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Versecraft

Author: Elijah Perseus Blumov

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Exploring the art of poetry through the craft of some of the world's best but most underrated poems.
81 Episodes
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Mea culpa: "The Neural Lyre" was published in 1983, not 1994. Don't know why I said that! Read today's poem hereTopics discussed in this episode include:-William Paley's watchmaker analogy-Problems with teleological arguments-Brandon Carter's Anthropic Principle-Multiverse/many worlds theory-John Archibald Wheeler's Participatory Anthropic Principle-"It from bit"-George Berkeley's Idealism-Vedanta Hinduism-"The Anthropic Cosmological Principle" -Barrow and Tipler's Final Anthropic P...
Mea culpa: Apologies for my faint audio in the beginning! Soundtrack to this episode Second soundtrack, because... I had to. Topics discussed in this episode include:-Thom Gunn and some of his literary interests (Henry James, George Macdonald, Saki, Ovid, etc.)-My episode on Thom Gunn-My episode on Timothy Steele-Read The Classical Outlook!!-Writing from experience vs. writing from ideas-"Missing Measures" by Timothy Steele-All the Fun's In How You Say a Thing, 2nd Edition!-Desert Places by R...
Soundtrack to this episode (it's Stephen Kampa!)Topics discussed in this episode include:-Go read New Verse Review!-Go listen to my talk on SLEERICKETS about Horace's Ars Poetica!-Go listen to the mighty Fer de Lance!-The Sleerickets Stephen Kampa episode-Immanuel Kant's Critique of Pure Reason-From Transcendental Idealism to Transcendentalism-Romanticism as post-Kantian reaction -Schelling, Schlegel, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Schleiermacher, Nietzsche, Freud, Coleridge, Emerson, etc. etc.-Co...
Soundtrack to this episodeTopics discussed in this episode include: -Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard by Thomas Gray-Portrait of the artist in a digital world-The New York Times 100 Best Books of the 21st Century-The decline and fall of poetry -Four paths to pecuniary stability-My episode on Amit Majmudar-"Patronage" by Amit Majmudar-Techno-feudalism-The linger of poetic mystique-Can Poetry Matter? by Dana Gioia-Commissions for Occasional poetry-From philanthropy to patronage-"Brother, c...
Soundtrack to this episode Topics discussed in this episode include:-The Beatles-Beatles documentary "Get Back" -"The Other Frost" by Randall Jarrell-"Robert Frost: or, the Spiritual Drifter as Poet" by Yvor Winters-"The Other Other Frost" by William Logan-"The Themes of Robert Frost" by Robert Penn Warren-"A History of Modern Poetry" by David Perkins-Phalaecian hendacasyllabics-Catullus I -Plato's "Symposium" Frost poems mentioned/discussed:-The Road Not Taken-Stopping by...
Soundtrack to this episodeFor text of poem, please see episode transcript at versecraft.buzzsprout.com.Topics discussed in this episode include: -C'est Moi, MBS's response to my episode Giving the Devil His Due-My review of Matthew's book, "Midlife," entitled The Poet Laureate of Crushed Dreams-My episode on the Pathetic Fallacy with Matthew and Alice-"Of the Pathetic Fallacy" by John Ruskin-Who're you callin "pathetic?" -Pro and Contra-Figurative language vs. the fallacy-The new edition...
Soundtrack to this episodeText of poemTopics discussed in this episode:-My sojourn in Gaul-ITER! -Atomic Fusion-The contemptible STEM/Humanities divide-Amit Majmudar! -Sleerickets Episode 144-Amphibrachic hexameter-"The Birth of Tragedy" by Friedrich Nietzsche-The Solar Cycle-Apollo, the inverse Romantic-Homer's Odyssey-The myth of Daphne-Rage or Oblivion?-Come see David, Matthew, and Ryan JUNE 13TH and Amit JULY 11TH!!Support the showBUY VERSECRAFT MERCH HERE.Please subscribe, rate, and revi...
COME OUT TO CLEVELAND June 13th to hear David, Matthew, and Ryan read! Soundtrack to this episode Topics discussed in this episode include: -Au revoir until June! -"The Birth of Tragedy" by Friederich Nietzsche-"The Picture of Dorian Gray" by Oscar Wilde-"Pere Goriot" by Honore de Balzac-The aesthetic parasite-"And Which of Them In Time Would Be Betrayed" by Derek Walcott-"The Georgics" by Publius Vergilius Maro-"The Metamorphoses" by Publius Ovidius Naso-The tale of...
Soundtrack to today's episodeTopics discussed in this episode include:-"On Portents" by Robert Graves-"The White Goddess" by Robert Graves-"Life With The Real White Goddess" by Louis Simpson-Poetry Messiah Witch Cult-The Fugitives-Misadventures in polyamory-"A Survey of Modernist Poetry" by Riding & Graves-"The Cool Web" by Robert Graves-The squishiness of children-The double-edged sword of language-"Rational Meaning: A New Foundation for the Definition of Words" by Laura Riding-"Death As...
The soundtrack to today's episode Topics discussed in this episode:-Norman Finkelstein and Restless Messengers -Formal Poet Voltron At Loganberry Books!! Get over here! -Three great things: Literary Matters, 32 Poems, SLEERICKETS-Ma! I'm On Sleerickets!-Pre-12th century Medieval heroic poetry -Chivalry vs. Courtly Love-Slammin the canon-Dante is a sad, strange little man -and Petrarch needs to get a life-The 16th Century Lyric in England by Yvor Winters-Name a more ic...
Topics discussed in this episode include: -That famous soliliquy-"The Myth of Sisyphus" by Albert Camus-Inferno Canto XIII-"Orthodoxy" by G.K. Chesterton-The Catechism of the Catholic Church-Prayopavesa-Martyrs, Berserkers, Stoics and Samurai-"The Right To Die" by Paul Laurence Dunbar-"No" by A.M. Juster-"Resume" by Dorothy ParkerSupport the showBUY VERSECRAFT MERCH HERE.Please subscribe, rate, and review! Thanks so much for listening.You can leave me a tip, support the podcast, or reque...
10 Poems I Like

10 Poems I Like

2024-03-2031:40

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 showBUY VERSECRAFT MERCH HERE.Please subscribe, rate, and review! Thanks s...
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...
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 contraction-Buy John Anson's lovely translation of Les Trophees he...
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 ...
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