The historical present is often treated as a principal tense, but there are exceptions and sometimes both constructions appear in the same passage.

As I read the chapters of this book, I thought not only about the connection between me and my mother, but also about the effect that my mothering has on my daughter and that her daughtering has on me.

What shall be likened to gods? The unknown, who deep in the darkness / Ever abide, twyformed, many-handed, terrible, shapeless.

Fortunately, bowerbirds cannot talk, so we are free to use sexual selection to explain their work, without them begging to differ.