Narrative Poems

Like Christopher Marlowe, William Shakespeare made good use of his time off when the theatres were shut for plague in 1593. Venus and Adonis appeared in quarto that year and become by far the most popular work Shakespeare published in his lifetime, running to ten editions before his death (compared to just four for Romeo and Juliet). In this episode, Seamus and Mark consider the many ways in which Shakespeare’s poem displays its author's remarkable originality, from its peculiar reshaping of the Ovidian myth into a tale of comic mismatch, to its surprising diversion into the psychology of grief. They then look at his disturbing follow-up, The Rape of Lucrece (1594), in which a chilling depiction of self-conscious, premeditated evil anticipates characters such as Iago and Macbeth. Further reading in the LRB: Stephen Orgel on Shakespeare's poems: https://lrb.me/npshakespeare01 Barbara Everett on the sonnets: https://lrb.me/npshakespeare02

‘Hero and Leander’ was published in 1598, and anyone who came across it in a stationer’s shop in Elizabethan London would have known that its author was dead, killed in a brawl in Deptford in 1593. Christopher Marlowe’s sensational life as playwright and spy is matched by the wit, sophistication and eroticism of his eccentric retelling of Ovid’s myth, based on a 6th-century version by Musaeus. Seamus and Mark begin their new series by looking at the playful but often troubling treatment of desire in a poem that contains one of the most explicit depictions of sex in English poetry. Non-subscribers will only hear an extract from this episode. To listen to the full episode, and to all our other Close Readings series, sign up: Apple Podcasts: https://lrb.me/applesignupnp Other podcast apps: https://lrb.me/scsignupnp Further reading in the LRB: Michael Dobson on the life of Marlowe https://lrb.me/np1marlowe1 Hilary Mantel on the murder of Marlowe: https://lrb.me/np1marlowe2 Charles Nicholl on Faustus: https://lrb.me/np1marlowe3

Seamus Perry and Mark Ford explore one of the oldest forms in Western literature: poems that set out to tell us a story, beginning with Marlowe’s ‘Hero and Leander’ and ending with Carson’s 'Autobiography of Red'. Narrative poems can be dizzyingly erotic, like Shakespeare’s ‘Venus and Adonis', wittily satirical, like Pope’s ‘The Rape of the Lock’, respond to contemporary political history, like Clough's 'Amours de Voyage', or present heartbreaking tales of loss and remorse, like Wordsworth’s ‘Michael’ and Coleridge’s ‘Rime of the Ancient Mariner’. Join Seamus and Mark as they explore the astonishing richness, adaptability and endurance of one of the oldest forms in Western literature. Seamus Perry is a professor or English at the University of Oxford and Mark Ford is a poet and professor of English at University College London. To listen in full, and to all our other Close Readings series, sign up: Apple Podcasts: https://lrb.me/applesignupnp Other podcast apps: https://lrb.me/scsignupnp Poems featured in the series: Marlowe, ‘Hero and Leander’ Shakespeare, ‘Venus and Adonis’ and ‘The Rape of Lucrece’ Milton, Book 9 of ‘Paradise Lost’ Pope, ‘The Rape of the Lock’ Coleridge ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ Wordsworth, ‘The Ruined Cottage’ and ‘Michael’ Keats, ‘The Eve of St Agnes’ Browning, ‘Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came’ Clough, ‘Amours de Voyage’ Tennyson, ‘Enoch Arden’ H.D., ‘Helen in Egypt’ Seth, ‘The Golden Gate’ Carson, ‘Autobiography of Red and ‘Red Doc>’