Jay Parini on Why Poetry Matters
Description
A conversation between Dr Jay Parini, a prolific author and the D.E. Axinn Professor of English and Creative Writing at Middlebury College, and Dr Stephen Blackwood, the founding president of Ralston College, recorded on the occasion of the release of a Ralston College short course, “Robert Frost: The American Voice,” taught by Dr Parini. Dr Parini discusses the film adaptation of his most recent book Borges and Me (2020), shares stories of his friendships with literary figures including Jorge Luis Borges, W. H. Auden, and Iris Murdoch, explains why poetry matters, and shares the fruits of a life “lived in literature.”
Applications are now open for next year’s MA program. Full scholarships are available. https://www.ralston.ac/apply
Authors, Artists, and Works Mentioned in this Episode:
Jay Parini, Borges and Me
Alan Cumming
Jorge Luis Borges
Beowulf
Robert Burns
Isaiah Berlin
Homer
Aeschylus
Dante
Michel de Montaigne
William Wordsworth
W. B. Yeats
Brian Friel, Dancing at Lughnasa
Robert Burns, “A Red, Red Rose”
William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet
Iris Murdoch, The Bell
W.H. Auden
Boethius
Jay Parini, Robert Frost: A Life
Robert Frost, “Fire and Ice”
Jay Parini, Robert Frost: 16 Poems to Learn by Heart
Robert Frost, “The Road Less Traveled”
Robert Frost, “After Apple-Picking”
Robert Frost, “Birches”
Robert Frost, “Directive”
Robert Frost, “Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening”
Gerard Manley Hopkins
Viktor Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning
T. S. Eliot, Four Quartets
United States
