Reading and Writing

Adam Zagajewski

Wed, 15 Mar 2023 17:12:09 -0300

We talk about the life-affirming poems of Adam Zagajewski.

Frank Norris, McTeague

Sat, 13 Aug 2022 14:59:00 -0300

Claire and I have one of my favorite discussions about a very under-read book. We talk about the relationship between America and money, love and money, obsession, greed, expectations vs. reality, imagination vs. fantasy, nature, beauty, truth, hoarse-voiced entertainers on sub-par cruises, and lots more.

Robert Frost, ”Home Burial”

Tue, 09 Aug 2022 14:23:57 -0300

In this episode, I present a recording from a class in which students and I discuss Frost's masterpiece, "Home Burial."

Don Quixote

Mon, 01 Aug 2022 12:17:55 -0300

Claire and I talk about the strange wonderful pleasure of this book, focusing on the first 250 pages. More Cervantes discussions to come!

James Agee, Let Us Now Praise Famous Men

Sat, 02 Apr 2022 15:23:55 -0300

"Everything that is is holy." Translation: CLAIRE IS BACK!!!!!!

”As Kingfishers Catch Fire...”, a poem by GM Hopkins

Sun, 02 Jan 2022 16:28:14 -0400

Some students and I walk through Hopkins' poem, celebrating its particular pleasures and insights, as well as talking in general about how easy it is to access the strange mysterious power of a poem.

Hamlet

Wed, 03 Nov 2021 18:19:55 -0300

Who's there? Who are you? Why are you here? What is it all for? Are these the right questions? Can we even know?

How to Enjoy Poetry, and Why

Wed, 27 Oct 2021 19:13:19 -0300

I yammer on for a while about how inadequate any theory of poetry is, and then I think I end up outlining a tentative theory of poetry. Oops.

The Upanishads

Thu, 14 Oct 2021 22:01:03 -0300

I aim for a brief glimpse of the grandeur of these ancient scriptures, and think out loud about their central message: all is one. Along the way I ramble about death, unity, grief, the Self, the transcendent vs. the immanent, and more.

The Book of Chuang Tzu

Fri, 08 Oct 2021 16:04:33 -0300

In this episode, I talk for an entire hour as if I know something. I make many statements that have the cadence of "understanding," but mostly I'm just rambling about a very beautiful and fascinating book, The Book of Chuang Tzu. And the worse thing of all is that Claire--the only reason these recordings are worth listening to--isn't even here to stop me from rambling!

Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet

Fri, 24 Sep 2021 15:41:21 -0300

Claire and I swoon over our favorite bits of Romeo and Juliet, and discuss why this play is not a cautionary tale of unbridled passion and the excesses of youth, but rather a hymn to the redemptive powers of love itself.

Lawrence Durrell, Justine

Wed, 08 Sep 2021 19:09:20 -0300

Claire and I celebrate this under-read hidden gem, the first novel in Durrell's "Alexandria Quartet." We wander through topics like love, sex, memory, time, prose style, modernism, and much more.

Dante, Paradiso

Fri, 20 Aug 2021 17:22:56 -0300

Claire and I weep over the end of Dante's sublime poem and try to describe, in some small way, the power of his mystical vision of unity for the modern reader.

Dante, Purgatory

Fri, 30 Jul 2021 18:39:27 -0300

Claire and I climb the mountain of purgatory with Dante and Virgil and talk about pride, love, morality, freedom, pleasure, Christ, grief, trials, suffering, and lots lots more.

Dante, Inferno

Fri, 16 Jul 2021 13:33:00 -0300

Claire and I walk with Dante and Virgil through hell. Along the way, we talk about all manner of things: pity, sin, reading, love, exploration, tradition, heresy, truth, and most of all why Dante is important to us, just two common readers, in the 21st century.

Macbeth, by William Shakespeare

Mon, 05 Jul 2021 14:24:39 -0300

Check out my new book of poems here.

Claire and I fall under the spell of Shakespeare's Macbeth, and walk through some of our favorite moments in this play. Among other things, we talk about the dangers of the imagination, the nature of paradox and truth, the cyclical nature of tragedy, the milk of human kindness, the motif of blood, and the way Macbeth (and all of us) are torn between this life and the idea of the next. Along the way we ask if there are any glimmers of hope to be found in this, Shakespeare's darkest ode to humanity.

Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness

Wed, 23 Jun 2021 12:26:21 -0300

Claire and I swoon over one of our favorites, Conrad's Heart of Darkness. We talk about how and when to approach great books, what makes Conrad a master prose stylist, how this work subverts too-easy dichotomies of light and dark, Kurtz as a distillation of Europe, why Marlowe stays loyal to him, the horror of existence, the evil in every human heart, the dark power of nihilism, and what glimmers of light, if any, this novella offers as a source of hope.

Check out my new book of poems here.

Tao Te Ching, by Lao Tzu

Wed, 16 Jun 2021 13:37:41 -0300

Claire and I chat about our love for another ancient religious text, the Tao Te Ching. We talk about doing noble things simply, and simple things nobly. We also discuss ideas like emptiness, peace, humility, immateriality, fate, balance, how this text could be relevant for artists, writers, and parents, and what it could look like to live "the Way." Loosey-goosey, loosey-goosey...

Check out my new book of poems here.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Self-Reliance," and more.

Wed, 09 Jun 2021 16:17:58 -0300

Claire and I use Emerson's life-changing essay(s) to think out loud about genius, inspiration, instinct, truth, authority, failure, beauty, good and evil, history, the literary tradition, appropriation, America, and more.

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

Fri, 28 May 2021 19:19:12 -0300

Claire and I savor our favorite bits of the Meditations, and talk about the unity of all things, living in the moment, bearing our trials nobly, accepting pain as a part of life, how to think about change, what the duty of humans is, and much more. Also, Nietzsche somehow sneaks in to help us push back on some of Marcus Aurelius' claims, and to ask if Marcus Aurelius loves life enough, when forgetting is important and when it isn't, and how to find a balance between acceptance and hope.

Check out my new book of poems here.

Bob Dylan

Mon, 24 May 2021 09:40:26 -0300

Happy 80th Birthday Bob Dylan!!!

Check out Claire's art, music, and writing here: https://www.claireakebrandart.com/

The Bhagavad Gita

Wed, 19 May 2021 22:56:03 -0300

Check out Claire's art, music, and writing here: https://www.claireakebrandart.com/

Claire and I celebrate the Hindu epic scripture the Bhagavad Gita. We talk about the indescribability of the divine, what it means to perform worship and feel awe, the unity of all things, the divinity inside each of us, the doctrine of karma, and many practical injunctions on how to live, including detaching ourselves from the fruits of our actions, meditation, selfless service, praise, and whether or not there might be something good about the extremes of desire and passion and pain.

John Steinbeck, The Pearl

Fri, 07 May 2021 23:29:03 -0300

Claire and I talk about Steinbeck's novella The Pearl, and consider the genre of parable, the downside of dreams, the risks of interpretation, the poisonous nature of desire, our exile from Eden, the dangers of wealth and fame, utopian thinking, Hamlet's claim that "there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so," and more.

Masterpieces of World Literature, Final Thoughts

Mon, 19 Apr 2021 12:32:18 -0300

A few final thoughts.

Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot

Wed, 14 Apr 2021 14:11:59 -0300

This time I chat with Spencer, Steven, and Cecilia about Beckett's play Waiting for Godot. We talk about silence, meaning, nothingness, God, nihilism, play, love, friendship, endurance, suicide, amnesia, King Lear, Charlie Chaplin, happiness, and more!

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago, Part 2

Mon, 12 Apr 2021 09:44:43 -0300

Emily, Allie, and I talk about more sections of Solzhenitsyn's The Gulag Archipelago. We discuss the value of literature as a witness to human pain, the dangers of ideology, what it means to take responsibility for our suffering, how Solzhenitsyn could end up saying "bless you, prison," the power of small individual actions, how one book can change the world, and much more.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago, Part 1

Thu, 08 Apr 2021 21:13:41 -0300

Carter and I discuss some early chunks of Solzhenitsyn's The Gulag Archipelago, and consider the implications of the archipelago metaphor, why it's valuable to read about atrocities, why this book has such lyrical power, what happens when we do not value freedom enough, Solzhenitsyn's provocative claim that the Gulag inmates "deserved everything" that happened to them, the dangers of lying, the consequences of political ideology, and much more.

Check out Claire's music, art, and writing here: www.claireakebrandart.com

Shakespeare, As You Like It

Mon, 05 Apr 2021 10:19:11 -0300

Emma, Rachel, and I enthuse over As You Like It. We chat about what it can teach us about writing poetry in the 21st century, in what ways poetry can delight and instruct, how Shakespeare manages to conjure believable humans, what literary irony is, why Rosalind is so captivating, why Orlando's poetry is bad, in what ways all the world is a stage, how the play itself refutes its most famous soliloquy, and much more.

Camus, The Plague, Part 2

Mon, 05 Apr 2021 10:19:00 -0300

Ysa and Ethan help me celebrate the beautiful conclusion of Camus' novel The Plague. We talk about the problem of evil and suffering, how Christianity can be kept honest, how we can choose between accepting everything or denying everything, what it means to attain a happiness that knows death, in what ways we are all called upon to be healers, why there are more things in humans to admire than to despise, what it means that "the plague" never really goes away, and much more.

Walt Whitman, Song of Myself

Mon, 29 Mar 2021 09:35:59 -0300

Ysa, Emily, and I celebrate Whitman's masterpiece Song of Myself. We talk about what it feels like to stand in the presence of great art, what makes Whitman's poetry timeless and democratic, what aspects of his poem we can still use as models in the 21st century, how to make truth statements in poetry, how to use abstractions, how to notice moments of quiet beauty, what the poem's rhythmical power is, and much more.

Camus, the Myth of Sisyphus, and The Plague, part 1

Sat, 27 Mar 2021 17:27:53 -0300

Porter, Nathan and I talk first about Camus's parable "The Myth of Sisyphus." We describe why life can rightly be called "absurd," and ask how it's possible to be happy even in pointless or futile struggle. We then touch briefly on the first half of Camus's The Plague, asking how this novel might display Sisyphean attitudes, why it opens with a suicide attempt, how the emotional struggles of these characters map our to our own during the COVID-19 pandemic, whether it makes sense to blame an omnipotent deity for such catastrophes, why it might be a bad idea to wear pajamas during Zoom calls, and much more.

Robert Frost 2

Mon, 22 Mar 2021 10:44:56 -0300

Remy and Kelly and I swoon over a few more Frost masterpieces, and talk about how poems offer temporary stays against confusion. We examine metrical variation, the relationship between the specific and the universal, the importance of getting lost, how poetry can turn the mundane into the sacred, how to rhyme well, how life imitates art, and much more.

Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own

Sun, 21 Mar 2021 21:36:36 -0300

I chat with Calli and Brenna about Woolf's A Room of One's Own. We ask why it's hard to create literary masterpieces and what particular obstacles women have faced through the centuries. We consider Woolf's claim that "it would have been impossible...for any woman to have written the plays of Shakespeare in the age of Shakespeare." Then we react to her admonition to give voice to Shakespeare's sister, and ask what excuses we (men included) really have not to try, what progress has been made in the past hundred years, what are the dangers of hate and resentment, why it might be a mistake for anyone who writes to think of their gender, and much more.

Charlie Chaplin, The Kid

Fri, 19 Mar 2021 16:30:14 -0300

Taylor and Conner and I chat about Chaplin's masterpiece The Kid. We discuss a few things films can do that books can't, what aspects of film Chaplin perfected that are still around, the balance of comedy and tragedy, what makes this film "Modern," what it has to say about urban life in America, why we love the character of the Tramp even in his vices, where evil comes from, why we should distrust utopias, and how much power we actually have, despite suffering and poverty, to make the world better.

Robert Frost 1

Wed, 17 Mar 2021 16:16:13 -0300

Esther, Alexander and I chat about three of our favorite Frost poems. We examine what specifically makes them so beautiful, including: rhythm and meter, sonic texture, the power of monosyllables, universality in poetry, aphoristic wisdom, the tension between form and content, Frost's darker side, dialectical tensions in poetry, tone, and much more.

Kafka, The Metamorphosis

Sat, 13 Mar 2021 11:58:46 -0400

#WeAreAllRatLickers

Tolstoy, The Death of Ivan Ilyich

Thu, 11 Mar 2021 10:47:33 -0400

Melissa, Sydney, and I talk about death. What does it mean to think well about death? How much can we or should we think about our eventual demise? Should we live every day as if we were dying? Even if we could, would this be desirable? Why might it be healthy to be close to death, and how should we react to deaths of those around us? To help us answer these questions, and many others, we consider Tolstoy's brilliant novella, and highlight many of its most beautiful, funny, and heartbreaking moments.

Dostoevsky, The Grand Inquisitor, 2

Mon, 08 Mar 2021 09:55:03 -0400

I chat with Baylie and Makayla about why life is worth living. We explore Father Zosima's life as an embodied refutation to Ivan Karamazov's rational arguments about the nature of suffering. We consider how each person is indeed responsible for the sins of all people everywhere, why this attitude will lead to salvation, why Christ is such a potent model for how to live in the world, how to react to suffering, why birds, leaves, and trees make life worth living, why the earth deserves to be kissed, how heaven is within us, and the salvific power of love. To borrow from Whitman: "Happiness, not in another place but this place...not for another hour, but this hour."

Dostoevsky, The Grand Inquisitor, 1

Mon, 08 Mar 2021 09:53:09 -0400

I chat with Liam and Elizabeth about Ivan Karamazov's objections to life and the world. We consider the ubiquity of human suffering, and agree with Ivan that if we had to found a universal harmony on the tears of one child, we would not do it. After this we chat about Ivan's "poem" and explore the relationship between freedom and suffering, the ways in which this text predicts the totalitarian mindset, and the mysterious significance of Christ's kiss.

Sylvia Plath, Ariel

Sun, 07 Mar 2021 21:36:49 -0400

Kailey, Lydia and I talk about Sylvia Plath's Ariel. We consider only a few of the ways this "autobiography of a fever" achieves its most daring effects: metaphor, pronouns, vivid imagery, provocative plainness, and repetitions combined with variation. We consider her bee poems as a series of ars poetica, and explore the possibility that her most famous poems might actually be overshadowing her best poems.

Dostoevsky, Notes from Underground

Mon, 01 Mar 2021 10:04:22 -0400

Jacob, Felix, and I chat about Dostoevsky's Notes From Underground. We discuss how reliable this narrator is, why humans can sometimes enjoy pain and despair, what causes us to act knowingly against our own self-interest, the dangers of Utopian thinking, the limits of human improvement, the relationship between free will and suffering, the limits of reason, the problem of proving the existence of God, what a "whole life" means, and much more.

Derek Walcott 2

Sun, 28 Feb 2021 21:24:01 -0400

Josh and Heather and I talk about a few of our favorite Derek Walcott poems, and the reasons why they're so great. We discuss how being more specific actually helps poems be more universal; what makes the typical Walcott line so taut and vivid; how and why poets can echo the great poets of the past, and much more.

Mary Shelley, Frankenstein

Mon, 22 Feb 2021 09:57:50 -0400

I chat with Tacey and Cassidy about Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein. We discuss some relevant details of Shelley's life, the novel's innovative structure, the Prometheus myth, the dangers of knowledge, what counts as a human and what counts as a monster, the blank slate theory, nature vs nurture, what makes this novel "Romantic," how it rebels against key Enlightenment tenets, where cruelty comes from, how this novel invented many modern sci-fi tropes, and much more.

Derek Walcott, part 1

Mon, 22 Feb 2021 09:56:50 -0400

William and I enjoy a few early poems by Derek Walcott, and talk about the relationship between talent and practice, how to load your poem with surprises, how to write politically without being didactic, what it means to increase the emotional stakes in a poem, what the bare minimum ingredients for a great poem might be, how to make the particulars of your life seem significant and universal, and much more.

Wordsworth, Tintern Abbey

Thu, 18 Feb 2021 10:01:54 -0400

I swoon with Claire over maybe the best poem in English, and talk about its strange non-title, what makes this poem "Romantic," the relationship between the self and nature, between the past and the present, and between childhood and adulthood. We consider Wordsworth's claim that "all which we behold is full of blessings," how the mind can become a mansion full of lovely forms, and come to the conclusion that every single second of our lives is a potential masterpiece.

John Keats, Ode to a Nightingale

Thu, 18 Feb 2021 09:59:59 -0400

Claire and I chat about maybe the best poem in English, and discuss Romanticism and its varieties, death and immortality, why "but to think is to be full of sorrow," why we long for nature yet feel exiled from it, Eden and its aftermath, how the form of this poem helps contribute to its greatness, why a life of sensations can be more attractive than a life of thoughts, our failed attempt to make a Keats pilgrimage, and more.

Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities, 3

Mon, 15 Feb 2021 09:42:22 -0400

Zach and Kevin and I celebrate the conclusion of Dickens' novel A Tale of Two Cities. We talk about the transformation of Sydney Carton, the rage of Madame Defarge, the heroism of Miss. Pross, how giving even one person comfort counts as success in life, and how important it is to recognize both the hero and villain inside each of us. Throughout, we ask maybe the most important question: what does it mean to live "a life you love"?

Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities, 2

Mon, 15 Feb 2021 09:42:07 -0400

I chat with Liberty and Eliza about the middle third of Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities. We discuss which characters appeal to us the most, the relationship between vengeance and justice, how to overcome the desire for vengeance, and why keeping a list of offenses committed against us is a bad way to live. We also chat about mob mentality and connect this novel to recent events at the US Capitol building: what explains the phenomenon of mob mentality, and how can we balance the benefits of joining collective causes without surrendering our own agency to the momentum of the mob? Lastly, we emphasize the need for mercy--even extreme mercy--towards those who hurt us.

Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities, Part 1

Sun, 07 Feb 2021 18:43:55 -0400

I chat with Megan and Maura about the first 3rd of Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities. We discuss why its opening sentence has become one of the most famous sentences in English, the pros and cons of presenting history through fiction, what makes Dickens' style so appealing, how the first sections of this novel depict both French and English society, and much more.

Elizabeth Bishop, Geography III

Sun, 07 Feb 2021 18:43:08 -0400

Hannah and Rachel and I enthuse over the poetry of Elizabeth Bishop. We read a few of our favorites, and talk about what makes them so beautiful: their mixture of images and abstractions, their emotional restraint, their ultra-specificity, their irony, the way poetic form can mirror content, Bishop's approach to biographical writing, epiphanies, and maybe the most important trait to acquire as a poet: patience.

Wahmanholm, Redmouth

Sun, 31 Jan 2021 18:45:32 -0400

Sarah, Janaya and I swoon over Claire Wahmanholm's Redmouth, and talk about surprises in poetry, and things like diction, mystery, white space, erasure poetry, how to convey emotions and ideas through images and sounds, how living poets should relate to the tradition, and much more.

Cervantes, Don Quixote

Fri, 29 Jan 2021 15:51:40 -0400

Brooklyn, Riley, and I chat about parts of Don Quixote, asking questions about the nature of fiction and the novel as a genre, honesty, the imagination, idealism vs realism, why books can be dangerous, why the crazy knight and his squire are among the most famous characters in all literature, how ambitious we should be, the difference between ambition and delusion, and much more.

Wisława Szymborska, part 2

Mon, 25 Jan 2021 12:37:05 -0400

Torrin and Brooklyn and I swoon over more of our favorite Szymborska poems, and talk about sentimentality in poetry, the importance of surprise, looking at familiar things from new perspectives, the value of the everyday, how to turn anything into a poem, and more.

King Lear, Act 5

Sun, 24 Jan 2021 21:51:51 -0400

In this final recording about King Lear, I chat with Maile and Reagan about Act 5. We ask ourselves if this play is too sad, if ripeness is all, if the gods are just, what Lear has learned about life and love, what true repentance looks like, whether or not Cordelia is dead, what exactly Lear dies of at the end, and much more. At the end of this recording I offer a few concluding words about the play, and ask one final question about it, maybe the most important and provocative question of all.

King Lear, Act 4

Sun, 24 Jan 2021 21:46:59 -0400

Noelle and Baylee and I enthuse over Act 4 of King Lear, and chat about whether the gods are cruel or gentle, where heavenly spirits are to be found, the relationship between madness and wisdom, if true forgiveness has to be earned, and much more.

King Lear, Act 3

Thu, 21 Jan 2021 12:12:40 -0400

Sally and I swoon over the 3rd act of King Lear, and talk about anger, sin, the battle between the generations, "why we maybe should say "OK boomer," what it means to make moral progress in life, the difference between humans and animals, why we act worse than animals sometimes, noble sacrifices, why bad things happen to good people, why small groups of people can often tyrannize majorities, and much more.

King Lear, Act 2

Thu, 21 Jan 2021 12:11:58 -0400

Anna and Iain and I chat about Act 2 of King Lear, and talk about identity, authority, hospitality, how maybe some "wants" are actually "needs," what makes humans different from other animals, the nature of charity and compassion, and much more.

Wisława Szymborska, part 1

Sun, 10 Jan 2021 12:37:13 -0400

This time, my wife Claire Akebrand and I celebrate the first half of Wisława Szymborska's collected poems, titled Map. We read a few of our favorites, and talk about "poetic" language vs colloquial language, clarity, humor, irony, punctuation, imagery, how to make your poems appeal to a universal humanity, the importance of not knowing and embracing the unknown, how to push the thinking in your poems farther, and much more. Along the way, Claire reads a Szymborska poem that moves her to tears, and we offer a few Szymborska-inspired writing prompts.

King Lear, Act 1

Thu, 07 Jan 2021 15:56:34 -0400

In this first of five podcasts about King Lear, Claire and I examine the play's first act, and talk about love, performance, sincerity, authority, parents and children, gratitude, the fool, comedy, nature, what makes a good king, what the past owes the present (and vice versa), and much else.

How to Read, and Why: Azar Nafisi's Reading Lolita in Tehran

Fri, 01 Jan 2021 10:32:14 -0400

How should we read books? Why should we read them at all? To help us answer these questions, Claire and I turn to Azar Nafisi's Reading Lolita in Tehran, and talk about the freedom to read, reading for pleasure, escapism, why we get joy from reading about horrible things, the relationship between reading and moral instruction, the importance of talking and writing about what you read, and much more.

James Baldwin, Giovanni’s Room

Mon, 28 Dec 2020 12:06:06 -0400

Check out Claire's music, art, and writing here: www.claireakebrandart.com

I chat with Claire about James Baldwin's novel Giovanni's Room. We swoon over a few of its best passages and reflect on some of its major themes: sexuality, masculinity, love and romance, Americans' strange concept of time, how to say "yes" to life, sources of hope, and much more.

E. M. Forster, Passage to India

Tue, 22 Dec 2020 14:22:05 -0400

Check out my new book of poems here.

Claire and I savor Forster's Passage to India, and talk about cross-cultural friendships, colonialism, nihilistic echoes, salvific One-ness, the importance of laughing even (or especially) at your most cherished beliefs, the power of merriment, and more.

Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities

Thu, 17 Dec 2020 12:19:55 -0400

Check out my new book of poems here.

Claire and I wander through Calvino's Invisible Cities, and talk about the problem of language, the superstition of travel, parables, why humans love imagining their own absence, how to avoid living in an inferno, one of our favorite concluding paragraphs ever, and more.

Kawabata, Snow Country

Wed, 09 Dec 2020 17:34:28 -0400

This week, Claire and I savor Yasunari Kawabata's Snow Country, and talk about its dream-like quality, its fusion of opposites, ideas of emptiness, openness, oneness, beautifulness, its conception of love and death, and ask what the meaning of life is according to this novel.

Jane Austen, Persuasion

Fri, 27 Nov 2020 12:27:15 -0400

Check out Claire's art, music, and writing here: https://www.claireakebrandart.com/

Claire and I swoon over one of our favorite novels, and talk about its narrative technique, its subtlety, the moral importance of being persuadable, the pitfalls of giving and taking advice, the value of traditions, the wisdom of not rebelling, and much else.

Shakespeare: Four Soliloquies

Thu, 19 Nov 2020 11:14:54 -0400

Benjamin and I delight in four of our favorite Shakespeare soliloquies. We talk about the genre of drama vs. the lyric, why Shakespeare's language hasn't really aged, the power of lists, the relationship between thinking and speaking, Shakespeare's "infinite variety," turns in poems, how to let your poems teach you, and what it would mean to write as if your life depended on it--literally.

Hamlet's To Be or Not to Be: a Close Reading

Tue, 17 Nov 2020 16:16:58 -0400

In this mini podcast, I take apart the most famous passage in English literature. I examine the formal and linguistic patterns or structures that help make this soliloquy beautiful and incantatory. I also ask how its content can help explain the passage's enduring fame, and how both its content and form can give all aspiring writers something to strive for.

Andrew Marvell

Thu, 12 Nov 2020 19:52:09 -0400

Claire and I walk through Marvell's gardens, stumbling over melons, and chat about: irony vs sincerity, carpe diem, time's winged chariot, the power of imagination, daily falls from Eden, variation in prosody, and more. We briefly lament the difficulties of "Upon Appleton House," and ask how private a poem can get and still be great. Also, a fit of hubris comes over me, and I end up, for some reason, reading some of my own poetry.

John Keats

Fri, 06 Nov 2020 13:50:05 -0400

Danny and I try to load every rift of a brief conversation with Keatsian ore. We talk about the importance of beauty, lush imagery, vowel sounds, the form of the great odes, poetic empathy, and more.

Tomas Tranströmer

Fri, 30 Oct 2020 16:00:40 -0300

My wife Claire Akebrand and I chat about why we love the poetry of Tomas Tranströmer. We talk about translation, "enigmatic" poetry, how poetry changes our perspective on life, the problem of "interpreting" poems, and more.

Emily Dickinson (ENGL 669)

Tue, 27 Oct 2020 11:48:26 -0300

Sam and I celebrate more poems by Emily Dickinson, including some lesser-known masterpieces. We talk about bees, the moon, diadems, color, contrast, oxymoron, how to write honestly about faith and doubt, why true poems flee, what do make of those dashes, why we should feel extra lucky to have her poems, and much more.

Emily Dickinson (ENGL 218)

Tue, 20 Oct 2020 14:17:00 -0300

Niels and April and I savor the lush mysteries of Dickinson's poems, and talk about images, abstractions, subversion, surprise, being true to emotion, the music of poetry, how to imitate Dickinson in the 21st century, and much else.

Seamus Heaney, part 2

Fri, 16 Oct 2020 15:40:03 -0300

Brady and I chat about some of our favorite Heaney poems, and cover topics like hopefulness in literature, sonnets, poetic form, how and when to "break the rules," and more.

Rainer Maria Rilke, Duino Elegies

Fri, 16 Oct 2020 12:47:42 -0300

Liz and I swoon over Rilke's angels, and talk about where poems come from, what language does, why beauty is terrifying, and what humans are for. Small technical difficulties left in for metaphorical purposes.

Seamus Heaney, Part 1

Wed, 14 Oct 2020 14:52:55 -0300

Berenisse and Blair and I celebrate the poems of Seamus Heaney, and talk about images, sound, surprise, cliché, telling the truth, and much else.

H. P. Lovecraft, At the Mountains of Madness, Part 2

Fri, 09 Oct 2020 17:15:17 -0300

Melissa and Ben and I enthuse over the ending of At the Mountains of Madness, and talk about foreshadowing, narrative pacing and framing, dialog (or the lack thereof), why it might be better not to show your monsters than to show them, and much more.

T. S. Eliot, Four Quartets

Thu, 08 Oct 2020 14:34:28 -0300

I swoon with Erin and Maryn over Four Quartets. We discuss how to not let the supposed "difficulty" of this poem distract you from its very accessible power and beauty, and cover topics like time, awe, God, repetition, abstraction, music, tradition, influence, the false god of originality, the general problem of being alive and how Four Quartets can help us cope. Plus, a very special treat at minute 34 (get out your fancy headphones!).

H. P. Lovecraft, At the Mountains of Madness, Part 1

Tue, 06 Oct 2020 11:40:37 -0300

I chat with Lenicka and Patrick about the weird and wonderful At the Mountains of Madness by H. P. Lovecraft. We talk about how to build suspense, foreshadowing, "the willing suspension of disbelief," plot structure, diction, setting, and more.

Hermann Hesse, Siddhartha, Part 2

Fri, 02 Oct 2020 12:24:09 -0300

Adam and I swoon over the magnificent ending of Siddhartha, and talk about journeying into the unknown, archetypes in fiction and in our lives, character change, balance between ambition and living in the present, how there is no such thing as time, and much more.

W. B. Yeats

Fri, 02 Oct 2020 12:18:18 -0300

Cozi and I chat about some of our favorite Yeats poems and discuss poetic form, the importance of being honest as a poet, how to write lasting political poetry, sublime beauty, poetry as ecstasy, and more.

Hermann Hesse, Siddhartha, Part 1

Tue, 29 Sep 2020 23:10:41 -0300

Ally and Colin and I savor the first half of Hesse's novel, and talk about the hero's journey, how tension can fuel plot, tips for writing good dialog, the call to adventure, at more.

Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea, Part 2

Fri, 25 Sep 2020 14:29:04 -0300

Ella and I praise the 2nd half of The Old Man and the Sea, and stray into topics such as the risks of ambition, the value of failure, symbolism in literature, and more.

Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea, Part 1

Tue, 22 Sep 2020 22:27:50 -0300

Kate and Gabe and I cover the first half of The Old Man and the Sea. We discuss some of our favorite moments, as well as concepts like characterization, character foils, hypotaxis and parataxis, setting, and more.

Zbigniew Herbert Part 2

Mon, 21 Sep 2020 12:22:27 -0300

Becky and Alex and I talk about the poems of Zbigniew Herbert, reading a few of our favorites, and asking questions about irony, humor, minimalism, how to know what not to say, the relationship between reading and writing, and more.

Nabokov Part 2

Fri, 18 Sep 2020 14:57:17 -0300

Sarah and I discuss the various delights of Nabokov's Speak, Memory, especially the later sections, and highlight the book's strange structure, the idea of writing down trauma, Nabokov's tortured writing process, the use of 2nd person narration, and much more.

Wallace Stevens

Wed, 09 Sep 2020 21:32:30 -0300

Check out Claire's music, art, and writing here: www.claireakebrandart.com

Claire and I talk about how poetry makes death matter slightly less.

Zbigniew Herbert

Thu, 03 Sep 2020 22:00:35 -0300

Polish poetry week continues as Claire and I savor the work of Zbigniew Herbert.

The Poetry of Czesław Miłosz.

Tue, 01 Sep 2020 18:47:21 -0300

Claire and I swoon over the poetry of Czesław Miłosz.

Nabokov's Memory

Thu, 27 Aug 2020 21:52:48 -0300

Claire and I swoon over Nabokov's Speak Memory, and what this book can teach us about writing down our own memories.

David Foster Wallace on a Cruise

Thu, 27 Aug 2020 21:32:50 -0300

Claire and I talk about David Foster Wallace's essay "A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again."

David Foster Wallace at the State Fair

Wed, 26 Aug 2020 14:55:51 -0300

In this class, I talk with my wife Claire Akebrand about David Foster Wallace's essay "Getting Away from Already Being Pretty Much Away from It All."