Soundtrack to this episode For 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 an…

Soundtrack to this episode Topics discussed in this episode include: -"The Roots of Romanticism" by Isaiah Berlin -The Jena Set and the Schlegels -"Rousseau and Romanticism" by Irving Babbitt -Harold Bloom -"Science, Politics, and Gnosticism" by Eric Voegelin -"Classic, Romantic, and Modern" by Jacques Barzun -Inferno IV and XXVI -Prometheus Bound …

Soundtrack to this episode Text of poem Topics 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 Daph…

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 B…

Soundtrack to today's episode Topics 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 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 …

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 Parker Support …

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 Rossetti Sonnet 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 C…

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 …

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 …

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 po…

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 Hec…

Topics discussed in this episode include: -"A Retrospect" and "A Few Don'ts By An Imagiste" by Ezra Pound -A ruinous misunderstanding of meter and music -"Intellectual-emotional complex" and unified sensibility -"The Chinese Written Character as a Medium for Poetry" by Ernest Fenollosa -The ideogrammatic method -Kiru, Wabi-Sabi, and Mono no Aware (…

Mea culpa: Yes, I know "Sailing to Byzantium" was written like 20 years after "Conversion." By the time I realized my anachronism, it was too late. Something something Borges retroactive influence... Topics discussed in this episode include: -Mary Renault's "The King Must Die." -Decadence begets Primitivism -Gauguin, Picasso, Stravinsky -Gustave Ka…

Topics discussed in this episode include: -What is Modernism? -Various dichotomies -The French origins of Modernism -Charles Baudelaire and the Decadent movement -Stephane Mallarme and Symbolism/Impressionism -Eliot, Laforgue, Corbiere, and "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" -Hugo vs. Baudelaire -Edgar Poe's "The Philosophy of Composition" and "…

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 tran…

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 T…

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 …

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…

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 t…

Songs discussed in The Rainbow Mythos include: Tarot Woman (lyrics here) Rainbow Eyes (lyrics here) Catch The Rainbow (lyrics here) The Man On The Silver Mountain (lyrics here) The Temple Of The King (lyrics here) Stargazer (lyrics here) A Light In The Black (lyrics here) Topics discussed include: Brian Brodeur's new book, Some Problems With Autobi…

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 Applet…

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 syl…

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 o…

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 …

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 D…

Read our four poems here. (Note: The file may take a while to load!) Topics mentioned in this episode include: -My David Yezzi episode -Ryan Wilson -Three kinds of formal poets: puzzle solvers, natural rhymers, aesthetes -Paul Celan -Literary Matters -John Berryman's "Dream Songs" -Wait Until Dark -Object Permanence (here's Matthew's poem on the su…

Read our four poems here! (Note: It may take a little while to load!) Topics discussed in this episode include: -Sleerickets -Poetry Says -Matthew Buckley Smith -Alice Allan -Cameron Clark -Primordial -My Robert Bridges episode -Robert Fagles -Shane McCrae -Parallelism -"The Truly Great" by Stephen Spender -"Paradise Lost" by John Milton -Three app…

Topics discussed in this episode include: -Autobiographical vs. Confessional -"Poetry As Confession" by M.L. Rosenthal -"Life Studies" and "The Dolphin" by Robert Lowell -"Genesis" by Delmore Schwartz -"The Dream Songs" by John Berryman -Other Confessional pioneers: Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, W.D. Snodgrass -Functions of Confessionalism: Therapy an…

Topics discussed in this episode include: -The Anthony Hecht Poetry Prize! -Regional pronunciations -The Israel-Gaza War ("Avenge, O Lord, Thy Slaughtered Saints....") -Who Is A Jew? -Judaism: Ethnic, Social, Ritualistic, Theological, Artistic -Maimonides' 13 Articles of Faith -The Cosmological Argument -Life's Will-To-Order -The meaning of "Follow…

Text of poem here Topics discussed in this episode include: -My experience in New York's formalist bohemia -James Matthew Wilson and his books -Jacques Maritain & Etienne Gilson -The iambic decameter effect -Broken-backed lines -"The Castle of Thorns" by Yvor Winters -"The Slow Pacific Swell" by Yvor Winters -"Mother Carey's Hen" by David Yezzi -My…

Text of poem HERE No more Versecraft until October! Sorry :( BUY SHIRTS Topics discussed in this episode include: -Matthew comes for my prosodic neck (mea culpa: his reading was first foot trochee, feminine ending). -Rabbi Neil Blumofe brings up Pirkei Avot -Susan Spear and Catherine Chandler -David Yezzi! -Yezzi's new Anthony Hecht biography, Late…

Text of poem here. Order Versecraft merch here! Topics discussed in this episode include: -Matthew's new book, Midlife! -Joshua Mehigan and his books, The Optimist and Accepting the Disaster -Josh's interview on SLEERICKETS -American Naturalism -Josh's poem Down In the Valley -Sponges 101 -Parapraxis, aka "The Freudian slip" -Venice by Herman Melvi…

Topics discussed in this episode include: E.M. Forster “The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam” by Edward Fitzgerald Thomas Hardy W.H. Auden “Troilus and Criseyde” by Geoffrey Chaucer “Vis and Ramin” by Gorgani “Wisdom and Wilderness” by Dick Davis Thom Gunn Yvor Winters Fulke Greville Edgar Bowers Mozart vs. Haydn “The Creation” by Joseph Haydn “Requiem” by…

Buy Versecraft merch HERE Read text of poem HERE Topics discussed in this episode include: -No Versecraft next week! :( -R.S. Gwynn -On late-bloomers in poetry -What Krishna meant -The life-changing power of the unicorn tapestries -The Amy Clampitt Residency Program and Virginia Konchan -The "Tails To Heads" Maneuver. -"The Eumenides" by Aeschylus …

Order Versecraft merch HERE Topics discussed in this episode include: -Varieties of Modernism: The Big Six -Formalism and Cosmic Rebellion -Wilbur's audacious sanity -The Idea Of Literary Celebrity At Key West -Accent vs. Stress -Measuring my stress levels -And isn't it ionic... don't you think? -The temptation to see ourselves in Nature -"I Wander…

Get Versecraft merch HERE! Topics discussed in this episode include: -"T.S. Eliot: The Illusion of Reaction" by Yvor Winters -Les poetes maudites Tristan Corbiere et Jules Laforgue -When Eliot was taken to Pound town -The objective correlative and its problems -This is basically what East Coker is -The "Logic" of Imagery (Crane: "Well, one of us is…

Topics discussed in this episode include: -Encountering the phantom of Crane -VERSECRAFT HAS SHIRTS NOW!! BUY HERE -The lamentable pedigree of the poete maudit -Life Savers! -Why isn't there a movie yet about Harry Crosby? -Nothing says Guggenheim fellowship like some tropical adultery -Neo-Romantics revisited -The "Logic of Metaphor" and Logonauti…

The missing word at 23:18 is "ironically" Topics discussed in this episode include: -My thanks to Heights Arts for the feature! -Hopkins and Bridges: name a more iconic duo. -Sprung Rhythm vs. Syllabics -Bridges' whacky work of logometry, Milton's Prosody -18th century in the streets, 19th century in the sheets -Iambic tetrameter couplets and the H…

Topics discussed in this episode include: -Fallout from last week -The poetry-prose spectrum, and those pesky in-betweeners -Amphibrachs for days -Parallelism, and how to sound "biblical" -The universal accessibility of beauty -Rain on a sunny day is called WHAT? -The feminization of landscape -Hopefully the only time I'll mention Kanye on this sho…

Apologies for the sirens around the thirteen minute mark. I should've stopped up my mic with wax! Topics discussed in this episode include: -Welcome back everyone!! -A litany of my recent international escapades -Spoiler: Poetry is Versecraft (cue flame war) -Problem 1: Non-metrical gatekeeping -Problem 2: The mystical word-sorcerors want their poe…

Topics discussed in this episode include: -Versecraft will be on hiatus in June. See you again in July! -The wonderful educational resources available to Classical musicians -The not-so-wonderful educational resources available to poets -Why MFA programs don't cut it -If creative writing "can't be taught" then poetic education becomes a joke -No st…

Topics discussed in this episode include: -Matthew's episode A Winter's Tale Pt. 2 -Alice's episode Grilling Elijah Blumov -Why Metal is NOT Rock -"Black Sabbath" by Black Sabbath -"Mars, The Bringer of War" by Gustav Holst -Neoclassical Metal and Symphonic Metal -Portrait of the Artist As A Young Dork -"Stand Up And Fight" by Turisas -"Twilight of…

Tech woes: Audio cuts out briefly at 11:56. Sorry! Topics discussed in this episode include: -Please send all your John Forbes and Jane Kenyon hate mail to Alice at poetrysayspod@gmail.com -My upcoming Poetry Says episode on Gwen Harwood and my role as the prosodic gadfly/mustache-twirling villain of contemporary poetry. -Read my poem "The Virtue o…

Tech woes: There's some static at 10:36 where I say "end rhyme." Sorry! Topics discussed in this episode include: -Wonderful exchanges with David, Robert , Quartez , Jack, Cameron , and Kevin. -The Iowa Writer's Workshop -Philip Levine's The Bread of Time -Rhythmic modulations (a spondee it ain't!) -This is the literary device. This is the moment. …

Mea culpa: Line 9 also differs from lines 2 and 13 by containing a first foot trochaic substitution. Topics discussed in this episode include: -Listen to my new episode with Matthew here ! -Check out Ethan McGuire's work here and here. -Check out Brian Brodeur's work here. -The Black Arts Movement -Brooks vs. Hayden -ANOTHER hybrid sonnet?? (No!) -…

Content Warning: Abortion, dead fetuses Mea culpa: Ugh, I should've said "volta italiana." What a philistine I am. Topics discussed in this episode include: -Lake View Cemetery and the Haserot Angel -Getting called out from beyond the grave -Come see me read! -Brian Brodeur! -My Great-Uncle, Elton Glaser -Buy Brian's latest book: Some Problems With…

Note: At the 19:27 mark, a word cuts out. That word is "specious!" Topics discussed in this episode include: -Make symposia happen! -Hey mom, I'm on Sleerickets ! -Also on Sleerickets here ! -The Inhumanism of Robinson Jeffers -Aspects of Metaphysical Poetry -The 20th century Donne revival -T.S. Eliot's essay The Metaphysical Poets -The Dissociatio…

PSA: No Versecraft next week! Sorry :( Also, the audio is a little crackly in the beginning, but smooths out after a few minutes. Topics discussed in this episode include: -Why the 1920's be like that -The Modernist rogues gallery -Flapper Poet Girl Gang -The Neo-Romantics -Contribute to the Make Versecraft A Legitimate Side Hustle Fund -Hag Pesach…

Topics discussed in this episode include: -Ernest Hilbert! -Robinson revisited -Sorry Matthew, it looks like I actually have the more controversial podcast. -You can listen to the Comedy Central Roast of Versecraft here. -The paradox of relativism -How (evaluative) Lit Crit works -Ernest's Heavy Metal poem -Buy Ernest's new book here -The Hilbertia…