two new contributors to this first issue. Kailai Zhong, a young student from China, has written an inciteful paper on John Milton’s references to Chaos in Paradise Lost. And in our Poetry section, Peter Mitchell, a social activist from the United States, gives us several reflections on his spiritual journey. Professor Edward Raupp, prompted by his special interest in Milton’s Lycidas, has written a comprehensive review of the pastoral elegy in not just literature, but also painting and music. Eter Churadze has translated two more of Niko Lortkipanidze’s miniatures, plus a small poem by Giorgi Leonidze. We appreciate Edward’s and Eter’s devoted contributions to our journal. We also include some lovely artwork of Ikebana arrangements by Nino Pepanishvili

    I hope you will find our offerings stimulating and that they may encourage you to join the ranks of our contributors.

    Warm regards,
    Danna Raupp
    Editor-in-Chief

     

  • December 2022 CJMS
    Vol. 1 No. 4

    In this issue, Professor Edward Raupp gives us a comprehensive, annotated chronology of the times during which John Milton lived. We share the belief that when a reader has some background knowledge of the life and times of an author it facilitates and enriches his or her understanding of any piece of literature. Eter Churadze addresses the complex process of translating a 20th-century author, Ernest Hemingway, from English to Georgian. Eter also gives us the English translation of two more miniatures of poet Niko Lortkipanidze. Nino Kvitsinadze makes translation history by bringing the critically important letter of John Milton, Of Education, out of English into the Georgian language. This is a remarkable accomplishment, as there is nowhere to be found in Milton scholarship such a translation of the work into Georgian. In our poetry section, we have another narrative poem from Nino Pepanishvili, a Georgian transplanted to New York City, reflecting on her eight years in that magical city.

    This is the final issue of our inaugural year. We hope you will enjoy it and consider being a contributor in  2023.

    Warm regards,
    Danna Raupp
    Editor-in-Chief

  • September 2022 CJMS
    Vol. 1 No. 3

    My rose garden may be fading, but not the writing talents of our contributors. In this issue, Professor Edward Raupp, our Milton Scholar, gives us a Master Class in teaching John Milton’s Pastoral Elegy, “Lycidas.” It is our pleasure to present a work by a first year Master’s Degree student in Anglistics at Gori State University. For an assignment in her Shakespeare class, Anano Makhashvili chose to research the subject of Revenge in Titus Andronicus, surely one of The Bard’s bloodiest plays. It is the goal of this Journal to encourage people to write in English and we hope Anano will continue to be a contributor. Eter Churadze has given us the translation of a trio of “miniatures” by poet Niko Lortkipanidze. He has written a number of these lovely vignettes and we plan to offer more of them in future issues. In our STUDENTS section we have a paper by a second-course student in the Bachelor’s Degree program in English Philology at Gori State University. Keti Kanashvili was a participant in the first Critical Thinking course given at the university, in which students were asked to write a research paper in English. This is an extremely difficult task for non-native English speakers and we appreciated that Keti took on this challenge with enthusiasm. We are pleased to report that our Society, inspired by the Milton Society of America, has helped to inspire the foundation of the Milton Society of Africa! We have provided them with a Letter of Support, and also made a contribution of $200 which will make our Society the sponsors for a Milton Conference and the prizes for a poetry competition. Please see the End Notes for a Letter of Appreciation and a message from their Society President, Wole Adedoyin at email woleadedoyin@gmail.com

    We hope you will enjoy our efforts and will consider becoming a contributor.

    Best Regards,
    Danna Raupp
    Editor in Chief

  • June 2022 CJMS
    Vol. 1 No. 2

    Spring has arrived in the beautiful South Caucasus, and along with the flowers have come some new writing for this second issue of the Caucasus Journal of Milton Studies. The Journal aims to encourage writers at all levels to share their work in a free and open medium. Authors do not pay to have their work published, and readers do not pay to read it.

    Three academic articles are included in this issue. Edward Raupp shows the connection of John Milton, writing in the 17th century, to the poets of the 18th century Romantic Movement. Master’s Degree student Tinatin Shengelia offers a glimpse into the dynamics of literary learning in an innovative research project involving the exposure of young people in a small Georgian village to Boccaccio’s Decameron. Tinatin Sikharulidze, a Ph.D. candidate, presents a commentary on collection of Byronic poems translated by Innes Merabishvili and others.

    Eter Churadze continues her campaign to bring together the poetry of two languages to demonstrate the beauty of each to the wider world. Nino Kvitsinadze brings us a powerful poem of love and longing from contemporary Georgian writer Davit Darbaidze.

    Salome and Mariam Bekauri paint vividly three scenes based on Milton’s Samson Agonistes, considered by some to be the greatest English drama based on the Greek model and known as a closet tragedy, one more suited for reading than performance.

    Young teenager Ana Manvelishvili turns Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet from tragedy to comedy with a twist of the ending in her very short story. What a joy to see the creative work of our youth, and what a privilege it is to share their work in the Journal.

    In a stunning piece of modern prose poetry, Nino Pepanashvili gives us “A Satellite.” If modern poetry suffers from a lack of distinction, we have here an antidote. This poem is honest to its core. The language is striking. And the story is gripping. We are so pleased to have the opportunity to introduce this poem to a world in such need of beauty and integrity.

    As a service to our readers, we offer a list of online accessible websites for poetry and for research purposes in the hope that these resources may prove helpful.

    Finally, we’re pleased to announce that Caucasus Journal of Milton Studies has been admitted to membership in the Council of Editors of Learned Journals (CELJ). Also, in line with professional standards, we have adopted an Ethics and Publication Malpractice Statement, which can be found at  https://cjojms.com/index.php/research/ethics-malpractice-statement.

    Best wishes to all our contributors and readers,

    Danna Raupp
    Editor in Chief
    June 2022

  • March 2022 CJMS
    Vol. 1 No. 1

    Welcome to the Premier Edition of the Caucasus Journal of Milton Studies e-ISSN:2720-8222 (online).

    We are delighted to have received such a varied and interesting number of submissions. The editorial team has enjoyed the challenge of reviewing each article submitted and is pleased to present the works to our readers.

    We hope this Journal will inspire others to research and write on topics of their choice. Remember that any writing that will foster the development of interest in English language and literature will be welcome.

    Danna Raupp
    Editor-in-Chief