Podcasts – Critical Readings

CR Episode 98: The Defence of Guenevere

11 October 2021 S. P. Cooper

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.

CR Episode 97: Elizabeth Barrett Browning on Love and Death

4 October 2021 S. P. Cooper

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.

CR Episode 96: Robert Browning’s Dramatic Verse

27 September 2021 S. P. Cooper

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.

CR Episode 95: Frank O’Hara and Modernism

20 September 2021 S. P. Cooper

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.

CR Episode 94: The Macabre Verse of Edward Gorey

13 September 2021 S. P. Cooper

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.

The Owl and the Pussycat, by Edward Lear

CR Episode 93: Edward Lear’s Complete Nonsense

30 August 2021 S. P. Cooper

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.

CR Episode 92: The Gothic Romanticism of Edgar Allan Poe

23 August 2021 S. P. Cooper

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.

CR Episode 91: Complexity in Geoffrey Hill

16 August 2021 S. P. Cooper

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.

Cherubim, Ladder of Virtues, and Tree of Penitence Manuscript

CR Episode 90: Canterbury Tales XII – The Parson’s Tale and Chaucer’s Retraction

9 August 2021 S. P. Cooper

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.

The Trial of Saint Cecilia by Domenichino

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Category: Podcasts