Rusty Sonnets

Hello all! Rusty Sonnets is leaving Soundcloud. It's been a while since I posted and it simply isn't worth paying about eighty pounds a year to keep it running. That said, it should still be available on other platforms and I will also be uploading it to archive dot org where it should hopefully remain in perpetuity. Apologies to anyone that still listens on SoundCloud, but again, you should be able to listen elsewhere. Once I have uploaded the episodes to archive I will post the link here in this episode description and on the landing page. Cheers, Niall.

It’s been a while but Rusty Sonnets sneaks in a final track for 2020. This episode looks at the angsty Dover honeymoon of the Victorian poet Matthew Arnold.

This week’s Rusty Sonnets marks the fourth episode of our monthly Paradise Lost Book Club. Always wanted to read Paradise Lost but felt the great tome was a little bit too daunting? Well, let’s all read it together. We’ll be looking at one book(chapter)every month until we finish with Book 12 in December. You can listen to the other parts here: soundcloud.com/rustysonnets/sets/paradise-lost-book-club If you enjoy the podcast you can buy me a coffee via my Ko-Fi page: ko-fi.com/niallosullivan

This week’s Rusty Sonnets marks the third episode of our monthly Paradise Lost Book Club. Always wanted to read Paradise Lost but felt the great tome was a little bit too daunting? Well, let’s all read it together. We’ll be looking at one book(chapter)every month until we finish with Book 12 in December. You can listen to the other parts here: https://soundcloud.com/rustysonnets/sets/paradise-lost-book-club If you enjoy the podcast you can buy me a coffee via my Ko-Fi page: ko-fi.com/niallosullivan

This week’s Rusty Sonnets marks the second episode of our monthly Paradise Lost Book Club. Always wanted to read Paradise Lost but felt the great tome was a little bit too daunting? Well, let’s all read it together. We’ll be looking at one book(chapter)every month until we finish with Book 12 in December. You can listen to part 1 here: https://soundcloud.com/rustysonnets/rusty-sonnets-paradise-lost-book-club-part-1 If you enjoy the podcast you can buy me a coffee via my Ko-Fi page: ko-fi.com/niallosullivan

On this week's Rusty Sonnets we look into George Eliot's musing of the selfless "bubble world" in her unpublished poem, I Give You Ample Leave. I then end the podcast by instructing the listener in how to experience Douglas Harding's Headless Way. Are you enjoying Rusty Sonnets? You can support my work by buying me a coffee via my Ko-Fi account: https://ko-fi.com/niallosullivan

This week’s Rusty Sonnets marks the first episode of our monthly Paradise Lost Book Club. Always wanted to read Paradise Lost but felt the great tome was a little bit too daunting? Well, let’s all read it together. We’ll be looking at one book(chapter)every month until we finish with Book 12 in December. If you enjoy the podcast you can buy me a coffee via my Ko-Fi page: https://ko-fi.com/niallosullivan

Welcome to our late Christmas episode of Rusty Sonnets! Today we look at the Jesuit martyr Robert Southwell and his nightmarish vision of the spirit of Christmas Day. Yes, I know that Christmas was an eternity ago but it’s not like I’m getting paid for this! Tune in next week for the first monthly instalment of the Paradise Lost Book Club. If you enjoy the podcast you can buy me a coffee via my Ko-Fi page: https://ko-fi.com/niallosullivan

In this week’s Rusty Sonnets we look for optimism from a seemingly unexpected source, the pessimistic poet and novelist, Thomas Hardy. 00.00 Intro and background 10.12 Song of Hope by Thomas Hardy 11.19 Analysis 32.04 W.O.O.O!!! If you enjoy the podcast you can buy me a coffee via my Ko-Fi page: https://ko-fi.com/niallosullivan

In today’s Rusty Sonnets we ask whether virtue can accompany poverty by visiting the witty, down to earth poetry of Oxford’s first postmistress, Mary Jones. 0.00 Intro and background 07.35 Soliloquy on an Empty Purse by Mary Jones 09.50 Analysis 37.23 W.O.O.O!!!

Today we look at Manley Hopkins’s sonnet on how wrestling with despair is actually a grapple with God. I then wander off on one about wrestling. 00.00 Intro and Background 20.35 Carrion Comfort by Gerard Manley Hopkins 22.10 Analysis 40.35 WOOOO!!! If you enjoy the podcast you can buy me a coffee via my Ko-Fi page: https://ko-fi.com/niallosullivan

In today’s Rusty Sonnets we look at a tender lament from a famed swashbuckler and explorer who was perhaps more of a wrongun, Sir Walter Raleigh. 00.00 Intro and background 09.53 To his Sonne by Sir Walter Raliegh 10.50 Analysis 21.39 WOOO!!! If you enjoy the podcast you can buy me a coffee via my Ko-Fi page: https://ko-fi.com/niallosullivan

This week we look at a lyrical description of a bustling Indian market and ask whether it’s a subtle work of propaganda from one of the central figures of Indian independence, Sarojini Naidu. Intro 00.00 In the Bazaars of Hyderabad by Sarojini Naidu 14.04 Analysis 15.37 W.O.O.O. 32.48

In this week’s Rusty Sonnets we muse on whether or not we really want more life with Algernon Charles Swinburne’s ode to Mrs Death (who is also little Mrs Springtime), The Garden of Proserpine. If you enjoy the podcast you can buy me a coffee via my Ko-Fi page: https://ko-fi.com/niallosullivan

After a little break we return with a dip into the multifaceted musings of poet, playwright, novelist, art collector and Modernist salon extraordinaire, Gertrude Stein. Intro and background 00.00 Tender Buttons by Gertrude Stein 21.31 Analysis 29.53 Niall Wanders Off On One....Woooo!!! 52.05

Today’s Rusty Sonnets looks at Ode to a Nightingale by John Keats, a poem about the unreachable beauties of nature and the failure or deception of the poet in recreating the song of a nightingale. If you enjoy the podcast you can buy me a coffee via my Ko-Fi page: https://ko-fi.com/niallosullivan

When a sonnet about your crush is also a potential act of treason, it’s always handy to present it as a translation of a poem about a deer. Today’s Rusty Sonnets explores the intrigues of Henry VIII’s court with a poem from the man that is often credited with bringing the sonnet to England, Sir Thomas Wyatt. 00.00 Intro and background 13.10 Whoso list to hunt, I know where is an hind... by Sir Thomas Wyatt 14.10 Analysis 35.58 Niall Wanders Off On One Wooo!!!

Today we return to the days of the Harlem Renaissance and look at a poem by the poet, teacher, journalist and activist Alice Dunbar Nelson. 00.00 Intro and background 11.27 I Sit and Sew by Alice Dunbar Nelson 12.55 Analysis 29.20 Niall Wanders Off On One ...Wooo!!! If you enjoy the podcast you can buy me a coffee via my Ko-Fi page: https://ko-fi.com/niallosullivan

Today we get back to my favourite author, Anonymous, and an early oral ballad that brings an unfamiliar slant to the story of the nativity. 00.00 Intro and background 06.21 The Cherry Tree Carol by Anonymous 08.00 Analysis 29.40 Niall Wanders Off On One... Wooo!!!

Today we look at a poem from a time when an abundance of fruit meant more than your 5-a-day, Goblin Market by Christina Rossetti. 00.00 Intro 12.25 Goblin Market by Christina Rossetti 31.38 Analysis 54.40 Niall Wanders Off On One ...Wooo!!! Poem: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44996/goblin-market

The summer hiatus is over and Rusty Sonnets is back with a salacious tale of envy, power and murder, My Last Duchess by Robert Browning. 00.00 Intro 09.35 My Last Duchess by Robert Browning 13.10 Analysis 40.00 Niall Wanders Off On One.... Wooo!!! If you enjoy the podcast you can buy me a coffee via my Ko-Fi page: https://ko-fi.com/niallosullivan

It is with regret that, due to summer holiday childcare, I have to put the Rusty Sonnets podcast on the back burner. I will be back on the 7th of September. In the meantime, here’s a little 15 minute waffle about the podcast, where it came from, where it’s going and why poetry is the most egalitarian art form.

This week we look at Thomas Gray's Elegy, an elegy that that strays from tradition in how it celebrates a people rather than a person. 00:00 Intro and background 09:36 Gray's Elegy 17:34 Analysis 38:58 Niall Wanders Off One....Wooo!!! Poem: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44299/elegy-written-in-a-country-churchyard If you enjoy the podcast you can buy me a coffee via my Ko-Fi page: https://ko-fi.com/niallosullivan

Rusty Sonnets #17 - The Tyger by William Blake This week we visit one of the brightest burning lights of the Romantic era, William Blake, and look at how his most famous poem both is and isn’t about a tiger. 00.00 Intro and background 18.07 The Tyger by William Blake 19.30 Analysis 42.44 Niall Wanders Off On One ...Wooo!

Today we look at a poem from the first African American to publish a book of poems, Phillis Wheatley. We look at her exceptional yet tragic life story and tease out the subtle arguments from her poem, On Being Brought from Africa to America. 00.00 Intro and Background 14.26 On Being Brought from Africa to America by Phillis Wheatley 15.06 analysis 27.36 Niall Wanders Off On One.... Wooo! Poem: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45465/on-being-brought-from-africa-to-america If you enjoy the podcast you can buy me a coffee via my Ko-Fi page: https://ko-fi.com/niallosullivan

This week we do something a little bit different and look at two poems that were written as part of a little private contest. Ozymandias by Percy Shelley and Ozymandias by Horace Smith. 00.00 Intro and Background 17.37 Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley 18.47 Ozymandias by Horace Smith 19.43 Analysis 35.00 Niall Wanders Off on One... Wooo!!! Shelley's poem: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46565/ozymandias Smith's poem: http://www.potw.org/archive/potw192.html

Hello! This week, a little bit after the D-Day commemorations we look at the poetry of Keith Douglas and ask why we don’t give as much attention to the Second World War poets as we do to the poets of the Great War. 00.00 Intro and background 17.26 How to Kill by Keith Douglas 18.55 Analysis 35.35 Niall Wanders Off On One... Wooo!!!

This week we are finally getting round to the work of Emily Dickinson. Her poems might seem fleeting and brief on the first read but they show that there's plenty to get your teeth into when you slow down and savour her dashes and fragments. Also, I get so carried away that I keep on saying "Shaft of light" rather than "Slant of light" which is annoying but a pain to edit out. 00.00 Intro and background 17.09 There's a Certain Slant of Light by Emily Dickinson 18.04 Analysis 43.25 Niall Wanders Off on One.... Wooo!!! Poem: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45723/theres-a-certain-slant-of-light-320

This week we hang around the Renaissance and get to know the bricklayer, actor, critic, playwright and all round bad boy Ben Jonson. We look at his poem about grief and how his skilful handling of language slows the poem down before I go off one one about Kant, Einstein and how we can actually control time. 00.00 Intro and background 19.20 Slow, Slow Fresh Fount by Ben Jonson 20.15 Analysis 35.35 Niall Wanders Off on One.... Wooo!!! Poem: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/50680/slow-slow-fresh-fount

This week we go back to the Renaissance to look at one of the first sonnet sequences to be penned in English by a woman, Pamphilia to Amphilanthus by Lady Mary Wroth. The sequence includes a crown of sonnets among many others written in the much more challenging Italian style. While many sonnets written by men to women at the time praised their muses for their “constancy” the speaker in this sequence is a woman imploring her make muse to be the same. Oh, and the object of her affections might also have previous form for being the muse for a sequence of sonnets on unrequited love... 00.00 - Intro and background 19.59 - From Pamphilia to Amphilanthus by Lady Mary Wroth 21.05 - Analysis 37.55 - Niall Wanders Off On One.... Wooo! Link (last poem in the entire sequence): http://www.luminarium.org/renascence-editions/mary.html

Being that it’s Walt Whitman’s 200th Birthday in just under a week’s time, he seemed an obvious choice for today’s episode. Today’s poem is a pastoral elegy that mourns Abraham Lincoln and the many dead of the American Civil war. 00.00 Intro and background 13.10 When Lilacs Once in the Dooryard Bloom'd by Walt Whitman 27.05 Analysis 35.13 Niall Wanders Off On One....Wooo! Poem: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45480/when-lilacs-last-in-the-dooryard-bloomd Allen Ginsberg in London - Ah Sunflower: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5gKZ8vI8Gk

Everybody has woken up from a dream in which they meet someone who they thought they would never see again. Now imagine the same thing for the act of seeing itself. This week we have our first encounter (but definitely not the last) of the poetry of John Milton. This famous, turnless sonnet details a dream that he had of his sadly departed wife. Intro and Background- 00.00 Poem - 10.05 Analysis - 11.15 Niall Wanders Off On One... Wooo!!! 30.08 Poem: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44746/sonnet-23-methought-i-saw-my-late-espoused-saint

This week we’re once again dipping into the 20th Century and sampling a little sonnet-sized taster of the Harlem Renaissance. Claude McKay, a Jamaican poet who was also the first to publish poetry in the Jamaican dialect, was a key figure in the early days of the movement. He was also greatly fond of the Romantic poets and the old forms and in the sonnet America he uses subtle echoes of Shelley’s Ozymandias to look into the contradictions of his place within the great nation.

"A crow flies by and croaks at the coffee steam." Today we will be stepping into the 20th Century and looking at Spring Day by Amy Lowell. Lowell was key member of the group known as the Imagist Poets who tried to distance themselves from the sentimentality and dramatism of the Victorian poets by paring down their language and focusing on the thing itself. 0.00 - Intro and background 7.19 - Spring Day by Amy Lowell 15.09 - Analysis 45.27 - Niall Wanders Off On One... Wooo!!! Spring Day by Amy Lowell https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/53772/spring-day-56d233626c49b "A Retrospect" and "A Few Don'ts" by Ezra Pound https://www.poetryfoundation.org/articles/69409/a-retrospect-and-a-few-donts Preface to Some Imagist Poets by Amy Lowell https://www.poetryfoundation.org/articles/69404/preface-to-some-imagist-poets "Still Life With Apple" Alberto Giacometti https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/492699

A declaration of love that becomes an ultimatum. Business as usual then... This week we look at a sonnet from a sequence that celebrates actual requited love! Link to poem (scroll down to Sonnet 17): http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2002/2002-h/2002-h.htm Intro and background 00.00 Sonnet 17 by Elizabeth Barrett Browning 09.10 Analysis 11.15 Niall Wanders Off On One... Wooo!!! 37.20

This week, Rusty Sonnets finally gets round to looking at another actual sonnet, "Composed Upon Westminster Bridge..." by William Wordsworth. Wordsworth is perhaps the least iconoclastic of the Romantic poets, though he still provides a good jumping off point for an era where the lyric poem finally rose to prominence. I then "Wander off on one..." about the spiritual status and significance of bridges in London. 00.00 Intro 04.19 Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 03, 1802 by William Wordsworth 05.22 Analysis 32.48 Niall Wanders Off On One... Wooo!!! https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45514/composed-upon-westminster-bridge-september-3-1802

Some poems are like painter's mountains and others are like climber's mountains. Call me presumptuous, but I think I begin the podcast with a metaphor that Alexander Pope would approve of. We then look at the atomic entity of the heroic couplet and how the genre of the "verse essay" appeared not long after the arrival of coffee in London. I then "Wander Off On One" about how the tweet is the millennial equivalent of the heroic couplet and whether there can be objective standards in art. Intro and background: 00.00 An Essay on Criticism (Part 1) by Alexander Pope: 12.47 Analysis: 24.26 Niall Wanders Off On One...... Wooo!!!: 54.42

There are few avenues of seduction that are as surreal and quirky as this one. This week we examine the metaphysical conceit of John Donne’s The Flea before asking whether such poems are acceptable in the #metoo era. I also go off on one about the importance of the unbridled imagination. Introduction: 00.00 The Flea by John Donne: 01.45 Analysis: 03.20 Niall goes off on one... Wooo!!! 25.46

This week we're looking at The Twa Corbies, an oral ballad from the Scottish border that features a tale of murder and infidelity told by gossipy corvids. I then go off on one about the ballad as an ancestor of gangsta rap and anonymity in the age of social media. Background 00.00 The Twa Corbies 10.00 Analysis 12.51 Niall goes off on one....Wooo!!! 26.19 Poem: https://www.bartleby.com/101/380.html

Hello, today is the first of a new weekly podcast where I take an old poem and give it a rigorous going over before I “go off on one”. Today we’re looking at William Shakespeare’s long sigh of exasperation (and possible guilt trip), Sonnet 66. Introduction 00.00 Background 07:36 Notes on the form 17.18 Sonnet 66 by William Shakespeare 20.31 Analysis: 21.31 Niall goes off on one..... Woo!!! 30:37 SONNET 66 Tir'd with all these, for restful death I cry, As, to behold desert a beggar born, And needy nothing trimm'd in jollity, And purest faith unhappily forsworn, And guilded honour shamefully misplaced, And maiden virtue rudely strumpeted, And right perfection wrongfully disgraced, And strength by limping sway disabled, And art made tongue-tied by authority, And folly (doctor-like) controlling skill, And simple truth miscall'd simplicity, And captive good attending captain ill: Tired with all these, from these would I be gone, Save that, to die, I leave my love alone.