Versecraft

Poems discussed on this episode include: "Are They Shadows" by Samuel Daniel"To Heaven" by Ben Jonson"The Kraken" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson"Aspecta Medusa" by Dante Gabriel RossettiSonnet VII by George Santayana"Rock and Hawk" by Robinson Jeffers"What Are Years" by Marianne Moore"My Son, My Executioner" by Donald Hall"Drought" by Catherine Chandler (see show transcript for text)"Elegy" by John Dunn SmithSupport the Show.BUY VERSECRAFT MERCH HERE.Please subscribe, rate, and review! Thanks ...

Mea culpa: Sorry about the little skip in the concluding reading-- don't know why that happened. Text of the poem here. Topics discussed in this episode include: -"In Defense of Reason" by Yvor Winters-"A Winters Tale" on SLEERICKETS-"The Seriousness of Yvor Winters" by David Yezzi-"The Absolutist: Yvor Winters" by Jan Schreiber-"What You Need to Know About Yvor Winters" by James Matthew Wilson (also includes other cool links!)-"Wisdom and Wilderness" by Dick Davis-The morality...

Topics discussed in this episode include:-RIP N. Scott Momaday-Gather ye old buds while ye may-32 Poems-David's new collection, Newly Not Eternal-"Iscariot's Psalm" by George David Clark-Read the earlier version of "Shiversong" here-The 'ol feminine-acephalous combo (we need a real name for this)-Not rhythmic, but METRICAL modulation-"The Snow Man" by Wallace Stevens-Job 38-Lear 4:1-"The Need Of Being Versed In Country Things" by Robert Frost-"Boy At The Window" by Richard Wilbur-The Agony In...

Text of poem here (Note: this is an older version, and some lines have changed). Topics discussed in this episode include: -My Ryan Wilson episode-My Mark Jarman episode-Ryan's corrections and very gracious explanation-The Contemporary Poetry Review-Jan's wonderfully kooky website -THINK Journal's Critical Path Symposium-The aquastentialist poem-"The Slow Pacific Swell" by Yvor Winters-"Le Cimitiere Marin" by Paul Valery-Ukiyo-Ask not for whom the bell buoy tolls-"T...

Text of poem here. Topics discussed in this episode include: -Literary Matters-"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" by T.S. Eliot-Buy Ryan's books, including his new collection, "In Ghostlight," here-"L'Estraneo" by Ryan Wilson-"On A Baroque Wall Fountain in the Villa Sciarra" by Richard Wilbur-"The Gardens of the Villa D'Este" by Anthony Hecht-"The Venetian Vespers" by Anthony Hecht-"See Naples and Die" by Anthony Hecht -The concept of the labyrinth-"The Stones of Venic...

View Heredia's, Google's, Anson's, and my version of the poem here.Topics discussed in this episode include:-Order George David Clark's new book, Newly Not Eternal here!-Order John Wall Barger's new book, The Elephant of Silence here! -On the necessity of verse translation, feat. Bob and Paul -Metaphrase and Paraphrase-The Blumov Method of translation-Jacques Barzun's An Essay On French Verse-Romanticism in Realism's clothing-The tyranny of Hugo-Parnassianism and other ideologies of...

Text of poem here. Topics discussed in this episode include:-Midlife by Matthew Buckley Smith-The Penguin Book of Greek and Latin Lyric Verse by Christopher Childers-Khosrow and Shirin by Dick Davis-In Ghostlight by Ryan Wilson-A Gaze Hound That Hunteth By The Eye by Penelope Pelizzon-The Nature of Things Fragile by Peter Vertacnik-My poem Tlaloc on E-Verse Radio-SLEERICKETS and Versecraft do tragedy, Part I and Part II-Thank you for your sharp ears, Dan Brown! -The Metaphysical vog...

Mea culpa re line 8: I confusedly combined both possible readings-- this is either acephalous hexameter or first foot anapest iambic pentameter. Topics discussed in this episode include: -Write to me about classes! -The Error by Don Paterson-Idealism, Nominalism, Transcendental critique-Plato, Plotinus, Ockham, Kant-Paterson's band, Lammas-His many books-Michael Donaghy-Blank Verse by Robert B. Shaw, and the 3 Types-Nietzsche's "Beyond Good and Evil"-Pseudo-Dionysius and ...

Mea culpa: Several times I refer to "Sunlight" as "Sunshine." Blame it on the LSD (which was called "Orange Sunshine"). Text of poem here Topics discussed in this episode include: -Let me know what you think I should teach!-On The Morning Of Christ's Nativity by John Milton-The Gas Poker by Thom Gunn-The Movement-Syllabics as gateway drug-Lucy In the Sky With Demanding Forms-Thom Gunn, Renaissance man-Golding's Metamorphoses-Philosophical religions-A cursory and woefully ...

Text of poem here.Topics discussed in this episode include:-The universecraft -Shout out to the Aussies!-Tim Tams SLAM, y'all-Alice Allan, Poetry Says, and our episode on Gwen Harwood-The Australian Augustans: Hope, McAuley, Stewart-Paul Valery's "Le Cimitiere Marin"-Tertius paeon reviewed-The ocean motif, and my episodes on JMW's Through the Water and Yezzi's Mother Carey's Hen-Quickness, Fastness-Why graveyards are killer -In Soviet Russia, bones wear YOU.-The jack-o-lanterns of o...

Text of poem here Topics discussed in this episode include: -Romanticism, Modernism, and The Lyric-Defining ourselves against the vices of our age-Historical problems with Lyric-Modernism as pharmakon-T.S. Eliot's essay, Andrew Marvell-T.S. Eliot's essay, The Metaphysical Poets-Marvell's Horatian Ode-Marvell's Country House poem, Upon Appleton House-Marvell's "Collige, Virgo, Rosas" or "Carpe Diem" poem, To His Coy Mistress-Paradise Lost -An anatomy of Marvell's style-La Corona...

Text of poem here Topics discussed in this episode include:-The Stafford Challenge-The Kiowa people-Frederick Goddard Tuckerman-Winters and Bowers-"The Death Of Sitting Bear"-"House Made Of Dawn"-"The Way To Rainy Mountain"-The Native American Renaissance-Mixed meter, mixed KINDS of meter-Remember, catalexis = without final unaccented syllable (opposite of acephaly)-The inadequacy of language-How should we mourn?-The anecdote of the goose-The Most Of It by Robert Frost-The Conference of ...

Text of poem here Mea culpa: When I said "fearful," I meant "fearsome"L'esprit d'escalier: "Above the boneyard burn its golden eyes" has a similar euphony to Donne's famous: "A bracelet of bright hair about the bone." Topics discussed in this episode include:-Anthony Hecht's new Collected Poems, edited by Philip Hoy-David Yezzi's new biography of Hecht, Late Romance-The caprice of the canon-Frost, Hawthorne, and Puritan allegory-"Dramatic" line breaks-Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath-The...

Text of poem here.Mea culpa: Please read "tercets" for "triplets" Topics discussed in this episode include: -J.V. Cunningham (see my episode on him here)-The Tribe of Ben (Jonson)-Check out Dan's books here!-The Swallow Anthology of New American Poets-Accentual or Accentual-Syllabic?-Macro-rhythmic modulation-The soul of wit?-My episode on Emily Dickinson-God Is Dead!-The Lascaux cave paintings-Genesis 2:7-Allegory of the Cave 101-The cry of Sex-Birth-Grief-Ecclesiastes-Voltaire (wh...

Text of poem here Topics mentioned in this episode include: -Jungenstil, The Vienna Secession, The Belle Epoque-Leonie Adams (see my episode on her here)-The hard-hearted bravado of early 20th century American poetry by women-The double twist of the hybrid sonnet-Spondees and dactyls-Theodore Roethke (see my episode on him here)-"Ode On The Death Of Pius XII" by A.D. Hope -See my episode on A.D. Hope here-The bitterness of beauty to the grieving, and the beauty of grief.-"The Wastel...