Critical Readings: Recent Episodes
CriticalReadings.com
Critical Readings examines key literary texts using close reading and critical analysis, and explains these approaches in discussion. Listeners will learn about the texts themselves and about how to approach a text for critical analysis.
The panel discusses the conclusion of the fourth book, including Walter and Toby stuck on the stairs amidst further discussion of the definition of a nose (or noes), and the inflexible irrevocability of all of the mishaps that occur during the narrative.Continue reading
The panel reads the conclusion of book three and the beginning of book four in which the topic of noses recurs and features prominently, providing an opportunity to examine how Dr. Slop and Walter Shandy can be compared to Uncle Toby and Corporal Trim.Continue reading
The panel approaches the moment of Tristram's birth beginning with the author's preface (in book 3), followed by a definition of 'nose', and a series of mix-ups involving the words 'mortar' and 'bridge' with dire implications for the unhappy newborn.Continue reading
The panel concludes the second book and, in a series of retrograde manoeuvres, progresses through the third book until Dr. Slop is able to receive delivery of his forceps, free them from their knotted bag, and demonstrate their usage on Uncle Toby.Continue reading
The panel discusses book II, chapters 6–17 and Sterne's use of metanarrative focus on the correct art of oratory, the use of puns and textual elisions, the need to fill in details or leave them to readerly imagination, and the use of real-world sermons.Continue reading
The panel discusses Tristram's father's theories about nominative determinism, the different translations of identical biblical names, and the latest contemporary French developments regarding pre-natal baptism and its theological justifications.Continue reading
The panel begins the summer reading of The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman with a biographical overview of Laurence Sterne, followed by the first eighteen chapters, with a focus on the novel's metatextual moves and discursive structure.Continue reading
The panel reads the final act of Shaw's Pygmalion, and then excerpts from the epilogue, with particular attention to Shaw's preference for realism over romanticism, the utilitarian mindset of Higgins towards other people, and the role of equal treatment.Continue reading
The panel reads the fourth act in full, with a discussion of Prof. Higgins' narcissism and its collision with his deepening feelings, an examination of the contemporary social strata in British society, and a review of Shaw's later additions to the act.Continue reading
The panel discusses the third act, in which the antisocial Higgins and the gallant Pickering are exposed as juveniles by the savvy Mrs. Higgins, and Liza's speech proves insufficiently convincing when it is not backed up by the right idioms and content.Continue reading
The panel discusses Shaw's work on Wagner and a brief overview of the classical inspiration for his Pygmalion, before reading the second act with attention to the characters of Professor Higgins and Mr. Doolittle, and to contemporary social conventions.Continue reading
The panel reads the first act of George Bernard Shaw's play Pygmalion, with an introduction to the author, and a consideration of how the play reflects Shaw's interest in social welfare, especially in the context of the works of Dickens and Trollope.Continue reading
The panel concludes the novella with a look at the primary falling action and the resolution of the Mary Wortle subplot, with particular attention to Doctor Wortle's passionate loyalty compared with the abstract moral principles of contemporary society.Continue reading
The panel reads the third quarter of the novella with attention given to the romanticism of Doctor Wortle's character and how it guides his interactions with figures who disagree with his views, including his wife, Mister Puddicomb, and the Bishop.Continue reading
The panel reads parts three and four with attention given to the moral, logical, and legal conundrums that perplex Doctor Wortle, and with a consideration of how Mrs. Wortle, Mr. Puddicombe, and Mrs. Stantiloupe represent differing aspects of society.Continue reading
The panel reads the first two parts (or six chapters) of Trollope's fortieth novel, beginning with an introduction to the author and the text, followed by an examination of the titular character and the mystery surrounding Mr. and Mrs. Peacocke.Continue reading
The panel discusses four poems by Yeats, including his most famous—"The Second Coming"—as a way of examining his understanding of a cyclical cosmology, whilst also looking at his depiction of cataclysmic events that influence or constrain free will.Continue reading
The panel reads John Berryman's "Eleven Addresses to the Lord" and considers the poems within the context of the author's biography and Judeo-Christian theology, with special emphasis on the distinction between God as abstraction and as embodied being.Continue reading
The panel reads Tennyson's Tiresias and considers its story of the blind prophet's extended (but not eternal) life in the context of what it reveals about the poet's struggle with human mortality, and about the role of prophecy and its reception.Continue reading
The panel reads Tennyson's Ulysses with special attention given to how the return to Ithaca changed Ulysses; how he may be compared to and contrasted with his son, Telemachus; and what the nature of his heroism is—narrow, selfish, noble, or courageous.Continue reading
The panel reads Tennyson's "Tithonus," a dramatic monologue written in 1833, and considers both what the poem suggests about the importance of mortality to the human condition, and its significance in the context of the death of Arthur Hallam.Continue reading
The panel reads "The Boke of Phyllyp Sparowe" by the Tudor poet John Skelton, a poetic champion of Chaucer, and the inventor of Skeltonic verse, a roughly syllabic and strongly rhymed form of English poetry much beloved of the Henrician court.Continue reading
The panel reads three poems by A.E. Housman, the renowned British classicist and poet, and discusses the presence of death in his poetry, the influences of Romanticism, the importance of the speaker's role, and the poetic ironies of his biography.Continue reading
The panel reads Alexander Pope's "Messiah," based upon Virgil's Fourth Eclogue and the biblical Book of Isaiah, with a discussion of its formal qualities, its Late Augustan/pre-Romantic historical context, and its fusion of Classical and Hebraic imagery.Continue reading
The panel reads the final act, reflecting on the role of Brutus as a tragic figure, with attention given to his relationship with Cassius, his misunderstanding of Antony's magnanimity, his stoic leanings, and his role in the final battle at Philippi.Continue reading
The panel reads the fourth act, with special attention to the fraught relationship between Brutus and Cassius, the political situation in the late Roman Republic, and the declining fate of the conspiracy in the wake of Marc Antony's speech to the plebs.Continue reading
The panel discusses the play's self-awareness, its complexity of character, the presence of character flaws which serve to advance the action of the drama, and the contrast between reason and emotion, rhetoric and sophistry, and idealism and pragmatism.Continue reading
The panel discusses the the play's contrasts of public and private settings, its parallelism of scenes and characters (especially Calphurnia and Portia), and how Caesar's hubris, confidence, and superstition ultimately prove to bend the hinge of fate.Continue reading
The panel discusses the first act of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, with attention to Caesar's biographies, the fraught sociopolitical situation in Rome, the thread of ambition that runs through the play, and Cassius' crafty manipulation of Brutus.Continue reading
The panel discusses the biographical details of David Jones, and his participation in the Great War, before reading parts 5–7 of In Parenthesis, with attention to the role of mechanisation and the inversion of traditional forms of warfare and defence.Continue reading
The panel reads Parts 1–4 of David Jones' In Parenthesis, with attention to its Modernist and post-Romantic moves, its structure as a prose poem and its prose style, and its imagistic and impressionistic development of scenes and personal experiences.Continue reading
The panel discusses the conclusion of Wuthering Heights, with special attention given to the message of the novel; its place in the genres of Gothic, Romance, and Tragedy; and how its cycles of revenge and pain are eventually broken through acts of love.Continue reading
Guest expert Dr. Madeline Potter joins the panel to discuss chapters 17–24, with a focus on the cycles of violence and manipulation at Wuthering Heights, the symmetry of relationships, and the re-embodiments of abuse perpetuated by Heathcliff.Continue reading
The panel discusses chapters 10–16, from Catherine's marriage until her death, and examines Heathcliff's increased severity, the potential innocence of Isabella and Hareton, and the role that Nelly has played in escalating the fraught circumstances.Continue reading
Dr. Madeline Potter joins the panel to discuss the opening chapters of Emily Brontë's only novel, with attention to the influences of the gothic and romanticism, and the narrative's depiction of the unstable tension between civilisation and nature.Continue reading
The panel discusses the American Poet Laureate Robert Penn Warren—the only person to win the Pulitzer prize both for Poetry and for Fiction—reading two of his poems from the November 1979 Poetry Magazine volume issued in honour of Allen Tate.Continue reading
The panel reads Wordsworth's "Beggars" (and its sequel) examining the verses with attention to what they suggest about society and economics, beauty and physical attraction, national pride, the Romantic attitude towards nature, and Wordsworth scholarship.Continue reading
The panel discusses The Morte Arthur: Aggravayne and Mordred's entrapment of Launcelot and Guenevere, the death of Garyth and Gaherys, Gawayne's vengeance and death, Arthur's war with Mordred, and the end of Camelot, The Round Table, and the tale.Continue reading
The panel discusses the penultimate sequence of the Morte, 'Launcelot and Guinevere,' with attention to Launcelot's pledge to defend the Queen's honour in right or wrong and the increasing Orkney-led noyse of sclaundir and treson in the Arthurian court.Continue reading
The panel discusses the complysshment of the Sankgreal, Galahad's unwieldy role as a model of virtue, Gawain's manifest impurity, Launcelot's outward conversion, the effect of the Quest upon the Arthurian court, and Malory's conflicted theology.Continue reading
The panel discusses the first half of the Quest for the Holy Grail, including Galahad's knightly debut, the arrival of the Grail in the court, Gawain's impetuous vow, and King Arthur's sorrow—and what it means for the common good of the realm.Continue reading
The panel reads the conclusion of the Tristram sequence, including the begetting of Galahad, with special attention to the quality of worshypfulness and how it may be acquired and kept, including by women and through means other than knyghtly prouesse.Continue reading
The panel reads of the Tournament at Surluse and the strife of the Orkney brothers, and considers in detail what a question about the use of a single word—lette—might imply not only for the character of King Arthur but for the entire Malorian project.Continue reading
The panel reads the King Mark sections of Le Morte Darthur—presenting the first fully-realised villain of the piece, complete with motivations, personality, and an identifiable modus operandi—and discusses its implications for Malorian kingship.Continue reading
The panel reads three episodes from the Tristram section—"Le Cote Male Tayle", "The Madness of Sir Tristram", and "The Tournament at the Castle of Maidens"—and examines the actions of four malevolent characters: Mordred, Morgan, Mark, and Mellyagaunce.Continue reading
The panel discusses the first two tales in the Tristram section—Sir Tristram and la Beall Isode and Sir Lamerok de Galys—with attention to Malory's sources, the Lancelot-Tristram parallelism, and the apparent shift towards an interest in courtly love.Continue reading
The panel discusses the episode of Sir Gareth of Orkney, with attention given both to the anti-egalitarian worldview and historical reality of the period, and to the role of violence and prouesse in the Arthurian Court—and the moral clarity it provides.Continue reading
The panel reads the tale of Sir Launcelot du Lake, with attention given to the features of mediaeval romance, Malory's use of humour and his knowledge of the details of knightly combat, and the different, sometimes competing ends of Arthurian governance.Continue reading
The panel reads the Roman War sequence with particular attention to Malory's use of historical progression, metaphor, and physical violence, especially in regard to his understanding of military knighthood and the use of wise counsel in governance.Continue reading
The panel catches up on the tale of "Balyn and Balan," before discussing "The Wedding of King Arthur" and "The Book of Adventures", with comments on the vexed nature of Malorian chivalry, and Malory's use of both foreshadowing and narrative parallelism.Continue reading
The panel discusses the biography of Sir Thomas Malory, the textual history of Le Morte Darthur, the lineage of King Arthur, and the initial formation of the textual world of Arthurian England, including Merlin, Uther, Igraine, Morgause, and Mordred.Continue reading
The panel closes discussion of Dryden's All for Love with an examination of the death of Marc Antony and Cleopatra, how the scene differs from that of Shakespeare, and what role is ultimately played by Octavius, even despite his absence from the stage.Continue reading
The panel discusses the penultimate act of Dryden's All for Love, with special attention to the depictions (or rather, lack thereof) of Octavius, the villainous portrayal of Alexas, and the play's lack of a clearly-defined figure of heroic virtue.Continue reading
The panel discusses the third act of Dryden's most successful play, All for Love, with particular attention to Marc Antony's lack of constancy, and Dryden's artistic reimagining of historical events in order to place Octavia in Cleopatra's palace.Continue reading
The panel reads the second act of John Dryden's All for Love, with special attention to the rhetorical manoeuvres of Cleopatra, and the psychological state of both Antony and Cleopatra, as their outsized emotional investments doom them both.Continue reading
The panel reads the first act of John Dryden's take on the story of Antony and Cleopatra, All for Love, with a focus on Marc Antony's mental state, the military situation with which he is confronted, and whether he is at fault for his circumstances.Continue reading
The panel concludes with the final act of Antony and Cleopatra, highlighting Octavius' intentions towards his defeated political foe, Cleopatra's attempt to escape the wheel of fate, and the Roman development of Boethius' response to Stoicism.Continue reading
The panel reads the fourth act of Antony and Cleopatra with particular attention to the character of Marc Antony and his worldview of personal honour and prowess, in conflict with the political schemes and grand designs of both Octavius and Cleopatra.Continue reading
The panel discusses the third act, with a focus on the deterioration of the Roman political situation, Marc Antony's skills as a battlefield leader and a political figure, and the sophisticated psychological understanding of both Octavius and Cleopatra.Continue reading
The panel discusses the second act of Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra, with a focus on the Roman political situation, the difference between republican and dictatorial rule, and Cleopatra's intoxicating effect upon those caught in her orbit.Continue reading
The panel reads the first act of Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra, providing an historical overview of the events, and reading the text with attention given to the psychological motivations of the drama and their historical context within Roman culture.Continue reading
The panel reads three poems by Lady Mary Wroth, from The Countess of Montgomery's Urania and Pamphilia to Amphilanthus, discussing their context, social impact, and the paradox of their genre conventionality but also Elizabethan authorial radicalism.Continue reading
The panel reads three poems by N. Scott Momaday, including "The Delight Song of Tsoai-talee", "The Monoliths", and "Rings of Bone" with special attention to the usage of active and passive symbolism, and the function of time, stasis, and circularity.Continue reading
The panel discusses Melville's short story, "Bartleby, the Scrivener", and examines the symbolism of its characters, the meaning of Bartleby's passive resistance, and the various interpretations of the work in light of history and literary theory.Continue reading
The panel reads three, middle-length poems by the XXth century imagist poet, Amy Lowell, with special attention to their use of garden-like symbolism, liminal spaces (physical and temporal), and the moon as a metaphorical representation of transience.Continue reading
The panel reads two later poems by Thomas Warton, including "Verses on Sir Joshua Reynolds's Painted Window at New College Oxford" and "Written at Vale-Royal Abbey in Cheshire," and considers them within the context of Anglicanism and the Enlightenment.Continue reading
The panel introduces one of the Graveyard Poets, Thomas Warton the Younger, and reads in full his most famous poem, "The Pleasures of Melancholy", with attention to how it prefigures the Romantics even as it remains part of the Augustan worldview.Continue reading
In advance of Burns Night, the panel reads four poems by Robert Burns, including "To a Mouse" and "For a' That and a' That", with special attention given to the presence of Romanticism, the use of dialect, and the brotherhood of mankind within nature.Continue reading
The panel discusses the second half of Melville's Benito Cereno, with a focus on the American abolition movement, the obliviousness (wilful or not) of Captain Amasa Delano, the mental domination of Benito Cereno, and Bobo's refusal to be subjugated.Continue reading
The panel provides a primer to academic publishing, including surveying the field, finding an argumentative niche, entering the conversation, and basic research practises, before moving on to symbolism in the first half of Herman Melville's Benito Cereno.Continue reading
The panel reads the last three staves, covering the Ghosts of Christmas Present and Future, and Scrooge's penitential reformation, with special attention to Scrooge's position within the community, and the motivation behind his miraculous change.Continue reading
The panel reads the first two 'staves' of Charles Dickens' classic Christmas story, covering the visitation of the first two ghosts—Marley and Christmas Past—and discussing both Scrooge's miserly spirit and how he is humanised, rather than villainised.Continue reading
Dr. Madeline Potter joins the panel as a special guest to conclude, discussing Dracula's role as a theological monster, the original ending with the destruction of Dracula's castle, Mina's role as heroine, and the novel's differing depictions of death.Continue reading
The panel reads chapters 19–23, with a special focus on both Mina Harker's personality and her treatment at the hands of the male characters, along with the death of Renfield, the Count's ability to manipulate the elements, and his escape from London.Continue reading
The panel reads chapters 15–18 and discusses Stoker's use of cliffhangers and foreshadowing both as a textual convention and as a narrative device, before attending to Seward's unification of the materialist and metaphysical theories that he encounters.Continue reading
The panel discusses chapters 12-14, comprising a series of false endings both literal and metaphorical, with attention given to how Stoker's overall plot structure is replicated within individual episodes, and to the combination of faith and science.Continue reading
The panel welcomes guest expert Dr. Madeline Potter to discuss chapters 5–11, comprising the letters and journals of Mina Murray, Lucy Westenra, and Dr. Seward, and their observations tragic and fantastical, from giant bats to bug-eating maniacs.Continue reading
The panel discusses the first four chapters of Bram Stoker's Dracula, with attention given to the history of the author and the text, the epistolary and gothic form of the novel in its Romantic context, and the narrative development of tension.Continue reading
The panel reads five poems from Hebrew Melodies, a cycle of poems by Lord Byron originally set to music by Isaac Nathan, including one of Byron's most-anthologised works, "She Walks in Beauty," and a companion piece to "The Destruction of Sennacherib".Continue reading
The panel discusses the two scenes of the final act of Hamlet, with attention to the text's focus on death, the mirroring of Hamlet with Fortinbras and Laertes, Horatio's constant companionship, Ophelia's burial, and the ultimate defeat of Claudius.Continue reading
The panel discusses seven scenes, with attention to Ophelia's innocence and madness, Laertes' hot-blooded response to the death of his father, Claudius' failure to demonstrate the wisdom and prudence of a good king, and Hamlet's apparent inscrutability.Continue reading
The panel reads Act III of Hamlet with attention to Hamlet's feigned (or semi-feigned) madness, his suicidal or existentially fatalistic attitude, and the instability and even fatal measure of his interactions with Ophelia, Polonius, and Queen Gertrude.Continue reading
The panel begins with a brief exercise in parsing Shakespearean prose, followed by a reading of Act II's scenes, with attention to Polonius' ambitious scheming, and Hamlet's feigned (or genuine?) madness with his friends, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.Continue reading
The panel reads the first act of William Shakespeare's Hamlet, providing an overview of the action and the textual history, with selected readings from within the five scenes paying particular attention to puns, irony, and the mirroring of characters.Continue reading
The panel discusses the concluding volume of Frankenstein, beginning with Victor's narration of his series of personal tragedies and ending with Captain Walton's letter describing the death of Victor and the monster's final, vengeful resolve.Continue reading
Madeline Potter joins the panel to begin a three-week reading of Mary Shelley's gothic novel, Frankenstein, with this week's discussion attending to the multiple frames of the narrative and the web of tension between pride, creation, and human endeavour.Continue reading
Madeline Potter joins the panel to begin a three-week reading of Mary Shelley's gothic novel, Frankenstein, with this week's discussion attending to the multiple frames of the narrative and the web of tension between pride, creation, and human endeavour.Continue reading
The panel reads and discusses "God's Grandeur", "Thou art indeed just, Lord, if I contend", and "The Windhover", attending to their Romantic underpinnings, anticipation of modern poetic developments, and formal characteristics including 'sprung rhythm'.Continue reading
In the final episode on Moby Dick, the panel discusses the fulfilment of Fedallah's prophecy and his death, Starbuck's dilemma and despair, the destruction of the Pequod, the death of Ahab, Ishmael on the margins, and some final genre considerations.Continue reading
In the penultimate Moby Dick episode, the panel discusses chapters 114–128, focusing on the ship's sails, quadrant, compass, and line; the refashioning of the Pequod into the expression of Ahab's will; and Ahab's final abandonment of his humanity.Continue reading
The panel discusses the Ahab's representation as a wrathful, inhuman avatar of anti-nature, the hellish nature of the Pequod, the sorcerous conniving of the captain and crew, and the abandonment of every comfort and sentiment in search of Moby Dick.Continue reading
The panel discusses chapters 91–101, with attention given to the cross-ship conduct between the Pequod and the Samuel Enderby, and to the psychological effects of sea life (and its attendant disasters) upon Ishmael, Ahab, and the rest of the ship's crew.Continue reading
The panel discusses chapters 82–90, with attention given to humour as a potential coping mechanism for Ishmael, before considering again the evidence for his identity, given his familiarity with significant legal works including Bracton and Blackstone.Continue reading
The panel reads some excellent listener questions, and then discusses chapters 60–71, with special attention to the studied ambiguity of the text, Ahab's identification and contrast with Moby Dick, and the 'problematisation of the hierarchy' (ding-ding).Continue reading
The panel reads some excellent listener questions, and then discusses chapters 60–71, with special attention to the studied ambiguity of the text, Ahab's identification and contrast with Moby Dick, and the 'problematisation of the hierarchy' (ding-ding).Continue reading
The panel discusses chapters 52-59, with special attention given to how the structure of the narrative both anticipates and surpasses post-structuralist critiques whilst challenging the genre of the novel and changing the attitudes of its readers.Continue reading
The panel discusses chapters 43-51, examining the presence of Romanticism in the text and character of Ishmael, and highlighting how the text's rapid shifts in perspective and narrative focus may further structuralist and poststructuralist readings.Continue reading
The panel discusses chapters 35-42, exploring Melville's purpose in adopting a multigeneric style, and paying special attention to Ahab's motivations, including his conception of malice and universal evil, and his understanding of justice and vengeance.Continue reading
The panel discusses chapters 26-34, with a particular focus on the effect of genre considerations in framing the novel, its shift into Shakespearean tonality and structure, and Melville's use of humour amidst grave and existential subject matter.Continue reading
The panel discusses chapters 16-25, with a particular attention to characterisation beyond Ishmael and Queequeg--particularly that of Peleg, Bildad, Elijah, and Bulkington--and to the overarching Old Testament Biblical influences upon the narrative.Continue reading
The panel reads chapters 5-15, with a special focus on the description and narrative use of religious symbolism and devotional practice, contrasting the Christian Ishmael and the pagan Queequeg to illustrate Ishmael's welcoming, fraternal worldview.Continue reading
The panel reads the prologues and first four chapters of Moby Dick, provides an overview of the publication history of the text, and discusses the character and reliability of the jocular, circuitous narrator, who commands the reader to 'Call me Ishmael.'Continue reading
The panel concludes with an examination of Lucrece's central role as a Shakespearean protagonist, addressing her attitude towards the conflict between Roman shame and the natural law, and how her speech is situated across historical contexts.Continue reading
The panel reads the second third of Shakespeare's Lucrece, with particular attention to the paradoxical presentation of light and darkness, and to the dual nature of guilt and shame in the poem, as situated within a putatively historical Roman context.Continue reading
In the first of a three-part series on Shakespeare's Lucrece, the panel explores the Roman history and sources for the poem, before reading and examining its metaphors with a focus on Sextus Tarquinius' internal debate and final, abhorrent resolution.Continue reading
The panel reads three poems by the courtier, soldier, privateer, and poet, Sir Walter Raleigh, examining their formal (and informal) qualities, and discussing their connexions to other poetic endeavours and movements, and to contemporary events.Continue reading
The panel reads and discusses the connexions between three poems by Seamus Heaney: "Blackberry Picking", "Three-Piece", and "Mycenae Nightwatch", with attention to their formal aspects, and their use of highly emotive imagery and references to the past.Continue reading
The panel reviews the work of "The People's Poet", Edgar A. Guest, national best-seller, sole Poet Laureate of Michigan, host of the A Guest in Your House radio programme, and author of innumerable verses filled with indefatigable, homespun optimism.Continue reading
The panel reads three poems by Rupert Brooke, a poet of the Georgian movement of the early twentieth century, whose poetry of the early Great War period suggests sentiments and ideals which were about to be transformed by modernised warfare.Continue reading
The panel reads three poems by Owen Wilfred, perhaps the greatest poet of the Great War, including his "Dulce et Decorum Est", "Anthem for Doomed Youth", and "Spring Offensive", with attention to their arresting imagery and formal characteristics.Continue reading
The panel, joined by special guest Lane Haygood, reads H. P. Lovecraft's Polaris, and discusses its rich symbolism, use of metaphor, deliberately archaic language, ambiguous resolution, and how its formal structure mirrors its narrative content.Continue reading
The panel reads Alexander Pope's "Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot" and discusses its moral and ethical instruction alongside its waspish skewering of eighteenth-century "dunces", including Colley Cibber, Lord Hervey, and Lady Mary Wortley Montague.Continue reading
The panel reads Alfred, Lord Tennyson's "Locksley Hall" and discusses its connexion to the real Loxley Hall in Staffordshire, as well as the poem's formal qualities, and its depiction of nineteenth-century British social, imperial, and military culture.Continue reading
The panel closely reads four poems by Edna St. Vincent Millay, focusing primarily on her sonnets, and evaluates their formal structure and potential metaphysical and theological implications, whilst connecting each poem to the others in turn.Continue reading
The panel reads the entirety of Thomas Babington Macaulay's "Horatius" from his collection Lays of Ancient Rome, and discusses the Horatian nature of the work as a narrative which both edifies and delights, along with the formal aspects of the poem.Continue reading
The panel reviews selections from James Joyce's inaugural work, the poetry collection titled Chamber Music, the first-published of his substantial works, giving attention to the formal metrics, structure, and interrelated symbolism of the poems.Continue reading
The panel reads four poems by Lewis Carroll and discusses the importance of poetic form in nonsense poetry, along with several potentially complicated readings that go beyond straight-forward narrative and verge upon social commentary.Continue reading
The panel reads "The Quest of the Sangraal" by the nineteenth-century parson and poet, Robert Stephen Hawker, with special attention to the use of differing Arthurian traditions and the fusion of mediæval and modern poetic forms, syntax, and vocabulary.Continue reading
The panel reads three poems by Thomas Traherne, a late seventeenth-century English poet of imaginative, reflective, and speculative verse, whose manuscripts were discovered by happenstance and saved from the refuse pit in the late nineteenth century.Continue reading
The panel reads Washington Irving's Christmas sequence from The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., and examines how its portrayal of an old-fashioned, English Christmas served to influence attitudes towards the ideal of Christmas in the United States.Continue reading
The panel concludes a three-week reading of The Lay of the Children of Hurin, examining the connexion between the history, geography, and cosmology of Tolkien's imagined Middle-Earth and that of our own, very real, terrestrial middle-earth.Continue reading
The panel reads the second part of The Lay of the Children of Hurin, which relates the tale of Beleg Strongbow, and the doom of Turin Turambar, giving special attention to how the text connects to other mythological and Anglo-Saxon poems and narratives.Continue reading
The panel begins a three-week reading and analysis of the first version of J. R. R. Tolkien's "The Lay of the Children of Hurin", a poetic account of Turin Turambar, written between 1918 and 1925, and first published in The Lays of Beleriand (1985).Continue reading
The panel examines three poems by Delmore Schwartz, with a particular focus on his language and themes, including a poetic biography of Lincoln, a metaphysical examination of Narcissus, and a portrayal of time as a frightening, existential inferno.Continue reading
In Critical Reading's first episode dedicated to a work of prose, the panel reads Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story, Young Goodman Brown, and examines its allegorical structure, considering what it might suggest about both human nature and the modern era.Continue reading
The panel concludes its series on American Civil War poetry with Whitman's Drum Taps and Sequel to Drum-Taps, focusing in particular upon the structure, symbolism, and historical details of Whitman's three poems on the death of President Lincoln.Continue reading
The panel reads a selection of the poems added to the 1860-61 edition of Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass, focusing on what the poetry suggests about human nature, political life, and the people of the United States on the eve of the Civil War.Continue reading
The panel reads two poems from Longfellow's Tales of a Wayside Inn (1863): 'Torquemada' and 'The Birds of Killingworth', examining the role of zeal, dogma, and radical conduct in the poems, and what it may suggest about the war between the states.Continue reading
In the first of a two-part reading of selections from Longfellow's Tales of a Wayside Inn, the panel reads the beginning of the Prelude and then examines "Paul Revere's Ride" in detail, with attention to the structure of the text and its formal aspects.Continue reading
The panel concludes a two-part survey of Melville's reading of the Civil War as viewed through his Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War (1866) by discussing poems on Stonewall Jackson, the Surrender at Appomattox, and post-war America.Continue reading
In this first episode of a two-part examination of Melville's poetic response to the Civil War, the panel reads two poems from his first poetry collection, Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War (1866): 'The Conflict of Convictions' and 'Gettysburg'.Continue reading
The panel performs a thorough close readings of two well-anthologised poems by E. E. Cummings--'i sing of Olaf glad and big' and 'the Cambridge ladies who live in furnished souls'--examining how their structure and formal aspects reflect their content.Continue reading
In celebration of King Charles III, the panel reads two poems written to celebrate the reigns of his predecessors, King Charles I and King Charles II, including a New Year's Gift by Thomas Carew and a coronation panegyric by John Dryden, respectively.Continue reading
The panel reads poetry celebrating the life and reign of Queen Elizabeth II, including Philip Larkin and Ted Hughes for the Silver Jubilee, Hughes for the 40th anniversary, Simon Armitage for the Platinum Jubilee, and his newly-written Floral Tribute.Continue reading
The panel reads three stirring poems by the American diplomat, activist, author, poet, and professor James Weldon Johnson, examining the theological symbolism and social commentary in "The Creation", "Listen, Lord", and "Lift Every Voice and Sing".Continue reading
The panel reads the first book of William Wordsworth's "The Prelude", discussing the intention of the overall work, with special attention to the presentation of childhood freedom, the intellectual work of writing poetry, and existential dread.Continue reading
The panel attempts to read Canto LXXIV from The Cantos of Ezra Pound, but finds even this one poem too dense to complete in a single episode, with its use of a vast array of literary and personal references fused into a challenging composite work.Continue reading
The panel concludes the series on Idylls of the King with a full reading of "The Passing of Arthur" and the epilogue "To the Queen", considering Gawain's warning, the last battle, Bedivere's treachery, and Arthur's departure with the three queens.Continue reading
The panel reads the penultimate idyll, "Guinevere", last of the original 1859 collection, and focuses on the redemptive arc of the queen, passing from recognition of her sin and fear of shame into pursuit of the pure and the good for its own sake.Continue reading
The panel reads the second part of the story of Sir Pelleas, "The Last Tournament", with its contrast between white innocence and red blood, its manifold inversions of the Arthurian court, and its connexion to the real-life Eglinton Tournament of 1839.Continue reading
The panel reads "Pelleas and Ettare" and questions whether Arthur overprotects Sir Pelleas, considering the implications for the court, whilst also examining Tennyson's psychologising of Ettare, and the potential dangers of a too-idealistic worldview.Continue reading
The panel discusses the dispersal of the Round Table in "The Holy Grail", the conflict between the Common Good of the realm and the individual knights' quests for the Absolute Good, and the experiences of Gawain, Bors, Lancelot, Perceval, and Galahad.Continue reading
Moving into the second half of the Idylls, the panel reads "Lancelot and Elaine", one of the most beloved poems in the cycle, contrasting Guinevere with Elaine and Lancelot with Gawain, and reading Arthur as a messianic, interpretive mirror of the court.Continue reading
The panel reads the poem that serves as the hinge in the cycle of the Idylls, "Merlin and Vivien", looking at how Vivien uses manipulation, dissemblance, and falsehood to achieve her ends, and considering the natural ends of the law and the state.Continue reading
The panel reads the last-composed of the Idylls, "Balin and Balan", with attention to the tale's depiction of the conflict between the Old Order and the New Order, the origin and proliferation of rumour and scandal, and the use of shadow as metaphor.
The panel reads "Enid and Geraint", the second part of the Enid tale and the fourth of the Idylls, with attention to the opposite perils of decadence and bestiality, the significance of personal redemption, and the firm strength of Tennyson's women.
In this third part of the Idylls of the King, the panel reads "The Marriage of Geraint", originally the first half of "Enid", with attention to Tennyson's use of narrative quoting and foreshadowing, and his depiction of knightly masculinity.
In the second Idylls of the King episode, the panel reads "Gareth and Lynette", with special attention to Gareth's demonstration of chivalry through action, the text's presentation of nobilty as essential to knightliness, and Bellicent's characterisation.
The panel begins a twelve-week series covering the entirety of Tennyson's Arthurian cycle, Idylls of the King, beginning with the cycle's publishing history and formal characteristics, and readings of the dedication and "The Coming of Arthur".
The Waste Land series concludes with readings and analysis of the final two parts--"Death by Water" and "What the Thunder Said"--with special attention to the biblical and grail quest imagery, the Wheel of Fortune, and contrasting aquatic extremes.
In this third part of the four-part series on The Waste Land, by T. S. Eliot, the panel reads "The Fire Sermon" and discusses cities both real and unreal, and how the abnegation of all human desire leads to the hollowing out of the psyche.
The panel continues with the second of a four-part series on The Waste Land, by T. S. Eliot, reading "A Game of Chess", with special attention given to the idea of death and rebirth, and to the presence and significance of baptismal imagery.
The panel embarks upon a four-week study of T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land, beginning with a discussion of the allusive connexions and the imagistic and modernist effects of the poem's opening epigram and its first section, "The Burial of the Dead".
The panel reads a selection of the poety of the seventeenth-century, Welsh, metaphysical poet, Henry Vaughan, with a particular attention to Vaughan's own religious beliefs, philosophical positions, and connexions to Ben Jonson and George Herbert.
The panel reads a selection of verses from Owen Meredith--Robert Bulwer-Lytton, Earl of Lytton--an eminent Victorian statesman and poet, including an excerpt from the second part of his long, anapestic epic, "Lucile", and two shorter poems.
The panel reads the poetry of Robert Graves, from his early war poetry to the work of his later life, with special attention to his theory of The White Goddess, including "A Dead Boche", "A Boy in Church", "The God Called Poetry" and "The Spoilsport".
The panel reads four poems by D. H. Lawrence: "Whales Weep Not!", "Moonrise", "When I Read Shakespeare", and "Only Man", and discusses their frank but sensual depictions of sexuality, communication, communion, nature, salvation, and damnation.
The panel reads two Pope's 'An Essay on Man' and Wordsworth's 'Tintern Abbey' in conversation with one another--looking at the similarities of their conclusions and the difference in their approaches--as they address the roles of Man, Nature, and God.
The panel reads a selection of three poems by Conrad Aiken--"The Room", "Exile", and "Goya"--and discusses their dreamlike imagery, and the impact of personal tragedy, English Romanticism, and Freudian and Jungian theories, upon Aiken's poetry.
Following on the theme of love and death, the panel reads Milton's pastoral elegy, "Lycidas", dedicated to the memory of Edward King, with special attention to Milton's theology and his critique of both the contemporary English clergy and community.
For St. Valentine's Day, the panel reads what is likely to have been Shakespeare's first officially published work: his genre-defying Tragi-Comi-Ovidian poem "Venus and Adonis", dedicated to his patron, Henry Wriothesley, third Earl of Southampton.
The panel concludes "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" with an examination of the poem's liminal spaces, an evaluation of Gawain's moral virtue, a discussion on the nature of courage, and questions about the role of community in the act of contrition.
The panel reads the third part of "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight", with particular attention to the juxtaposition of the forest hunting, killing, and skinning/gutting scenes with those of courtly love in the luxurious bedchamber of Sir Gawain.
The panel reads the second part of "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight", and examines the theological significance of the seasons, the detailed military fortifications of Castle Hautdesert, and the appearance of the beautiful Lady Hautdesert.
The panel reads the first part of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, providing an overview of the formal aspects of the poem, the history of the manuscript (Cotton Nero A.x), theories about authorship, and analysis of the poem's titular, veridian symbolism.
The panels searches for a smile / And dwells with Ogden Nash a while. / Some lines are light and some are scary / But the formal aspects rather vary. / Most of them rhyme in a manner relaxin', / But the metrics range from good to absen'.
In the first podcast of 2022, the panel reads five poems spanning the entire poetic arc of Langston Hughes, from the famous lines of "I, Too" to the scenes of the "Lincoln Theatre", before ending with the Christmas message of "Shepherd's Song".
In a special, Christmas episode, the panel reads selections from W. S. Gilbert's libretto to H.M.S. Pinafore, and discusses how they are representative of Gilbert's penchant for comic 'topsy-turvy' plots which include keen-eyed social commentary.
The panel reads "The Red Wheelbarrow", "This Is Just to Say", and "Gulls" by William Carlos Williams and discusses both their connexion to the Imagist and Modernist movements of the early twentieth century, and their complexity in relation to Minimalism.
The panel reads three of Jonathan Swift's poems which satirise responses to the inescapable facts of human biology, and focuses on their depictions of privacy and separation, essential human dignity, and cultural attitudes towards sexuality.
The panel reads extended selections from each canto of Sir Walter Scott's narrative poem, "The Lady of the Lake", highlighting Scott's interest in reviving the medieval, the importance of history to his work, and his use of varying poetic forms.
The panel reads a selection of poems by Ted Hughes compassing the scope of his poetic oeuvre, from the early and animalistic imagery of "The Jaguar" to the modernist scenes of "Here Is the Cathedral", before concluding with the confessional "Last Letter".
The panel reads four poems by Richard Wilbur, "Love Calls Us to the Things of This World", "A Baroque Wall-Fountain in the Villa Sciarra", "Mind", and "Year's End", particularly examining the intricacy of their details and their formal attributes.
The panel traces themes of wanderlust, resignation, wistfulness, lonliness, and fatalism in six poems excerpted from Stevenson's Songs of Travel, including "The Vagabond", "Bright Is the Ring of Words," "Whither Must I Wander", and "The Woodman".
The panel reads four poems by the Tudor poet and courtier Thomas Wyatt, whose misfortunes in the Henrician court (not least of all two imprisonments) are traced in sonnets and other verse including "Whoso List to Hunt" and "Innocentia Veritas Viat Fides".
The panel reads three poems by Sylvia Plath, "Tulips", "Lady Lazarus", and "Daddy", tracing in them themes of self-annihilation, and analysing references to her depression and to the conflicted relationships she had with her father and husband.
The panel reads a selection of sonnets by William Shakespeare, and considers their Symposium-like comparisons and contrasts of the different kinds and representations of love, in terms ranging from eloquent to earthy, and from concrete to abstract.
The panel reads Christopher Marlowe's most famous poem, Hero and Leander, discussing its rich and provocative imagery, classical allusions, and levels of metaphor, and addressing the scholarly opinion of the apparently unfinished state of the work.
The panel reads a single, long poem--"The Defence of Guenevere"--by the Victorian artisan, translator, novelist, and poet William Morris, giving special attention how Guenevere uses and mis-uses evidence and emotion in order to support her case.
The panel reads four poems by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, including three sonnets, and discusses the excellence of her formal expertise and poetic style, particularly in contrast to less favourable mid-20th century critical responses to her body of work.
The panel reads three poems of the greatly esteemed Victorian poet, Robert Browning, including "The Bishop Orders His Tomb at St. Praxed's", "Andrea del Sarto", and "Love among the Ruins", giving especial attention to the dramatic features of his works.
The panel reads three poems by mid-twentieth century American poet, Frank O'Hara, and examines his connexions to other forms of artistic modernism and post-modernism, including not only prose poetry, but abstract expressionism, cubism, and Dadaism.
The panel follows the work of Poe and Lear to the macabre and surreal art of Edward Gorey, looking at four of his early, and most famous, works including The Gashlycrumb Tinies (an abecedarium), The Evil Garden, The Insect God, and The Doubtful Guest.
How pleasant to know Mr. Lear! Who has written such volumes of stuff! Some think him ill-tempered and queer, But a few think him pleasant enough.
The panel reads a selection of Poe's most significant verse, including "The Raven" and "Annabel Lee", and considers not only how Poe's use of Gothic and Romantic themes shapes the content and form of his poems, but also surprising mediæval connexions.
The panel reads a small selection of poems by Geoffrey Hill, with a focus on his use of paradoxical language, complex metaphors, and highly imagistic description--and, contrasts Hill's work with that of the mid-20th century poet, Philip Larkin.
The panel concludes its summer reading of The Canterbury Tales with a look at penitence, sin, and freedom in The Parson's Tale, and then considers whether Chaucer's Retraction (Boece excluded!) is an appropriate end to the Tales and to Chaucer's oeuvre.
In the penultimate episode covering the Canterbury Tales, the panel discusses the potential links between Fragments VIII and IX, the morals of the tales included in them, particularly Cecilia's active piety and the Manciple's reserved discretion.
The panel discusses the final two tales in Fragment VII: the tragic vignettes of unfortunate individuals described in The Monk's Tale, and the jolly (and much beloved) fable of the rooster Chanticleer and the wily Fox in the Nun's Priest's Tale.
The panel considers vice in the Shipman's tale and piety in the Prioress' tale, before moving on to examine Chaucer's humble self-depiction in his rollicking minstrel song, The Tale of Sir Thopas, and in his dialogue on Prudence, The Tale of Melibee.
The panel looks at the honor-before-death connexion between Fragment V and Fragment VI as exemplified by Virginia in the Physician's Tale, and then considers the multiple levels of moral instruction on offer in the boldly hypocritical Pardoner's Tale.
The panel discusses Fragment V, with attention given both to scholarly theories about whether Chaucer deliberately left the Squire's tale interrupted and unfinished, and to Chaucer's use of estates satire in his depiction of the Franklin and his tale.
The panel discusses Fragment IV, containing two tales that deal with men who deliberately engage in unequal marriages to both good and ill results, and considers what these tales demonstrate about historical critiques of progress and the human condition.
Clinton Collister joins the panel to discuss Fragment III and its potential connexions to The Man of Law's Tale (Fragment II), with a focus on the role of justice, legalism, crime, intent, contractual obligations, and the judicial purpose of punishment.
The panel examines The Man of Law's Tale and scholarly arguments about whether it is suited to its putative teller, and consider the tale's depictions of crime and justice (temporal and divine), constancy, providence, misadventure, and religious strife.
Leaving behind the Knight's noble depictions of courtly love, the panel descends through bawdy, sexual misadventures in the form of 'quites'--narrative responses--offered by the drunken Miller and the vengeful Reeve, and the Cook's incomplete tale.
In the second part of the Canterbury Tales series, the panel reads selections from The Knight's Tale, with a focus on how the three shines--to Venus, to Mars, and to Diana--serve as an interpretive device, and on the connexion to Boethian philosophy.
In the first week of the Canterbury Tales series, the panel reviews the biography of Geoffrey Chaucer, introduces the Canterbury Tales in general, and then reads selections from the General Prologue, with emphasis on Chaucer's development of character.
The panel discusses selections from the poetry of Rudyard Kipling, including his most famous poem, "If", and three poems related to The Great War and, its mechanised social aftermath: "Gethsemane", "The Benefactor", and "The Secret of the Machines".
The panel discusses Ben Jonson's role as critic and author of the Elizabethan age, and reads four of his poems, including several of his Epigrams, before concluding with his rhapsodic ode written in memory of his friend, William Shakespeare.
The panel reads excerpts from Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass, including poems from the inscriptions, Song of Myself, Children of Adam, and Calamus, considering the formal nature of the 'American Epic', and Whitman's use of individualism and universalism.
The panel examines a selection of sonnets and a song from Sir Philip Sidney's Astrophil and Stella, considering the formal and tonal connexions between Sidney's poetry and the works of earlier and later poets, including Chaucer, Petrarch, and Shakespeare.
The panel discusses a selection of poems covering the entire span of Abraham Cowley's oeuvre: beginning with his college years and the unfinished epic 'Davideis', through his popular collections, and concluding with his late 'Ode to the Royal Society'.
The panel discusses a selection of John Milton's shorter poems, the oft-paired 'L'Allegro' and 'Il Penseroso', and examines their use of Orpheus as a metaphor, and their different attitudes to finding communal delight and solitary pleasure in life.
The panel analyses the use of irony in the poetic works of Stephen Crane, including selections from "War Is Kind" (1899), and discusses the development of realism and imagism in English literature, especially in poetry about the experience of war.
The panel analyses contradiction in Melville's earliest and latest published poems: three selections from Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War--his first collection--and "Art" from Timoleon and Other Ventures, published only four months before his death.
In a return to the works of Alexander Pope, the panel reads his "Eloisa to Abelard" in full and discusses the complexity of Eloisa's tragic circumstances: her love for Abelard, her vocation as a nun, and the suffering to which they have been subjected.
The panel discusses the late Romantic shift in focus from nominally Christian, deified Nature to transcendental beauty in three longer works by Keats, including "The Eve of St. Agnes" and excerpts from "Endymion" and the unfinished "Hyperion".
The panel engages in a wide-ranging discussion of Percy Bysshe Shelley and his relation to the early and late Romantic movements, his work to establish the reputation of Keats, his association with radical politics, and his own untimely death, aged 29.
The panel begins a multi-week review of Romanticism with a review of the movement's (and the author's) effects upon poetry, including readings of three works: "Darkness", "The Destruction of Sennacherib", and excerpts from "The Bride of Abydos".
The panel discusses the difference between verse and poetry (including whether such a difference exists), and examines three 'frosty' poems by Service, including "Pullman Porter", "The Prospector", and his famous ballad, "The Cremation of Sam McGee".
The panel considers the role of time, colour, militarism, rhyme, repetition, meter, and other formal poetic aspects in three of the more popular and widely-anthologised poems written by Elizabeth Bishop: "Roosters", "The Fish", and "One Art".
The panel examines the complicated irony of Philip Larkin's verse, and considers his use of poetic formalism, and themes including rebelliousness, nihilism, love, and impermanence, in "This Be the Verse", "Aubade", "An Arundel Tomb", and "Days".
The panel continues to welcome in a new year by looking back to an old year--in this case, A.D. 1666, and Dryden's poem "Annus Mirabilis", which ruminates on the wonders of war with Holland, the Great Fire of London, and the heroic conduct of Charles II.
As the new year dawns, the panel revisits the work of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, the quintessential Fireside Poet, to reexamine some favourites (Excelsior, The Day Is Done) and some poems which are new to the podcast (Psalm of Life, Paul Revere's Ride).
If it must be Donne, let it be done well! The panel reads Donne's selected poetry and prose: a Christmas sermon, Devotions upon Emergent Occasions, "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning", "The Flea", and selections from both "La Corona" and "Holy Sonnets".
The panel considers the scholarly consensus that Marvell is poetically and politically ambiguous by reading "To His Coy Mistress", "Clorinda and Damon", "A Dialogue between the Soul and the Body", and "An Horatian Ode upon Cromwell's Return from Ireland".
The panel continues a survey of English Civil War poetry with a look at Robert Herrick's deliberately contradictory verses, including his Hesperides, and the famous Carpe Diem poems "To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time" and "Corinna's Going a Maying".
The panel examines the poetical works of George Herbert, discussing the Christian theological implications found in the language of three of his lyric poems, each of which is composed on a religious topic: "Prayer (2)", "Divinity", and "Love (3)".
The panel examines selected verse of American fire-side poet James Russell Lowell, with a brief survey including some light verse on cigars and seasons, and some more serious writing on nautical themes featuring sirens, seaweed, and ocean-side lyres.
The panel reviews the biography of, and some selected works by, the twentieth-century poet Robert Lowell, including his "Falling Asleep over the Aeneid", "Memories of West Street and Lepke", and "Four Spanish Sonnets", with special attention to form.
The panel reviews five poems selected from Wallace Stevens' debut collection, Harmonium, and considers the role of Stevens within the larger context of the poetic development of the Romantic movement into its fulfilment with the advent of Modernism.
The panel reads Book I of Alexander Pope's translation of The Iliad, discusses Pope's approach contextually, compares that approach to the modern translations of Fitzgerald and Fagles (amongst others), and considers theoretical commentary on translations.
The panel examines the biography of John Masefield before reading and examining excerpts from his Arthurian cycle, Midsummer Night, with special attention on the unique aspects of Masefield's recasting of traditional Arthurian mythological elements.
The panel reviews the epilogue-like Mutabilitie Cantos of the Faerie Queene, reviewing scholarly opinion about their place in the whole poem, and considering the interrelations of the Greco-Roman pantheon to Nature, Time, and the Judeo-Christian God.
The panel reviews the second half of Spenser's book of courtesy, with attention given to the scholarly view of C. S. Lewis, Northrop Frye, and others, that Courtesy represents the central portion of the poem and that it is the essential Spenserian virtue.,
The panel examines the first half of Spenser's book of courtesy, reading its depictions in the light of the historical development of chevalrie/chivalry and courtoise/courtesy, and comparing its depiction of characters to those found in other Arthuriana.
The panel examines historical criticism of Book V, with particular attention to the mid-twentieth-century development of a moral-allegorical reading in contrast to the earlier historical reading, and considers how the two might best be combined.
The full panel convenes to discuss Spenser's approach to justice in Book V, with attention given to the challenges Artegall's Solomon-like judgement faces--a dispute between knights, a giant of revolution, and ultimately the Amazon queen Radigund herself.
The panel concludes the book of friendship with an examination of the character of Sclaunder, and an account of Spenser's planned poetic cartography--Epithalmion Thamesis--intended to give all the rivers of Britain 'their right names and right passage'.
The panel turns its attention to the Book of Friendship, sometimes described as the 'least interesting' of the sections, and discusses whether it has been unfairly maligned or whether Spenser's intentions can explain the book's perceived deficiencies.
The panel addresses a reader question before turning to Book III's unwholesome delights and the means by which the virtuous refuse them and the sinful fall prey to them, with special attention to the conduct of Hellenore, Malbecco, and the satyrs.
The panel adds a new member, and begins a discussion of the first half of The Faerie Queene, Book III, by focusing on the character of Britomart, her historical and mythological characterisation, potential allegorical connexions, and chivalric impact.
The panel reviews the second half of Book II of Edmund Spenser's Faerie Queene, with particular attention shown to the allegorical representation of the seven deadly sins and the means by which they can be overcome through the virtue of temperance.
The panel reviews selections from the first six cantos of Book II of Spenser's Faerie Queene, with particular attention to Guyon's interactions with Belphoebe (and her connexion to Diana and Venus), the character of Palmer, and the return of Archimago.
The panel examines the second half of the first book of The Faerie Queene, with particular attention to the foundations of textual analysis, demonstrating readings grounded in the texts themselves and in the material and tropes available to the author.
The panel welcomes two additional experts to begin a several-month-long survey of Edmund Spenser's Faerie Queene in its entirety, in this episode examining Spenser's personal history, his letter to Sir Walter Raleigh, and the first half of Book I.
The panel discusses two of Robert Frost's best-known nature poems, including "The Road Not Taken" and "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening", and their common misreadings, before discussing the unusually urban setting of his "Acquainted with the Night".
The panel bridges McGonagall's Railway Bridge of the Silvery Tay to a discussion of twentieth-century poet laureate John Betjeman, who had an abiding fascination for railway buildings both architecturally and as a connecting point for human experiences.
In the first podcast of April, the panel examines the work of a truly exceptional poet--the unparalleled and indefatigable William Topaz McGonagall--and discusses three of his poems related to the Tay Bridge (near by Dundee and the Magdalen Green).
After a brief delay, the panel concludes its review of Eliot's Four Quartets with a discussion of Little Gidding, focusing on its cyclicality, pentecostal imagery, connexions to Dante's Commedia, and what the poem suggests about the communion of saints.
The panel examines 'The Dry Salvages' (rhymes with 'assuages'), the third of Eliot's Four Quartets, and ponders over the speaker's shift away from temporal considerations and towards intercessory prayer and overtly Christian theological symbolism.
The panel examines 'East Coker', the second of Eliot's Four Quartets, with particular attention to the poet's developing understanding about the search for meaning in life, the connexion to ancestral history, and the necessity of identifying a telos.
The panel begins a four-week reading of T. S. Eilot's 'Four Quartets', beginning with 'Burnt Norton', and with particular attention to the ways in which the poem develops the ideas of the Eternal Present and the human experience of the passage of time.
The panel concludes its two-week survey of Irish poets, ending with Peter Fallon's 'The Old Masters', Patrick Kavanagh's 'Address to an Old Wooden Gate', and Seamus Heaney's 'Fosterling'.
The panel begins a two-week survey reading Irish poets, beginning with William Allingham's 'The Fairies', James Joyce's 'A Prayer', and Louis MacNeice's 'Prayer before Birth'.
The panel reads three poems by Thomas Hardy (including some with an appropriately hibernal theme), discusses Hardy's role in contemporary literature, and plans some short story readings for the summer, along with one especially long poem.
The panel considers multiple, potentially competing, readings of three poems from the early, middle, and late work of W. B. Yeats, covering three of his poetic interests: faerie, Irish political events, and a longing for spiritual engagement.
The panel examines three poems by W. H. Auden, including his much-anthologised and potentially ironic 'Funeral Blues', the literary biography 'A Thanksgiving', and the seasonally-appropriate conclusion to 'For the Time Being: A Christmas Oratorio'.
The panel reads and surveys three poems by Longfellow: 'The Cross of Snow', 'The Day Is Done', and 'Excelsior', and makes a case for Longfellow's narrative and emotive expression, in contrast to modern critical demands for abstraction and complexity.
The panel looks at three poems by Dickinson (nos. 280, 311, and 712) which all centre on a theme of mortality and endings, and discusses their important relevance to modern life, with its focus on perpetual youth and its delusions of immortality.
The panel examines four poems by William Blake from Songs of Innocence (Night, The Chimney Sweeper) and Songs of Experience (The Chimney Sweeper, A Poison Tree), and discusses Blake's mysticism, child-like wonder, and poetic depictions of Christianity.
The panel examines 'Ode on a Grecian Urn' and 'Ode to a Nightingale' by Keats, focusing on the role of transience, mortality, stasis, truth, beauty, and nature--and imagining whether Keats frames his poems within an 'epistemology of aesthetics'.
The panel discusses two 'sleep poems' of Dante Gabriel Rossetti: "Sleepless Dreams" from The House of Life, and the early poem "My Sister's Sleep", with special attention, for composition purposes, given to the formal structure of the two poems.
The panel begins a fortnight-long feature on the Rossettis with an examination of Christina Georgina Rossetti's 'Goblin Market', including a reading of most of the poem with focus on the poem's elusive metaphors and multiple potential readings.
The panel concludes their reading of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's "Christabel" by considering the function of Leoline's overabundant grief, examining the nature of Geraldine's magical influence, and speculating about possible conclusions to the poem.
The panel welcomes James Smoker, a Coleridge scholar at the University of St. Andrews, to discuss Coleridge, Christian Theology, the British Romantics, and the first part of Christabel.
The panel discusses theological readings of three of Coleridge's most famous poems, all of which share the occasion of sleep as central to their action: 'Kubla Khan; or, the Vision in a Dream'; 'The Pains of Sleep'; and, 'This Lime-Tree Bower My Prison'.
The panel discusses the second half of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, with particular attention given to the theology of the Mariner's sin, contrition, and absolution, and the relation of that theology to and within the Romantic conception of Nature.
The panel discusses the first three parts of Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner, proposing the Ancient Mariner as a figure in transition from the Enlightenment to Romanticism, and including overviews of Critical moves and an analogy to T. S. Eliot.
The panel begins to cross over from Wordsworth to Coleridge in the second of three episodes focused on Lyrical Ballads, addressing the role of nature, emotional state, and parenthood in both Wordsworth's "The Mad Mother" and Coleridge's "The Nightingale".
The panel discusses Romanticism and begins a three-week examination of selected poems from Lyrical Ballads, the experimental collection by Wordsworth and Coleridge. This week's selections are Wordsworth's "The Female Vagrant" and "Tintern Abbey".
As the panel continues the transition from the Augustans to the Romantics, they turn their attention to the notoriously self-critical Thomas Gray, who refused the Poet Laureateship and died at the age of fifty-four, leaving only thirteen published poems.
The panel continues its focus on the poetry of the Augustan era of British letters, this time examining Goldsmith's poetic response to the increase of British wealth and the destruction posed by cultural shifts and legislation such as the Inclosure Acts.
Having concluded Paradise Lost, the panel moves from the poetry of Milton to the opposing views of one of his contemporaries, examining John Dryden, and his panegyric Astræa Redux, written to celebrate the restoration of Charles II to the throne.
The panel concludes Paradise Lost with an examination of Adam's hope and despair, differences between Michael and Raphael, biblical kingship, the worthy triumph of Christ, and--finally--the quality of Milton as an author and Paradise Lost as a work.
The panel tackles the difficult problems of Adam's guilt, the nature of heavenly justice and its parallels with English Common Law, Milton's conception of the natural order, and Adam's acceptance of guilt and act of contrition for the sin of disobedience.
The panel discusses the ninth book of Paradise Lost, with a special focus on Milton's depictions of gender roles, guilt and innocence, division of labour, and free will, to determine how the balance of Original Sin is divided amongst Adam and Eve.
The panel considers whether the Garden of Eden required a robust space exploration programme (yes), whether Angels are real (yes), whether human beings turn into angels when they die (no), whether Dr. Cooper is an Anglophile (no)... oh, and Milton, too!
The panel examines the moment of creation, the etymological development of atheism and chaos, divine warnings against transgressing the proper bounds of intellectual curiosity, and the potentially physical nature of Creation's hymn of praise to its Maker.
The panel welcomes Zac Watson as special guest to discuss questions about Paradise Lost, before examining the War in Heaven, Classical cosmogeny, Satan's parodic inventiveness, angelic biology, and an unlikely connexion to Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles.
Clinton and Dr. Cooper examine the fifth book of John Milton's Paradise Lost, with a particular focus on Milton's Arian Christology and whether Satan is a reactionary against a revolutionary God who is rhizomatic in the sense of Deleuze and Guattari.
The panel examines John Milton's prosody (particularly in the light of Dr. Johnson's comments) and reflects upon his troublesome Christology and potentially Arian leanings, before proffering the merest hint of a speculation about Milton's Mariology.
The panel discusses the third book of John Milton's Paradise Lost, with special attention on aspects including the ambiguously diabolical imagery of the opening, and Milton's philosophical approaches to the problem of evil, free will, and predestination.
The panel discusses Book II of John Milton's Paradise Lost, with a focus on the fallen angels as an inversion of divine imagery, the politics and plots of Pandaemonium, the natures of Sin and Death, and a possible instance of Miltonian heresy.
In the first episode of Critical Readings, the panel begins a twelve-week discussion of Milton's Paradise Lost, with discussion focused on the poem's nature as an epic and the apparent ideological conflict between Milton's politics and his protagonist. and