Podcasts about Tintern Abbey

We begin a week of selections from Lyrical Ballads with today's nostalgic and pastoral poem, “Lines Written a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey, on Revisiting the Banks of the Wye during a Tour, July 13, 1798.” Happy reading!Jonathan Kerr of the Wordsworth Trust writes about the revolutionary context of the Lyrical Ballads and the revolutionary nature of the project itself:“Wordsworth and Coleridge's first major literary undertaking and a pioneering work of English Romanticism – came into being at a tumultuous moment in England's history…Not since the English Revolution had the country faced such alarming upheaval and discord within its borders.On first glance it might not seem like the little collection authored by Wordsworth and Coleridge has much to do with this heady and factional atmosphere. Lyrical Ballads came about in the spring and summer of 1798, when the Coleridge and Wordsworth families lived as neighbours in the secluded village of Holford, Somerset. Wordsworth and Coleridge had only known one another a short time, but they became quick friends and mutually-admiring colleagues. The small village provided both poets with a break from the spirited goings-on of cities like London and Bristol, which could often be dangerous places for young men with unorthodox opinions. Coleridge and Wordsworth, both committed reformers through the early years of the French Revolution, knew this is as well as anybody, and their retreat into the country was motivated as much by concerns for their personal security as anything else.…Whether or not Wordsworth and Coleridge continued to sympathize with the revolution abroad, there can be little doubt that with Lyrical Ballads the two were committed to one kind of revolution at least, a revolution in the sphere of poetry and art. Lyrical Ballads is among other things an attempt to purify poetry of the cold conventions which had come to dominate the literary scene, at least according to both poets; in place of this, Wordsworth and Coleridge wanted to bring poetry back to what is most common and recognizable, and also most important, within our emotional, social, and imaginative lives. If this doesn't seem like such an extraordinary undertaking today, this might owe to the remarkable success of Wordsworth and Coleridge's quiet revolution on the literary front.” This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, James Marriott and I discuss who we think are the best twenty English poets. This is not the best poets who wrote in English, but the best British poets (though James snuck Sylvia Plath onto his list…). We did it like that to make it easier, not least so we could base a lot of our discussion on extracts in The Oxford Book of English Verse (Ricks edition). Most of what we read out is from there. We read Wordsworth, Keats, Hardy, Milton, and Pope. We both love Pope! (He should be regarded as one of the very best English poets, like Milton.) There are also readings of Herrick, Bronte, Cowper, and MacNiece. I plan to record the whole of ‘The Eve of St. Agnes' at some point soon.Here are our lists and below is the transcript (which may have more errors than usual, sorry!)HOGod Tier* Shakespeare“if not first, in the very first line”* Chaucer* Spenser* Milton* Wordsworth* Eliot—argue for Pope here, not usually includedSecond Tier* Donne* Herbert* Keats* Dryden* Gawain poet* Tom O'Bedlam poetThird Tier* Yeats* Tennyson* Hopkins* Coleridge* Auden* Shelley* MarvellJMShakespeareTier* ShakespeareTier 1* Chaucer* Milton* WordsworthTier 2* Donne* Eliot* Keats* Tennyson* Spencer* Marvell* PopeTier 3* Yeats* Hopkins* Blake* Coleridge* Auden* Shelley* Thomas Hardy* Larkin* PlathHenry: Today I'm talking to James Marriott, Times columnist, and more importantly, the writer of the Substack Cultural Capital. And we are going to argue about who are the best poets in the English language. James, welcome.James: Thanks very much for having me. I feel I should preface my appearance so that I don't bring your podcast and disrepute saying that I'm maybe here less as an expert of poetry and more as somebody who's willing to have strong and potentially species opinions. I'm more of a lover of poetry than I would claim to be any kind of academic expert, just in case anybody thinks that I'm trying to produce any definitive answer to the question that we're tackling.Henry: Yeah, no, I mean that's the same for me. We're not professors, we're just very opinionated boys. So we have lists.James: We do.Henry: And we're going to debate our lists, but what we do agree is that if we're having a top 20 English poets, Shakespeare is automatically in the God Tier and there's nothing to discuss.James: Yeah, he's in a category of his own. I think the way of, because I guess the plan we've gone for is to rather than to rank them 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 into sort of, what is it, three or four broad categories that we're competing over.Henry: Yes, yes. TiersJames: I think is a more kind of reasonable way to approach it rather than trying to argue exactly why it should be one place above Shelly or I don't know, whatever.Henry: It's also just an excuse to talk about poets.James: Yes.Henry: Good. So then we have a sort of top tier, if not the first, in the very first line as it were, and you've got different people. To me, you've got Chaucer, Milton, and Wordsworth. I would also add Spenser and T.S. Eliot. So what's your problem with Spenser?James: Well, my problem is ignorance in that it's a while since I've read the Fairy Queen, which I did at university. Partly is just that looking back through it now and from what I remember of university, I mean it is not so much that I have anything against Spenser. It's quite how much I have in favour of Milton and Wordsworth and Chaucer, and I'm totally willing to be argued against on this, but I just can't think that Spenser is in quite the same league as lovely as many passages of the Fairy Queen are.Henry: So my case for Spenser is firstly, if you go through something like the Oxford Book of English Verse or some other comparable anthology, he's getting a similar page count to Shakespeare and Milton, he is important in that way. Second, it's not just the fairy queen, there's the Shepherd's Calendar, the sonnets, the wedding poems, and they're all highly accomplished. The Shepherd's Calendar particularly is really, really brilliant work. I think I enjoyed that more as an undergraduate, actually, much as I love the Fairy Queen. And the third thing is that the Fairy Queen is a very, very great epic. I mean, it's a tremendous accomplishment. There were lots of other epics knocking around in the 16th century that nobody wants to read now or I mean, obviously specialists want to read, but if we could persuade a few more people, a few more ordinary readers to pick up the fairy queen, they would love it.James: Yes, and I was rereading before he came on air, the Bower of Bliss episode, which I think is from the second book, which is just a beautifully lush passage, passage of writing. It was really, I mean, you can see why Keats was so much influenced by it. The point about Spenser's breadth is an interesting one because Milton is in my top category below Shakespeare, but I think I'm placing him there pretty much only on the basis of Paradise Lost. I think if we didn't have Paradise Lost, Milton may not even be in this competition at all for me, very little. I know. I don't know if this is a heresy, I've got much less time for Milton's minor works. There's Samuel Johnson pretty much summed up my feelings on Lycidas when he said there was nothing new. Whatever images it can supply are long ago, exhausted, and I do feel there's a certain sort of dryness to Milton's minor stuff. I mean, I can find things like Il Penseroso and L'Allegro pretty enough, but I mean, I think really the central achievement is Paradise Lost, whereas Spenser might be in contention, as you say, from if you didn't have the Fairy Queen, you've got Shepherd's Calendar, and all this other sort of other stuff, but Paradise Lost is just so massive for me.Henry: But if someone just tomorrow came out and said, oh, we found a whole book of minor poetry by Virgil and it's all pretty average, you wouldn't say, oh, well Virgil's less of a great poet.James: No, absolutely, and that's why I've stuck Milton right at the top. It's just sort of interesting how unbelievably good Paradise Lost is and how, in my opinion, how much less inspiring the stuff that comes after it is Samson Agonistes and Paradise Regained I really much pleasure out of at all and how, I mean the early I think slightly dry Milton is unbelievably accomplished, but Samuel Johnson seems to say in that quote is a very accomplished use of ancient slightly worn out tropes, and he's of putting together these old ideas in a brilliant manner and he has this sort of, I mean I guess he's one of your late bloomers. I can't quite remember how old he is when he publishes Paradise Lost.Henry: Oh, he is. Oh, writing it in his fifties. Yeah.James: Yeah, this just extraordinary thing that's totally unlike anything else in English literature and of all the poems that we're going to talk about, I think is the one that has probably given me most pleasure in my life and the one that I probably return to most often if not to read all the way through then to just go over my favourite bits and pieces of it.Henry: A lot of people will think Milton is heavy and full of weird references to the ancient world and learned and biblical and not very readable for want of a better word. Can you talk us out of that? To be one of the great poets, they do have to have some readability, right?James: Yeah, I think so, and it's certainly how I felt. I mean I think it's not a trivial objection to have to Milton. It's certainly how I found him. He was my special author paper at university and I totally didn't get on with him. There was something about his massive brilliance that I felt. I remember feeling like trying to write about Paradise Lost was trying to kind of scratch a huge block of marble with your nails. There's no way to get a handle on it. I just couldn't work out what to get ahold of, and it's only I think later in adulthood maybe reading him under a little less pressure that I've come to really love him. I mean, the thing I would always say to people to look out for in Milton, but it's his most immediate pleasure and the thing that still is what sends shivers done my spine about him is the kind of cosmic scale of Paradise Lost, and it's almost got this sort of sci-fi massiveness to it. One of my very favourite passages, which I may inflict on you, we did agree that we could inflict poetry on one another.Henry: Please, pleaseJames: It's a detail from the first book of Paradise Lost. Milton's talking about Satan's architect in hell Mulciber, and this is a little explanation of who or part of his explanation of who Mulciber is, and he says, Nor was his name unheard or unadoredIn ancient Greece; and in Ausonian landMen called him Mulciber; and how he fellFrom Heaven they fabled, thrown by angry JoveSheer o'er the crystal battlements: from mornTo noon he fell, from noon to dewy eve,A summer's day, and with the setting sunDropt from the zenith, like a falling star,On Lemnos, th' Aegaean isle. Thus they relate,ErringI just think it's the sort of total massiveness of that universe that “from the zenith to like a falling star”. I just can't think of any other poet in English or that I've ever read in any language, frankly, even in translation, who has that sort of scale about it, and I think that's what can most give immediate pleasure. The other thing I love about that passage is this is part of the kind of grandeur of Milton is that you get this extraordinary passage about an angel falling from heaven down to th' Aegean Isle who's then going to go to hell and the little parenthetic remark at the end, the perm just rolls on, thus they relate erring and paradise lost is such this massive grand thing that it can contain this enormous cosmic tragedy as a kind of little parenthetical thing. I also think the crystal battlements are lovely, so wonderful kind of sci-fi detail.Henry: Yes, I think that's right, and I think it's under appreciated that Milton was a hugely important influence on Charles Darwin who was a bit like you always rereading it when he was young, especially on the beagle voyage. He took it with him and quotes it in his letters sometimes, and it is not insignificant the way that paradise loss affects him in terms of when he writes his own epic thinking at this level, thinking at this scale, thinking at the level of the whole universe, how does the whole thing fit together? What's the order behind the little movements of everything? So Milton's reach I think is actually quite far into the culture even beyond the poets.James: That's fascinating. Do you have a particular favourite bit of Paradise Lost?Henry: I do, but I don't have it with me because I disorganised and couldn't find my copy.James: That's fair.Henry: What I want to do is to read one of the sonnets because I do think he's a very, very good sonnet writer, even if I'm going to let the Lycidas thing go, because I'm not going to publicly argue against Samuel Johnson.When I consider how my light is spent,Ere half my days, in this dark world and wide,And that one Talent which is death to hideLodged with me useless, though my Soul more bentTo serve therewith my Maker, and presentMy true account, lest he returning chide;“Doth God exact day-labour, light denied?”I fondly ask. But patience, to preventThat murmur, soon replies, “God doth not needEither man's work or his own gifts; who bestBear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His stateIs Kingly. Thousands at his bidding speedAnd post o'er Land and Ocean without rest:They also serve who only stand and wait.”I think that's great.James: Yeah. Okay. It is good.Henry: Yeah. I think the minor poems are very uneven, but there are lots of gems.James: Yeah, I mean he is a genius. It would be very weird if all the minor poems were s**t, which is not really what I'm trying… I guess I have a sort of slightly austere category too. I just do Chaucer, Milton, Wordsworth, but we are agreed on Wordsworth, aren't we? That he belongs here.Henry: So my feeling is that the story of English poetry is something like Chaucer Spenser, Shakespeare, Milton, Wordsworth, T.S. Eliot create a kind of spine. These are the great innovators. They're writing the major works, they're the most influential. All the cliches are true. Chaucer invented iambic pentameter. Shakespeare didn't single handedly invent modern English, but he did more than all the rest of them put together. Milton is the English Homer. Wordsworth is the English Homer, but of the speech of the ordinary man. All these old things, these are all true and these are all colossal achievements and I don't really feel that we should be picking between them. I think Spenser wrote an epic that stands alongside the works of Shakespeare and Milton in words with T.S. Eliot whose poetry, frankly I do not love in the way that I love some of the other great English writers cannot be denied his position as one of the great inventors.James: Yeah, I completely agree. It's funny, I think, I mean I really do love T.S. Eliot. Someone else had spent a lot of time rereading. I'm not quite sure why he hasn't gone into quite my top category, but I think I had this—Henry: Is it because he didn't like Milton and you're not having it?James: Maybe that's part of it. I think my thought something went more along the lines of if I cut, I don't quite feel like I'm going to put John Donne in the same league as Milton, but then it seems weird to put Eliot above Donne and then I don't know that, I mean there's not a very particularly fleshed out thought, but on Wordsworth, why is Wordsworth there for you? What do you think, what do you think are the perms that make the argument for Wordsworth having his place at the very top?Henry: Well, I think the Lyrical Ballads, Poems in Two Volumes and the Prelude are all of it, aren't they? I'm not a lover of the rest, and I think the preface to the Lyrical Ballads is one of the great works of literary criticism, which is another coin in his jar if you like, but in a funny way, he's much more revolutionary than T.S. Eliot. We think of modernism as the great revolution and the great sort of bringing of all the newness, but modernism relies on Wordsworth so much, relies on the idea that tradition can be subsumed into ordinary voice, ordinary speech, the passage in the Wasteland where he has all of them talking in the bar. Closing time please, closing time please. You can't have that without Wordsworth and—James: I think I completely agree with what you're saying.Henry: Yeah, so I think that's for me is the basis of it that he might be the great innovator of English poetry.James: Yeah, I think you're right because I've got, I mean again, waiting someone out of my depth here, but I can't think of anybody else who had sort of specifically and perhaps even ideologically set out to write a kind of high poetry that sounded like ordinary speech, I guess. I mean, Wordsworth again is somebody who I didn't particularly like at university and I think it's precisely about plainness that can make him initially off-putting. There's a Matthew Arnold quote where he says of Wordsworth something like He has no style. Henry: Such a Matthew Arnold thing to say.James: I mean think it's the beginning of an appreciation, but there's a real blankness to words with I think again can almost mislead you into thinking there's nothing there when you first encounter him. But yeah, I think for me, Tintern Abbey is maybe the best poem in the English language.Henry: Tintern Abbey is great. The Intimations of Immortality Ode is superb. Again, I don't have it with me, but the Poems in Two Volumes. There are so many wonderful things in there. I had a real, when I was an undergraduate, I had read some Wordsworth, but I hadn't really read a lot and I thought of I as you do as the daffodils poet, and so I read Lyrical Ballads and Poems in Two Volumes, and I had one of these electrical conversion moments like, oh, the daffodils, that is nothing. The worst possible thing for Wordsworth is that he's remembered as this daffodils poet. When you read the Intimations of Immortality, do you just think of all the things he could have been remembered for? It's diminishing.James: It's so easy to get into him wrong because the other slightly wrong way in is through, I mean maybe this is a prejudice that isn't widely shared, but the stuff that I've never particularly managed to really enjoy is all the slightly worthy stuff about beggars and deformed people and maimed soldiers. Wandering around on roads in the lake district has always been less appealing to me, and that was maybe why I didn't totally get on with 'em at first, and I mean, there's some bad words with poetry. I was looking up the infamous lines from the form that were mocked even at the time where you know the lines that go, You see a little muddy pond Of water never dry. I've measured it from side to side, 'Tis three feet long and two feet wide, and the sort of plainness condescend into banality at Wordsworth's worst moments, which come more frequently later in his career.Henry: Yes, yes. I'm going to read a little bit of the Intimations ode because I want to share some of this so-called plainness at its best. This is the third section. They're all very short Now, while the birds thus sing a joyous song,And while the young lambs boundAs to the tabor's sound,To me alone there came a thought of grief:A timely utterance gave that thought relief,And I again am strong:The cataracts blow their trumpets from the steep;No more shall grief of mine the season wrong;I hear the Echoes through the mountains throng,The Winds come to me from the fields of sleep,And all the earth is gay;Land and seaGive themselves up to jollity,And with the heart of MayDoth every Beast keep holiday;—Thou Child of Joy,Shout round me, let me hear thy shouts, thou happy Shepherd-boy.And I think it's unthinkable that someone would write like this today. It would be cringe, but we're going to have a new sincerity. It's coming. It's in some ways it's already here and I think Wordsworth will maybe get a different sort of attention when that happens because that's a really high level of writing to be able to do that without it descending into what you just read. In the late Wordsworth there's a lot of that really bad stuff.James: Yeah, I mean the fact that he wrote some of that bad stuff I guess is a sign of quite how carefully the early stuff is treading that knife edge of tripping into banality. Can I read you my favourite bit of Tintern Abbey?Henry: Oh yes. That is one of the great poems.James: Yeah, I just think one of mean I, the most profound poem ever, probably for me. So this is him looking out over the landscape of Tinton Abbey. I mean these are unbelievably famous lines, so I'm sure everybody listening will know them, but they are so good And I have feltA presence that disturbs me with the joyOf elevated thoughts; a sense sublimeOf something far more deeply interfused,Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,And the round ocean and the living air,And the blue sky, and in the mind of man:A motion and a spirit, that impelsAll thinking things, all objects of all thought,And rolls through all things. Therefore am I stillA lover of the meadows and the woodsAnd mountains; and of all that we beholdFrom this green earth; of all the mighty worldOf eye, and ear,—both what they half create,And what perceive; well pleased to recogniseIn nature and the language of the senseThe anchor of my purest thoughts, the nurse,The guide, the guardian of my heart, and soulOf all my moral being.I mean in a poem, it's just that is mind blowingly good to me?Henry: Yeah. I'm going to look up another section from the Prelude, which used to be in the Oxford Book, but it isn't in the Ricks edition and I don't really know whyJames: He doesn't have much of the Prelude does he?Henry: I don't think he has any…James: Yeah.Henry: So this is from an early section when the young Wordsworth is a young boy and he's going off, I think he's sneaking out at night to row on the lake as you do when you with Wordsworth, and the initial description is of a mountain. She was an elfin pinnace; lustilyI dipped my oars into the silent lake,And, as I rose upon the stroke, my boatWent heaving through the water like a swan;When, from behind that craggy steep till thenThe horizon's bound, a huge peak, black and huge,As if with voluntary power instinct,Upreared its head. I struck and struck again,And growing still in stature the grim shapeTowered up between me and the stars, and still,For so it seemed, with purpose of its ownAnd measured motion like a living thing,Strode after me. With trembling oars I turned,And through the silent water stole my wayBack to the covert of the willow tree;It's so much like that in Wordsworth. It's just,James: Yeah, I mean, yeah, the Prelude is full of things like that. I think that is probably one of the best moments, possibly the best moments of the prelude. But yeah, I mean it's just total genius isn't it?Henry: I think he's very, very important and yeah, much more important than T.S. Eliot who is, I put him in the same category, but I can see why you didn't.James: You do have a little note saying Pope, question mark or something I think, don't you, in the document.Henry: So the six I gave as the spine of English literature and everything, that's an uncontroversial view. I think Pope should be one of those people. I think we should see Pope as being on a level with Milton and Wordsworth, and I think he's got a very mixed reputation, but I think he was just as inventive, just as important. I think you are a Pope fan, just as clever, just as moving, and it baffles me that he's not more commonly regarded as part of this great spine running through the history of English literature and between Milton and Wordsworth. If you don't have Pope, I think it's a missing link if you like.James: I mean, I wouldn't maybe go as far as you, I love Pope. Pope was really the first perch I ever loved. I remember finding a little volume of Pope in a box of books. My school library was chucking out, and that was the first book of poetry I read and took seriously. I guess he sort of suffers by the fact that we are seeing all of this through the lens of the romantics. All our taste about Shakespeare and Milton and Spenser has been formed by the romantics and hope's way of writing the Satires. This sort of society poetry I think is just totally doesn't conform to our idea of what poetry should be doing or what poetry is. Is there absolutely or virtually nobody reads Dryden nowadays. It's just not what we think poetry is for that whole Augustine 18th century idea that poetry is for writing epistles to people to explain philosophical concepts to them or to diss your enemies and rivals or to write a kind of Duncia explaining why everyone you know is a moron. That's just really, I guess Byron is the last major, is the only of figure who is in that tradition who would be a popular figure nowadays with things like English bards and scotch reviewers. But that whole idea of poetry I think was really alien to us. And I mean I'm probably formed by that prejudice because I really do love Pope, but I don't love him as much as the other people we've discussed.Henry: I think part of his problem is that he's clever and rational and we want our poems always to be about moods, which may be, I think why George Herbert, who we've both got reasonably high is also quite underrated. He's very clever. He's always think George Herbert's always thinking, and when someone like Shakespeare or Milton is thinking, they do it in such a way that you might not notice and that you might just carry on with the story. And if you do see that they're thinking you can enjoy that as well. Whereas Pope is just explicitly always thinking and maybe lecturing, hectoring, being very grand with you and as you say, calling you an idiot. But there are so many excellent bits of Pope and I just think technically he can sustain a thought or an argument over half a dozen or a dozen lines and keep the rhyme scheme moving and it's never forced, and he never has to do that thing where he puts the words in a stupid order just to make the rhyme work. He's got such an elegance and a balance of composition, which again, as you say, we live under romantic ideals, not classical ones. But that doesn't mean we should be blind to the level of his accomplishment, which is really, really very high. I mean, Samuel Johnson basically thought that Alexander Pope had finished English poetry. We have the end of history. He had the end of English poetry. Pope, he's brought us to the mightiest of the heroic couplers and he's done it. It's all over.James: The other thing about Pope that I think makes us underrate him is that he's very charming. And I think charm is a quality we're not big on is that sort of, but I think some of Pope's charm is so moving. One of my favourite poems of his is, do you know the Epistle to Miss Blount on going into the country? The poem to the young girl who's been having a fashionable season in London then is sent to the boring countryside to stay with an aunt. And it's this, it's not like a romantic love poem, it's not distraught or hectic. It's just a sort of wonderful act of sympathy with this potentially slightly airheaded young girl who's been sent to the countryside, which you'd rather go to operas and plays and flirt with people. And there's a real sort of delicate in it that isn't overblown and isn't dramatic, but is extremely charming. And I think that's again, another quality that perhaps we're prone not to totally appreciate in the 21st century. It's almost the kind of highest form of politeness and sympathyHenry: And the prevailing quality in Pope is wit: “True wit is nature to advantage dressed/ What often was thought, but ne'er so well expressed”. And I think wit can be quite alienating for an audience because it is a kind of superior form of literary art. This is why people don't read as much Swift as he deserves because he's so witty and so scornful that a lot of people will read him and think, well, I don't like you.James: And that point about what oft was thought and ne'er so well expressed again, is a very classical idea. The poet who puts not quite conventional wisdom, but something that's been thought before in the best possible words, really suffers with the romantic idea of originality. The poet has to say something utterly new. Whereas for Pope, the sort of ideas that he express, some of the philosophical ideas are not as profound in original perhaps as words with, but he's very elegant proponent of them.Henry: And we love b******g people in our culture, and I feel like the Dunciad should be more popular because it is just, I can't remember who said this, but someone said it's probably the most under appreciated great poem in English, and that's got to be true. It's full of absolute zingers. There's one moment where he's described the whole crowd of them or all these poets who he considers to be deeply inferior, and it turns out he was right because no one reads them anymore. And you need footnotes to know who they are. I mean, no one cares. And he says, “equal your merits, equal is your din”. This kind of abuse is a really high art, and we ought to love that. We love that on Twitter. And I think things like the Rape of the Lock also could be more popular.James: I love the Rape of the Lock . I mean, I think anybody is not reading Pope and is looking for a way in, I think the Rape of the Lock is the way in, isn't it? Because it's just such a charming, lovely, funny poem.Henry: It is. And probably it suffers because the whole idea of mock heroic now is lost to us. But it's a bit like it's the literary equivalent of people writing a sort of mini epic about someone like Elon Musk or some other very prominent figure in the culture and using lots of heroic imagery from the great epics of Homer and Virgil and from the Bible and all these things, but putting them into a very diminished state. So instead of being grand, it becomes comic. It's like turning a God into a cartoon. And Pope is easily the best writer that we have for that kind of thing. Dryden, but he's the genius on it.James: Yeah, no, he totally is. I guess it's another reason he's under appreciated is that our culture is just much less worshipful of epic than the 18th century culture was. The 18th century was obsessed with trying to write epics and trying to imitate epics. I mean, I think to a lot of Pope's contemporaries, the achievement they might've been expecting people to talk about in 300 years time would be his translations of the Iliad and the Odyssey and the other stuff might've seen more minor in comparison, whereas it's the mock epic that we're remembering him for, which again is perhaps another symptom of our sort of post romantic perspective.Henry: I think this is why Spenser suffers as well, because everything in Spenser is magical. The knights are fairies, not the little fairies that live in buttercups, but big human sized fairies or even bigger than that. And there are magical women and saucers and the whole thing is a sort of hodgepodge of romance and fairy tale and legend and all this stuff. And it's often said, oh, he was old fashioned in his own time. But those things still had a lot of currency in the 16th century. And a lot of those things are in Shakespeare, for example.But to us, that's like a fantasy novel. Now, I love fantasy and I read fantasy, and I think some of it's a very high accomplishment, but to a lot of people, fantasy just means kind of trash. Why am I going to read something with fairies and a wizard? And I think a lot of people just see Spenser and they're like, what is this? This is so weird. They don't realise how Protestant they're being, but they're like, this is so weird.James: And Pope has a little, I mean, the Rape of the Lock even has a little of the same because the rape of the lock has this attendant army of good spirits called selfs and evil spirits called gnomes. I mean, I find that just totally funny and charming. I really love it.Henry: I'm going to read, there's an extract from the Rape of the Lock in the Oxford Book, and I'm going to read a few lines to give people an idea of how he can be at once mocking something but also quite charming about it. It's quite a difficult line to draw. The Rape of the Lock is all about a scandalous incident where a young man took a lock of a lady's hair. Rape doesn't mean what we think it means. It means an offence. And so because he stole a lock of her hair, it'd become obviously this huge problem and everyone's in a flurry. And to sort of calm everyone down, Pope took it so seriously that he made it into a tremendous joke. So here he is describing the sort of dressing table if you like.And now, unveil'd, the Toilet stands display'd,Each silver Vase in mystic order laid.First, rob'd in white, the Nymph intent adores,With head uncover'd, the Cosmetic pow'rs.A heav'nly image in the glass appears,To that she bends, to that her eyes she rears;Th' inferior Priestess, at her altar's side,Trembling begins the sacred rites of Pride.What a way to describe someone putting on their makeup. It's fantastic.James: It's funny. I can continue that because the little passage of Pope I picked to read begins exactly where yours ended. It only gets better as it goes on, I think. So after trembling begins the sacred rites of pride, Unnumber'd treasures ope at once, and hereThe various off'rings of the world appear;From each she nicely culls with curious toil,And decks the Goddess with the glitt'ring spoil.This casket India's glowing gems unlocks,And all Arabia breathes from yonder box.The Tortoise here and Elephant unite,Transformed to combs, the speckled, and the white.Here files of pins extend their shining rows,Puffs, Powders, Patches, Bibles, Billet-doux.It's just so lovely. I love a thing about the tortoise and the elephant unite because you've got a tortoise shell and an ivory comb. And the stuff about India's glowing gems and Arabia breathing from yonder box, I mean that's a, realistic is not quite the word, but that's a reference to Milton because Milton is continually having all the stones of Arabia and India's pearls and things all screwed through paradise lost. Yeah, it's just so lovely, isn't it?Henry: And for someone who's so classical and composed and elegant, there's something very Dickensian about things like the toilet, the tortoise and the elephant here unite, transform to combs. There's something a little bit surreal and the puffs, powders, patches, bibles, it has that sort of slightly hectic, frantic,James: That's sort of Victorian materialism, wealth of material objects,Henry: But also that famous thing that was said of Dickens, that the people are furniture and the furniture's like people. He can bring to life all the little bits and bobs of the ordinary day and turn it into something not quite ridiculous, not quite charming.James: And there is a kind of charm in the fact that it wasn't the sort of thing that poets would necessarily expect to pay attention to the 18th century. I don't think the sort of powders and ointments on a woman's dressing table. And there's something very sort of charming in his condescension to notice or what might've once seemed his condescension to notice those things, to find a new thing to take seriously, which is what poetry or not quite to take seriously, but to pay attention to, which I guess is one of the things that great perch should always be doing.Henry: When Swift, who was Pope's great friend, wrote about this, he wrote a poem called A Beautiful Young Lady Going to Bed, which is not as good, and I would love to claim Swift on our list, but I really can't.James: It's quite a horrible perm as well, that one, isn't it?Henry: It is. But it shows you how other people would treat the idea of the woman in front of her toilet, her mirror. And Swift uses an opportunity, as he said, to “lash the vice” because he hated all this adornment and what he would think of as the fakery of a woman painting herself. And so he talks about Corina pride of Drury Lane, which is obviously an ironic reference to her being a Lady of the Night, coming back and there's no drunken rake with her. Returning at the midnight hour;Four stories climbing to her bow'r;Then, seated on a three-legged chair,Takes off her artificial hair:Now, picking out a crystal eye,She wipes it clean, and lays it by.Her eye-brows from a mouse's hide,Stuck on with art on either side,Pulls off with care, and first displays 'em,Then in a play-book smoothly lays 'em.Now dexterously her plumpers draws,That serve to fill her hollow jaws.And it goes on like this. I mean, line after this is sort of raw doll quality to it, Pope, I think in contrast, it only illuminates him more to see where others are taking this kind of crude, very, very funny and witty, but very crude approach. He's able to really have the classical art of balance.James: Yes. And it's precisely his charm that he can mock it and sympathise and love it at the same time, which I think is just a more sort of complex suite of poetic emotions to have about that thing.Henry: So we want more people to read Pope and to love Pope.James: Yes. Even if I'm not letting him into my top.Henry: You are locking him out of the garden. Now, for the second tier, I want to argue for two anonymous poets. One of the things we did when we were talking about this was we asked chatGPT to see if it could give us a good answer. And if you use o1 or o1 Pro, it gives you a pretty good answer as to who the best poets in English are. But it has to be told that it's forgotten about the anonymous poets. And then it says, oh, that was stupid. There are quite a lot of good anonymous poets in English, but I suspect a lot of us, a lot of non artificial intelligence when thinking about this question overlook the anonymous poets. But I would think the Gawain poet and the Tom O' Bedlam poet deserve to be in here. I don't know what you think about that.James: I'm not competent to provide an opinion. I'm purely here to be educated on the subject of these anonymous poets. Henry: The Gawain poet, he's a mediaeval, assume it's a he, a mediaeval writer, obviously may well not be a man, a mediaeval writer. And he wrote Sir Gawain and The Green Knight, which is, if you haven't read it, you should really read it in translation first, I think because it's written at the same time as Chaucer. But Chaucer was written in a kind of London dialect, which is what became the English we speak. And so you can read quite a lot of Chaucer and the words look pretty similar and sometimes you need the footnotes, but when you read Gawain and The Green Knight, it's in a Northwestern dialect, which very much did not become modern day English. And so it's a bit more baffling, but it is a poem of tremendous imaginative power and weirdness. It's a very compelling story. We have a children's version here written by Selena Hastings who's a very accomplished biographer. And every now and then my son remembers it and he just reads it again and again and again. It's one of the best tales of King Arthur in his knights. And there's a wonderful book by John Burrow. It's a very short book, but that is such a loving piece of criticism that explicates the way in which that poem promotes virtue and all the nightly goodness that you would expect, but also is a very strange and unreal piece of work. And I think it has all the qualities of great poetry, but because it's written in this weird dialect, I remember as an undergraduate thinking, why is this so bloody difficult to read? But it is just marvellous. And I see people on Twitter, the few people who've read it, they read it again and they just say, God, it's so good. And I think there was a film of it a couple of years ago, but we will gloss lightly over that and not encourage you to do the film instead of the book.James: Yeah, you're now triggering a memory that I was at least set to read and perhaps did at least read part of Gawain and the Green Knight at University, but has not stuck to any brain cells at all.Henry: Well, you must try it again and tell me what you think. I mean, I find it easily to be one of the best poems in English.James: Yeah, no, I should. I had a little Chaucer kick recently actually, so maybe I'm prepared to rediscover mediaeval per after years of neglect since my degree,Henry: And it's quite short, which I always think is worth knowing. And then the Tom Bedlam is an anonymous poem from I think the 17th century, and it's one of the mad songs, so it's a bit like the Fool from King Lear. And again, it is a very mysterious, very strange and weird piece of work. Try and find it in and read the first few lines. And I think because it's anonymous, it's got slightly less of a reputation because it can't get picked up with some big name, but it is full of tremendous power. And again, I think it would be sad if it wasn't more well known.From the hag and hungry goblinThat into rags would rend ye,The spirit that stands by the naked manIn the Book of Moons defend ye,That of your five sound sensesYou never be forsaken,Nor wander from your selves with TomAbroad to beg your bacon,While I do sing, Any food, any feeding,Feeding, drink, or clothing;Come dame or maid, be not afraid,Poor Tom will injure nothing.Anyway, so you get the sense of it and it's got many stanzas and it's full of this kind of energy and it's again, very accomplished. It can carry the thought across these long lines and these long stanzas.James: When was it written? I'm aware of only if there's a name in the back of my mind.Henry: Oh, it's from the 17th century. So it's not from such a different time as King Lear, but it's written in the voice of a madman. And again, you think of that as the sort of thing a romantic poet would do. And it's strange to find it almost strange to find it displaced. There were these other mad songs. But I think because it's anonymous, it gets less well known, it gets less attention. It's not part of a bigger body of work, but it's absolutely, I think it's wonderful.James: I shall read it.Henry: So who have you got? Who else? Who are you putting in instead of these two?James: Hang on. So we're down to tier two now.Henry: Tier two.James: Yeah. So my tier two is: Donne, Elliot, Keats, Tennyson. I've put Spenser in tier two, Marvell and Pope, who we've already discussed. I mean, I think Eliot, we've talked about, I mean Donne just speaks for himself and there's probably a case that some people would make to bump him up a tier. Henry: Anybody can read that case in Katherine Rudell's book. We don't need to…James: Yes, exactly. If anybody's punching perhaps in tier two, it's Tennyson who I wasn't totally sure belonged there. Putting Tenon in the same tier as Donne and Spenser and Keets. I wonder if that's a little ambitious. I think that might raise eyebrows because there is a school of thought, which I'm not totally unsympathetic to this. What's the Auden quote about Tennyson? I really like it. I expressed very harshly, but I sort of get what he means. Auden said that Tennyson “had the finest ear perhaps of any English poet who was also undoubtedly the stupidest. There was little that he didn't know. There was little else that he did.” Which is far too harsh. But I mentioned to you earlier that I think was earlier this year, a friend and I had a project where we were going to memorise a perva week was a plan. We ended up basically getting, I think three quarters of the way through.And if there's a criticism of Tennyson that you could make, it's that the word music and the sheer lushness of phrases sometimes becomes its own momentum. And you can end up with these extremely lovely but sometimes slightly empty beautiful phrases, which is what I ended up feeling about Tithonus. And I sort of slightly felt I was memorising this unbelievably beautiful but ever so slightly hollow thing. And that was slightly why the project fell apart, I should say. Of course, they absolutely love Tennyson. He's one of my all time favourite poets, which is why my personal favouritism has bumped him up into that category. But I can see there's a case, and I think to a lot of people, he's just the kind of Victorian establishment gloom man, which is totally unfair, but there's not no case against Tennyson.Henry: Yeah, the common thing is that he has no ideas. I don't know if that's true or not. I'm also, I'm not sure how desperately important it is. It should be possible to be a great poet without ideas being at the centre of your work. If you accept the idea that the essence of poetry is invention, i.e. to say old things in a fantastically new way, then I think he qualifies very well as a great poet.James: Yes..Henry: Well, very well. I think Auden said what he said because he was anxious that it was true of himself.James: Yeah, I mean there's a strong argument that Auden had far too many ideas and the sorts of mad schemes and fantastical theories about history that Auden spent his spare time chasing after is certainly a kind of argument that poets maybe shouldn't have as many ideas, although it's just reading. Seamus Perry's got a very good little book on Tennyson, and the opening chapter is all about arguments about people who have tended to dislike Tennyson. And there are all kinds of embarrassing anecdotes about the elderly Tennyson trying to sort of go around dinner parties saying profound and sage-like things and totally putting his foot in it and saying things are completely banal. I should have made a note that this was sort of slightly, again, intensifying my alarm about is there occasionally a tinsely hollowness about Tennyson. I'm now being way too harsh about one of my favourite poets—Henry: I think it depends what you mean by ideas. He is more than just a poet of moods. He gives great expression, deep and strongly felt expression to a whole way of being and a whole way of conceiving of things. And it really was a huge part of why people became interested in the middle ages in the 19th century. I think there's Walter Scott and there's Tennyson who are really leading that work, and that became a dominant cultural force and it became something that meant a lot to people. And whether or not, I don't know whether it's the sort of idea that we're talking about, but I think that sort of thing, I think that qualifies as having ideas and think again, I think he's one of the best writers about the Arthurian legend. Now that work doesn't get into the Oxford Book of English Verse, maybe that's fair. But I think it was very important and I love it. I love it. And I find Tennyson easy to memorise, which is another point in his favour.James: Yeah.Henry: I'm going to read a little bit of Ulysses, which everyone knows the last five or six lines of that poem because it gets put into James Bond films and other such things. I'm going to read it from a little bit from earlier on. I am become a name;For always roaming with a hungry heartMuch have I seen and known; cities of menAnd manners, climates, councils, governments,Myself not least, but honour'd of them all;And drunk delight of battle with my peers,Far on the ringing plains of windy Troy.I am a part of all that I have met;Yet all experience is an arch wherethro'Gleams that untravell'd world, whose margin fadesFor ever and for ever when I move.I think that's amazing. And he can do that. He can do lots and lots and lots of that.James: Yeah, he really can. It's stunning. “Far on the ringing planes of windy Troy” is such an unbelievably evocative phrase.Henry: And that's what I mean. He's got this ability to bring back a sort of a whole mood of history. It's not just personal mood poetry. He can take you into these places and that is in the space of a line. In the space of a line. I think Matthew Arnold said of the last bit of what I just read is that he had this ability in Ulysses to make the lines seem very long and slow and to give them this kind of epic quality that far goes far beyond the actual length of that poem. Ulysses feels like this huge poem that's capturing so much of Homer and it's a few dozen lines.James: Yeah, no, I completely agree. Can I read a little bit of slightly more domestic Tennyson, from In Memoriam, I think his best poem and one of my all time favourite poems and it's got, there are many sort of famous lines on grief and things, but there's little sort of passage of natural description I think quite near the beginning that I've always really loved and I've always just thought was a stunning piece of poetry in terms of its sound and the way that the sound has patented and an unbelievably attentive description natural world, which is kind of the reason that even though I think Keats is a better poet, I do prefer reading Tennyson to Keats, so this is from the beginning of In Memoriam. Calm is the morn without a sound,Calm as to suit a calmer grief,And only thro' the faded leafThe chesnut pattering to the ground:Calm and deep peace on this high wold,And on these dews that drench the furze,And all the silvery gossamersThat twinkle into green and gold:Calm and still light on yon great plainThat sweeps with all its autumn bowers,And crowded farms and lessening towers,To mingle with the bounding main:And I just think that's an amazing piece of writing that takes you from that very close up image that it begins with of the “chestnut patterning to the ground” through the faded leaves of the tree, which is again, a really attentive little bit of natural description. I think anyone can picture the way that a chestnut might fall through the leaves of a chestnut tree, and it's just an amazing thing to notice. And I think the chestnut pattern to the ground does all the kind of wonderful, slightly onomatopoeic, Tennyson stuff so well, but by the end, you're kind of looking out over the English countryside, you've seen dew on the firs, and then you're just looking out across the plane to the sea, and it's this sort of, I just think it's one of those bits of poetry that anybody who stood in a slightly wet and romantic day in the English countryside knows exactly the feeling that he's evoking. And I mean there's no bit of—all of In Memoriam is pretty much that good. That's not a particularly celebrated passage I don't think. It's just wonderful everywhere.Henry: Yes. In Memoriam a bit like the Dunciad—under appreciated relative to its huge merits.James: Yeah, I think it sounds, I mean guess by the end of his life, Tennyson had that reputation as the establishment sage of Victorian England, queen of Victoria's favourite poet, which is a pretty off-putting reputation for to have. And I think In Memoriam is supposed to be this slightly cobwebby, musty masterpiece of Victorian grief. But there was just so much, I mean, gorgeous, beautiful sensuous poetry in it.Henry: Yeah, lots of very intense feelings. No, I agree. I have Tennyson my third tier because I had to have the Gawain poet, but I agree that he's very, very great.James: Yeah, I think the case for third tier is I'm very open to that case for the reasons that I said.Henry: Keats, we both have Keats much higher than Shelly. I think Byron's not on anyone's list because who cares about Byron. Overrated, badly behaved. Terrible jokes. Terrible jokes.James: I think people often think Byron's a better pert without having read an awful lot of the poetry of Byron. But I think anybody who's tried to wade through long swathes of Don Juan or—Henry: My God,James: Childe Harold, has amazing, amazing, beautiful moments. But yeah, there's an awful lot of stuff that you don't enjoy. I think.Henry: So to make the case for Keats, I want to talk about The Eve of St. Agnes, which I don't know about you, but I love The Eve of St. Agnes. I go back to it all the time. I find it absolutely electric.James: I'm going to say that Keats is a poet, which is kind of weird for somebody is sent to us and obviously beautiful as Keats. I sort of feel like I admire more than I love. I get why he's brilliant. It's very hard not to see why he's brilliant, but he's someone I would very rarely sit down and read for fun and somebody got an awful lot of feeling or excitement out of, but that's clearly a me problem, not a Keats problem.Henry: When I was a teenager, I knew so much Keats by heart. I knew the whole of the Ode to a Nightingale. I mean, I was absolutely steeped in it morning, noon and night. I couldn't get over it. And now I don't know if I could get back to that point. He was a very young poet and he writes in a very young way. But I'm going to read—The Eve of St. Agnes is great. It's a narrative poem, which I think is a good way to get into this stuff because the story is fantastic. And he had read Spenser, he was part of this kind of the beginning of this mediaeval revival. And he's very interested in going back to those old images, those old stories. And this is the bit, I think everything we're reading is from the Oxford Book of English Verse, so that if people at home want to read along they can.This is when the heroine of the poem is Madeline is making her escape basically. And I think this is very, very exciting. Her falt'ring hand upon the balustrade,Old Angela was feeling for the stair,When Madeline, St. Agnes' charmed maid,Rose, like a mission'd spirit, unaware:With silver taper's light, and pious care,She turn'd, and down the aged gossip ledTo a safe level matting. Now prepare,Young Porphyro, for gazing on that bed;She comes, she comes again, like ring-dove fray'd and fled.Out went the taper as she hurried in;Its little smoke, in pallid moonshine, died:She clos'd the door, she panted, all akinTo spirits of the air, and visions wide:No uttered syllable, or, woe betide!But to her heart, her heart was voluble,Paining with eloquence her balmy side;As though a tongueless nightingale should swellHer throat in vain, and die, heart-stifled, in her dell.A casement high and triple-arch'd there was,All garlanded with carven imag'riesOf fruits, and flowers, and bunches of knot-grass,And diamonded with panes of quaint device,Innumerable of stains and splendid dyes,As are the tiger-moth's deep-damask'd wings;And in the midst, 'mong thousand heraldries,And twilight saints, and dim emblazonings,A shielded scutcheon blush'd with blood of queens and kings.I mean, so much atmosphere, so much tension, so many wonderful images just coming one after the other. The rapidity of it, the tumbling nature of it. And people often quote the Ode to autumn, which has a lot of that.James: I have to say, I found that totally enchanting. And perhaps my problem is that I need you to read it all to me. You can make an audio book that I can listen to.Henry: I honestly, I actually might read the whole of the E and put it out as audio on Substack becauseJames: I would actually listen to that.Henry: I love it so much. And I feel like it gets, when we talk about Keats, we talk about, On First Looking into Chapman's Homer and Bright Star and La Belle Dame Sans Merci, and these are great, great poems and they're poems that we do at school Ode to a Nightingale because I think The Great Gatsby has a big debt to Ode to a Nightingale, doesn't it? And obviously everyone quotes the Ode to Autumn. I mean, as far as I can tell, the 1st of October every year is the whole world sharing the first stands of the Ode to Autumn.James: Yeah. He may be one of the people who suffers from over familiarity perhaps. And I think also because it sounds so much what poetry is supposed to sound like, because so much of our idea of poetry derives from Keats. Maybe that's something I've slightly need to get past a little bit.Henry: But if you can get into the complete works, there are many, the bit I just read is I think quite representative.James: I loved it. I thought it was completely beautiful and I would never have thought to ever, I probably can't have read that poem for years. I wouldn't have thought to read it. Since university, I don't thinkHenry: He's one of those people. All of my copies of him are sort of frayed and the spines are breaking, but the book is wearing out. I should just commit it to memory and be done. But somehow I love going back to it. So Keats is very high in my estimation, and we've both put him higher than Shelly and Coleridge.James: Yeah.Henry: Tell me why. Because those would typically, I think, be considered the superior poets.James: Do you think Shelly? I think Keats would be considered the superior poetHenry: To Shelly?James: Certainly, yes. I think to Shelly and Coleridge, that's where current fashion would place them. I mean, I have to say Coleridge is one of my all time favourite poets. In terms of people who had just every so often think, I'd love to read a poem, I'd love to read Frost at Midnight. I'd love to read the Aeolian Harp. I'd love to read This Lime Tree Bower, My Prison. I'd love to read Kubla Khan. Outside Milton, Coleridge is probably the person that I read most, but I think, I guess there's a case that Coleridge's output is pretty slight. What his reputation rest on is The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Kubla Khan, the conversation poems, which a lot of people think are kind of plagiarised Wordsworth, at least in their style and tone, and then maybe not much else. Does anybody particularly read Cristabel and get much out of it nowadays? Dejection an Ode people like: it's never done an awful lot for me, so I sort of, in my personal Pantheon Coleridge is at the top and he's such an immensely sympathetic personality as well and such a curious person. But I think he's a little slight, and there's probably nothing in Coleridge that can match that gorgeous passage of Keats that you read. I think.Henry: Yeah, that's probably true. He's got more ideas, I guess. I don't think it matters that he's slight. Robert Frost said something about his ambition had been to lodge five or six poems in the English language, and if he'd done that, he would've achieved greatness. And obviously Frost very much did do that and is probably the most quotable and well-known poet. But I think Coleridge easily meets those criteria with the poems you described. And if all we had was the Rime of the Ancient Mariner, I would think it to be like Tom O' Bedlam, like the Elegy in a Country Churchyard, one of those great, great, great poems that on its own terms, deserves to be on this list.James: Yeah, and I guess another point in his favour is a great poet is they're all pretty unalike. I think if given Rime of the Ancient Mariner, a conversation poem and Kubla Khan and said, guess whether these are three separate poets or the same guy, you would say, oh, there's a totally different poems. They're three different people. One's a kind of creepy gothic horror ballad. Another one is a philosophical reflection. Another is the sort of Mad Opium dream. I mean, Kubla Khan is just without a doubt, one of the top handful of purposes in English language, I think.Henry: Oh yeah, yeah. And it has that quality of the Elegy in a Country Churchyard that so many of the lines are so quotable in the sense that they could be, in the case of the Elegy in a Country Churchyard, a lot of novels did get their titles from it. I think it was James Lees Milne. Every volume of his diaries, which there are obviously quite a few, had its title from Kubla Khan. Ancient as the Hills and so on. It's one of those poems. It just provides us with so much wonderful language in the space of what a page.James: Sort of goes all over the place. Romantic chasms, Abyssinian made with dulcimer, icy pleasure dome with caves of ice. It just such a—it's so mysterious. I mean, there's nothing else remotely like it at all in English literature that I can think of, and its kind strangeness and virtuosity. I really love that poem.Henry: Now, should we say a word for Shelly? Because everyone knows Ozymandias, which is one of those internet poems that goes around a lot, but I don't know how well known the rest of his body of work is beyond that. I fell in love with him when I read a very short lyric called “To—” Music, when soft voices die,Vibrates in the memory—Odours, when sweet violets sicken,Live within the sense they quicken.Rose leaves, when the rose is dead,Are heaped for the belovèd's bed;And so thy thoughts, when thou art gone,Love itself shall slumber on.I found that to be one of those poems that was once read and immediately memorised. But he has this very, again, broad body of work. He can write about philosophical ideas, he can write about moods, he can write narrative. He wrote Julian and Maddalo, which is a dialogue poem about visiting a madman and taking sympathy with him and asking the question, who's really mad here? Very Swiftian question. He can write about the sublime in Mont Blanc. I mean, he has got huge intellectual power along with the beauty. He's what people want Tennyson to be, I guess.James: Yeah. Or what people think Byron might be. I think Shelly is great. I don't quite get that Byron is so much more famous. Shelly has just a dramatic and, well, maybe not quite just as, but an incredibly dramatic and exciting life to go along with it,Henry: I think some of the short lyrics from Byron have got much more purchase in day-to-day life, like She Walks in Beauty.James: Yeah. I think you have to maybe get Shelly a little more length, don't you? I mean, even there's something like Ode to the West Wind is you have to take the whole thing to love it, perhaps.Henry: Yes. And again, I think he's a bit like George Herbert. He's always thinking you really have to pay attention and think with him. Whereas Byron has got lots of lines you can copy out and give to a girl that you like on the bus or something.James: Yes. No, that's true.Henry: I don't mean that in quite as rude a way as it sounds. I do think that's a good thing. But Shelly's, I think, much more of a thinker, and I agree with you Childe Harold and so forth. It's all crashing bore. I might to try it again, but awful.James: I don't want move past Coledridge without inflicting little Coledridge on you. Can I?Henry: Oh, yes. No, sorry. We didn't read Coledridge, right?James: Are just, I mean, what to read from Coledridge? I mean, I could read the whole of Kubla Khan, but that would be maybe a bit boring. I mean, again, these are pretty famous and obvious lines from Frost at Midnight, which is Coledridge sitting up late at night in his cottage with his baby in its cradle, and he sort of addressing it and thinking about it. And I just think these lines are so, well, everything we've said about Coledridge, philosophical, thoughtful, beautiful, in a sort of totally knockout, undeniable way. So it goes, he's talking to his young son, I think. My babe so beautiful! it thrills my heartWith tender gladness, thus to look at thee,And think that thou shalt learn far other lore,And in far other scenes! For I was rearedIn the great city, pent 'mid cloisters dim,And saw nought lovely but the sky and stars.But thou, my babe! shalt wander like a breezeBy lakes and sandy shores, beneath the cragsOf ancient mountain, and beneath the clouds,Which image in their bulk both lakes and shoresAnd mountain crags: so shalt thou see and hearThe lovely shapes and sounds intelligibleOf that eternal language, which thy GodUtters, who from eternity doth teachHimself in all, and all things in himself.Which is just—what aren't those lines of poetry doing? And with such kind of confidence, the way you get from talking to your baby and its cradle about what kind of upbringing you hope it will have to those flashes of, I mean quite Wordsworthian beauty, and then the sort of philosophical tone at the end. It's just such a stunning, lovely poem. Yeah, I love it.Henry: Now we both got Yeats and Hopkins. And Hopkins I think is really, really a tremendous poet, but neither of us has put Browning, which a lot of other people maybe would. Can we have a go at Browning for a minute? Can we leave him in shreds? James: Oh God. I mean, you're going to be a better advocate of Browning than I am. I've never—Henry: Don't advocate for him. No, no, no.James: We we're sticking him out.Henry: We're sticking him.James: I wonder if I even feel qualified to do that. I mean, I read quite a bit of Browning at university, found it hard to get on with sometimes. I think I found a little affected and pretentious about him and a little kind of needlessly difficult in a sort of off-puttingly Victorian way. But then I was reading, I reviewed a couple of years ago, John Carey has an excellent introduction to English poetry. I think it's called A Little History of Poetry in which he described Browning's incredibly long poem, The Ring in the Book as one of the all time wonders of verbal art. This thing is, I think it's like 700 or 800 pages long poem in the Penguin edition, which has always given me pause for thought and made me think that I've dismissed Browning out of hand because if John Carey's telling me that, then I must be wrong.But I think I have had very little pleasure out of Browning, and I mean by the end of the 19th century, there was a bit of a sort of Victorian cult of Browning, which I think was influential. And people liked him because he was a living celebrity who'd been anointed as a great poet, and people liked to go and worship at his feet and stuff. I do kind of wonder whether he's lasted, I don't think many people read him for pleasure, and I wonder if that maybe tells its own story. What's your case against Browning?Henry: No, much the same. I think he's very accomplished and very, he probably, he deserves a place on the list, but I can't enjoy him and I don't really know why. But to me, he's very clever and very good, but as you say, a bit dull.James: Yeah, I totally agree. I'm willing. It must be our failing, I'm sure. Yeah, no, I'm sure. I'm willing to believe they're all, if this podcast is listened to by scholars of Victorian poetry, they're cringing and holding their head in their hands at this—Henry: They've turned off already. Well, if you read The Ring and the Book, you can come back on and tell us about it.James: Oh God, yeah. I mean, in about 20 years time.Henry: I think we both have Auden, but you said something you said, “does Auden have an edge of fraudulence?”James: Yeah, I mean, again, I feel like I'm being really rude about a lot of poets that I really love. I don't really know why doesn't think, realising that people consider to be a little bit weak makes you appreciate their best stuff even more I guess. I mean, it's hard to make that argument without reading a bit of Auden. I wonder what bit gets it across. I haven't gotten any ready. What would you say about Auden?Henry: I love Auden. I think he was the best poet of the 20th century maybe. I mean, I have to sort of begrudgingly accept T.S. Eliot beside, I think he can do everything from, he can do songs, light lyrics, comic verse, he can do occasional poetry, obituaries. He was a political poet. He wrote in every form, I think almost literally that might be true. Every type of stanza, different lines. He was just structurally remarkable. I suspect he'll end up a bit like Pope once the culture has tur

Has modern humanity lost its connection to the world outside our heads? And can our experience of art and poetry help train us for a more elevated resonance with the cosmos?In today's episode, theologian Miroslav Volf interviews philosopher Charles Taylor about his latest book, Cosmic Connections: Poetry in the Age of Disenchantment. In it he turns to poetry to help articulate the human experience of the cosmos we're a part of.Together they discuss the modern Enlightenment view of our relation to the world and its shortcomings; modern disenchantment and the prospects of reenchantment through art and poetry; Annie Dillard and the readiness to experience the world and what it's always offering; how to hold the horrors of natural life with the transcendent joys; Charles recites some of William Wordsworth's “Tintern Abbey” and Gerard Manley Hopkins's “The Windhover”; how to become fully arrested by beauty; and the value we find in human experience of the world.Production NotesThis podcast featured Charles Taylor and Miroslav VolfEdited and Produced by Evan RosaHosted by Evan RosaProduction Assistance by Emily Brookfield, Alexa Rollow, Kacie Barrett, and Zoë HalabanA Production of the Yale Center for Faith & Culture at Yale Divinity School https://faith.yale.edu/aboutSupport For the Life of the World podcast by giving to the Yale Center for Faith & Culture: https://faith.yale.edu/give

Raymond Antrobus joins Kevin Young to read “A Protactile Version of ‘Tintern Abbey,' ” by John Lee Clark, and his own poem “Signs, Music.” Antrobus has received the Rathbones Folio Prize, the Ted Hughes Award from the Poetry Society, the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award, the Lucille Clifton Legacy Award, and a Somerset Maugham Award, among other honors. 

The spring 2024 edition of Unearthed! concludes with books and letters, fashion and cosmetics, medicine, shipwrecks, and the assorted finds that are categorized as potpourri. Research: Abdallah, Hannah. “The first Neolithic boats in the Mediterranean.” EurekAlert. 3/20/2024. https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1037843 Adam Rohrlach, Cases of trisomy 21 and trisomy 18 among historic and prehistoric individuals discovered from ancient DNA, Nature Communications (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-45438-1. www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-45438-1 Addley, Esther. “‘Flat-packed furniture for the next life': Roman funerary bed found in London.” The Guardian. 2/5/2024. https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/feb/05/flat-packed-furniture-for-the-next-life-roman-funerary-bed-found-in-london Alberge, Dalya. “‘Incredibly rare' discovery reveals bedbugs came to Britain with the Romans.” The Guardian. 2/3/2024. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/feb/03/incredibly-rare-discovery-reveals-bedbugs-came-to-britain-with-the-romans Anderson, Sonja. “Another Mysterious Roman Dodecahedron Has Been Unearthed in England.” Smithsonian. 1/22/2024. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/another-of-ancient-romes-mysterious-12-sided-objects-has-been-found-in-england-180983632/ Anderson, Sonja. “Bodies and Treasure Found in Polish Lake Could Be Connected to Ancient Water Ritual.” Smithsonian. 1/26/2024. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/ancient-europeans-buried-bodies-and-treasure-in-this-polish-lake-180983666/ Anderson, Sonja. “Just How Old Are the Cave Paintings in Spain's Cova Dones?.” Smithsonian Magazine. January/February 2024. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-old-cave-paintings-spain-cova-dones-180983456/ Anderson, Sonja. “Police Find Ancient Teenager's Body, Preserved in Irish Bog for 2,500 Years.” 2/6/2024. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/a-bog-in-northern-ireland-preserved-this-teenagers-body-for-2500-years-180983734/ Anderson, Sonja. “Sunken British Warship That Left Crew Marooned for 66 Days Has Been Identified.” Smithsonian Magazine. 3/27/2024. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/how-the-marooned-crew-of-this-sunken-warship-escaped-the-florida-keys-in-improvised-boats-180984028/ Anderson, Sonja. “This Medieval Sword Spent 1,000 Years at the Bottom of a Polish River.” Smithsonian. 2/6/2024. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/this-medieval-sword-spent-1000-years-at-the-bottom-of-a-polish-river-180983684/ “Megalithic ‘Blinkerwall' Found in the Baltic Sea.” 2/14/2024. https://www.archaeology.org/news/12157-240214-baltic-sea-blinkerwall “Unbaked Neolithic Bread Identified in Turkey.” 3/6/2024. https://www.archaeology.org/news/12195-240306-turkey-unbaked-bread org. “Ship's Bell Recovered From Torpedoed WWI Destroyer.” 2/15/2024. https://www.archaeology.org/news/12161-240215-jacob-jones-bell ArtNet News. “Archaeologists Discover a Medieval Kitchen in a Polish Museum's Basement.”2/8/2024. https://news.artnet.com/art-world/royal-kitchen-poland-museum-basement-2429236 Babbs, Verity. “A Chinese Imperial Robe Found in a Cardboard Box Could Fetch $60,000 at Auction.” ArtNet. 2/29/2024. https://news.artnet.com/market/imperial-robe-dreweatts-2444018 Babbs, Verity. “A Liverpool Museum Wants Your Help to ID This Enigmatic Portrait.” ArtNet. 3/22/2024. https://news.artnet.com/art-world/liverpool-museums-black-boy-information-request-2457075 Babbs, Verity. “An Artifact Found by a Metal Detectorist in Wales Is Officially Treasure.” 3/19/2024. https://news.artnet.com/art-world/silver-thimble-treasure-2454023 Babbs, Verity. “Experts Have Identified the Tombs Where Alexander the Great's Family Are Buried.” Artnet. 2/21/2024. https://news.artnet.com/art-world/alexander-the-great-father-tomb-2437376 Babbs, Verity. “Is the Secret Ingredient to Preserving Ancient Papyrus…Wasabi?.” ArtNet. 2/29/2024. https://news.artnet.com/art-world/wasabi-ancient-egyptian-papyrus-2443171 Bangor University. “Researchers locate cargo ship SS Hartdale, torpedoed in 1915.” Phys.org. 3/13/2024. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-cargo-ship-ss-hartdale-torpedoed.html#google_vignette Bartelme, Tony. “Searching for Amelia Earhart.” Post and Courier. https://www.postandcourier.com/news/special_reports/amelia-earhart-search-tony-romeo-deep-sea-vision/article_3a42e6a8-a0e5-11ee-a942-77a1581d6b19.html Binswanger, Julia. “Engravings on 2,000-Year-Old Knife Might Be the Oldest Runes Ever Found in Denmark.” 1/25/2025. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/archaeologists-find-denmarks-oldest-written-word-on-a-2000-year-old-knife-180983650/ Binswanger, Julia. “Metal Detectorist Finds a Rare 3,000-Year-Old Dress Fastener.” Smithsonian. 3/13/2024. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/metal-detectorist-finds-a-potentially-life-changing-3000-year-old-gold-accessory-180983770/ Cardiff University. “Evidence of ancient medieval feasting rituals uncovered in grounds of historic property.” Phys.org. 1/4/2024. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-evidence-ancient-medieval-feasting-rituals.html Cawley, Laurence & Sam Russell. “Medieval paintings found at Christ's College, Cambridge by builders.” 1/9/2024. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-67926737 CBS News. “Theft of ruby slippers from "Wizard of Oz" was reformed mobster's "one last score," court memo says.” 1/21/2024. https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/news/reformed-mobster-one-last-score-judy-garlands-wizard-of-oz-ruby-slippers/. Clayton, Abene. “Second man charged with stealing Dorothy's Wizard of Oz ruby slippers.” The Guardian. 3/18/2024. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/mar/18/wizard-of-oz-ruby-slippers-stolen-second-man-charged “Discovery of immense fortifications dating back 4,000 years in northwestern Arabia.” Phys.org. 1/10/2024. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-discovery-immense-fortifications-dating-years.html#google_vignette “Solving the 120-year maritime mystery of the SS Nemesis.” PhysOrg. 2/26/2024. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-year-maritime-mystery-ss-nemesis.html Deb, Sopan. “Old Newspaper Stories Offer Clues to 19th-Century Shipwreck in Lake Michigan.” New York Times. 3/28/2024. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/28/us/uss-milwaukee-shipwreck.html?smid=em-share Deter-Wolf A, Robitaille B, Riday D, Burlot A, Sialuk Jacobsen M. Chalcolithic Tattooing: Historical and Experimental Evaluation of the Tyrolean Iceman's Body Markings. European Journal of Archaeology. Published online 2024:1-22. doi:10.1017/eaa.2024.5 Dietrich, Oliver. “Burial mounds and a chariot grave. Archaeologists discover a Neolithic burial landscape on the Eulenberg near Magdeburg.” 3/15/2024. https://idw-online.de/en/news830373 Drury-Bradey, Paul. “Huge tsunami with 20 meter waves may have wiped out Stone Age communities in Northumberland.” Phys.org. 1/29/2024. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-huge-tsunami-meter-stone-age.html#google_vignette El-Aref, Nevine. “Spanish archaeologists unearth Ptolemaic and Roman treasures in Minya's Al Bahnasa.” Ahram Online. 1/8/2024. https://english.ahram.org.eg/News/515253.aspx Eskandari, N., De Carlo, E., Zorzi, F. et al. A Bronze Age lip-paint from southeastern Iran. Sci Rep 14, 2670 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-52490-w Georgiou, Aristos. “Prehistoric Burials Reveal Early Evidence of Body Piercing 11,000 Years Ago.” Newsweek. 3/11/2024. https://www.newsweek.com/prehistoric-burials-reveal-early-evidence-body-piercing-11000-years-ago-1877984 Green, Clare. “First prehistoric person with Turner syndrome identified from ancient DNA.” Via EurekAlert. 1/11/2024. https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1030707 Hemsworth, Wade. “Researchers create method to detect cases of anemia in archaeological remains.” Via EurekAlert. 2/28/2024. https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1035984 Huntington, Stewart. “New NAGPRA rules: ‘We have an obligation to change'.” Indian Country Today. 3/20/2024. https://ictnews.org/news/new-nagpra-rules-we-have-an-obligation-to-change “ICT Reports: NAGPRA crackdown sends museums reeling.” Indian Country Today. 3/22/2024. https://ictnews.org/news/ict-reports-nagpra-crackdown-sends-museums-reeling Killgrove, Kristina. “1st known tuberculosis cases in Neanderthals revealed in prehistoric bone analysis.” LiveScience. 2/2/2024. https://www.livescience.com/archaeology/1st-known-tuberculosis-cases-in-neanderthals-revealed-in-prehistoric-bone-anaylsis Kuta, Sarah. “Everyone Thought This 4,000-Year-Old Tomb Had Been Destroyed. Then, an Archaeologist Found It.” Smithsonian. 1/30/2024. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/lost-tomb-rediscovered-ireland-180983662/ Lawson-Tancred, Jo. “A Stolen Van Gogh Painting Worth $6.5 Million Will Go Back on Display.” Artnet. 2/8/2024. https://news.artnet.com/art-world/stolen-van-gogh-on-display-2430094 Lawson-Tancred, Jo. “British Museum Will Publicly Display Some of Its Stolen Gems.” 2/2/2024. https://news.artnet.com/art-world/british-museum-gems-on-display-2427128 Lawson-Tancred, Jo. “Students Make Major Breakthrough in Use of A.I. to Decipher Ancient Scrolls.” Artnet. 2/7/2024. https://news.artnet.com/art-world/students-make-major-breakthrough-in-use-of-a-i-to-decipher-ancient-scrolls-2429506 Leonardo P. Troiano et al, A remarkable assemblage of petroglyphs and dinosaur footprints in Northeast Brazil, Scientific Reports (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-56479-3 Lewsey, Fred. “Study reveals ‘cozy domesticity' of prehistoric stilt-house dwellers in England's ancient marshland.” University of Cambridge via EurekAlert. 3/19/2024. https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1037495 Marx, Danae. “Unraveling the mysteries of the Mongolian Arc: exploring a monumental 405-kilometer wall system in Eastern Mongolia.” EurekAlert. 1/3/2024. https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1030161 Matthew Steggle, John Shakespeare's "Spiritual Testament" Is Not John Shakespeare's, Shakespeare Quarterly (2024). DOI: 10.1093/sq/quae003 net. “Medieval love badge discovered in Poland.” https://www.medievalists.net/2024/02/medieval-love-badge-discovered-in-poland/ Metcalfe, Tom. “3,300-year-old tablet from mysterious Hittite Empire describes catastrophic invasion of four cities.” LiveScience. 3/11/2024. https://www.livescience.com/archaeology/3300-year-old-tablet-from-mysterious-hittite-empire-describes-catastrophic-invasion-of-four-cities Metcalfe, Tom. “Undeciphered script from Easter Island may predate European colonization.” LiveScience. 2/9/2024. https://www.livescience.com/archaeology/undeciphered-script-from-easter-island-may-predate-european-colonization Moran, Tony. “First DNA study of ancient Eastern Arabians reveals malaria adaptation – study.” EurekAlert. 2/27/2024. https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1035287 Morris, Steven. “Tintern Abbey excavation suggests poor people were later buried alongside lords.” Steven Morris. The Guardian. 1/3/2024. https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/jan/04/tintern-abbey-excavation-suggests-poor-people-were-later-buried-alongside-lords O'Laughlin Frank. “‘Rising tide lifts all boats': Century-old shipwreck unearthed on Massachusetts beach.” Boston 25 News. 3/12/2024. https://www.boston25news.com/news/local/rising-tide-lifts-all-boats-century-old-shipwreck-unearthed-massachusetts-beach/DLLJF5C3DZGKJOEUU7KTRUWUZI/ org. “Archaeologists probe mysterious Canadian shipwreck.” 2/6/2024. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-archaeologists-probe-mysterious-canadian-shipwreck.html org. “Vessel off Florida Keys identified as British warship that sank in the 18th century.” 3/10/2024. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-vessel-florida-keys-british-warship.html#google_vignette Qiblawi, Adnan. “Italians Worry the Deciphering of the Herculaneum Scrolls Could Lead to More Digs.” 2/20/2024. https://news.artnet.com/art-world/italians-fear-more-herculaneum-digs-vesuvius-2437451 Quiblawi, Adnan. “Spanish Archaeologists Make the Sweet Discovery of a 19th-Century Chocolate Factory.” ArtNet. 2/15/2024. https://news.artnet.com/art-world/barcelona-19th-century-chocolate-factory-2435176 Rascius, Brendan. “Spicy wine: New study reveals ancient Romans may have had peculiar tastes.” Phys.org. 1/24/2024. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-spicy-wine-reveals-ancient-romans.html Schrader, Adam. “Ancient Lipstick Dating Back More Than Three Millennia Is Found in Iran.” ArtNet. 2/14/2024. https://news.artnet.com/art-world/ancient-lipstick-found-in-iran-2434396 Schrader, Adam. “The Van Gogh Museum Fires Four Staff Members Over Pokémon Chaos.” ArtNet. 1/24/2024. https://news.artnet.com/art-world/van-gogh-museum-fires-workers-pokemon-2422901 Shoichet, Catherine E. “A new trove of records could help many reconnect with their Irish roots. They come from a surprising source.” CNN. 3/8/2024. https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/08/world/irish-ancestry-guinness-brewery-archives-cec/index.html Smithsonian Magazine. “Metal Detectorist Finds Rare 1,500-Year-Old Gold Ring in Denmark.” 2/26/2024. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/metal-detectorist-discovers-a-rare-1500-year-old-gold-ring-in-denmark-180983830/ ‘ South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology. “Ötzi's tattooing technique through self-experimentation.” https://www.iceman.it/en/tattootechniqueotzi/ Sullivan, Will. “Ancient DNA From Eurasian Herders Sheds Light on the Origins of Multiple Sclerosis.” Smithsonian Magazine. 1/12/2024. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/ancient-dna-from-eurasian-herders-sheds-light-on-the-origins-of-multiple-sclerosis-180983579/ The Francis Crick Institute. “First prehistoric person with Turner syndrome identified from ancient DNA.” 1/11/2024 https://phys.org/news/2024-01-prehistoric-person-turner-syndrome-ancient.html The History Blog. “Full gamut of Neolithic occupation, funerary practices found at site in France.” http://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/69681 The History Blog. “Medieval love token found under Gdańsk port crane.” 2/17/2024. https://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/69492 The History Blog. “Rare medieval belt loop found in Poland.” 3/20/2024. https://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/69734 The History Blog. “Rare Merovingian gold ring found in Jutland.” 2/20/2024. https://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/69517 The History Blog. “Roman silver toilet spoon found in Wales.” 1/30/2024. https://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/69380 The History Blog. “Section of Roman 3rd century wall found in Aachen.” 3/24/2024. http://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/69767 The History Blog. “Warring States cemetery with chariot burial found in central China.” https://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/69748 The National Archives. “Pristine sweater in parcel posted in 1807.” 2/29/2024. https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/about/news/pristine-sweater-found-in-parcel-posted-in-1807/ Thijs Porck, Newly Discovered Pieces of an Old English Glossed Psalter: The Alkmaar Fragments of the N-Psalter, Anglo-Saxon England (2024). DOI: 10.1017/S0263675123000121 Thorsberg, Christian. “DNA From 2,000-Year-Old Skeletons Hints at the Origins of Syphilis.” Smithsonian Magazine. 1/29/2024. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/dna-from-2000-year-old-skeletons-hints-at-the-origins-of-syphilis-180983657/ Tondo, Lorenzo. “Archaeologists find Pompeii fresco depicting Greek mythological siblings.” The Guardian. 3/1/2024. https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/mar/01/pompeii-fresco-phrixus-and-helle-greek-mythological-siblings S. Department of the Interior. “Interior Department Announces Final Rule for Implementation of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act.” 12/6/2023. https://www.doi.gov/pressreleases/interior-department-announces-final-rule-implementation-native-american-graves “Anglo-Saxon cemetery discovered in Lincolnshire to appear on BBC.” https://www.viking-link.com/news/anglo-saxon-cemetery-discovered-in-lincolnshire-to-appear-on-bbc-s-digging-for-britain/ Weber, Bob. “Divers involved in Franklin expedition say the 2023 season 'highly productive'.” CBC. 1/29/2024. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/franklin-expedition-update-2024-1.7097874 Whiddington, Richard. “Archaeologists in Brazil Discover 16 New Rock Art Sites.” ArtNet. 3/14/2024. https://news.artnet.com/art-world/16-new-rock-art-sites-brazil-2452134 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Time for all the things literally or figuratively unearthed in the first quarter of 2024. Part one includes updates, burial sites, walls, edibles and potables, and art and architecture.  Research: Abdallah, Hannah. “The first Neolithic boats in the Mediterranean.” EurekAlert. 3/20/2024. https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1037843 Adam Rohrlach, Cases of trisomy 21 and trisomy 18 among historic and prehistoric individuals discovered from ancient DNA, Nature Communications (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-45438-1. www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-45438-1 Addley, Esther. “‘Flat-packed furniture for the next life': Roman funerary bed found in London.” The Guardian. 2/5/2024. https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/feb/05/flat-packed-furniture-for-the-next-life-roman-funerary-bed-found-in-london Alberge, Dalya. “‘Incredibly rare' discovery reveals bedbugs came to Britain with the Romans.” The Guardian. 2/3/2024. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/feb/03/incredibly-rare-discovery-reveals-bedbugs-came-to-britain-with-the-romans Anderson, Sonja. “Another Mysterious Roman Dodecahedron Has Been Unearthed in England.” Smithsonian. 1/22/2024. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/another-of-ancient-romes-mysterious-12-sided-objects-has-been-found-in-england-180983632/ Anderson, Sonja. “Bodies and Treasure Found in Polish Lake Could Be Connected to Ancient Water Ritual.” Smithsonian. 1/26/2024. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/ancient-europeans-buried-bodies-and-treasure-in-this-polish-lake-180983666/ Anderson, Sonja. “Just How Old Are the Cave Paintings in Spain's Cova Dones?.” Smithsonian Magazine. January/February 2024. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-old-cave-paintings-spain-cova-dones-180983456/ Anderson, Sonja. “Police Find Ancient Teenager's Body, Preserved in Irish Bog for 2,500 Years.” 2/6/2024. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/a-bog-in-northern-ireland-preserved-this-teenagers-body-for-2500-years-180983734/ Anderson, Sonja. “Sunken British Warship That Left Crew Marooned for 66 Days Has Been Identified.” Smithsonian Magazine. 3/27/2024. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/how-the-marooned-crew-of-this-sunken-warship-escaped-the-florida-keys-in-improvised-boats-180984028/ Anderson, Sonja. “This Medieval Sword Spent 1,000 Years at the Bottom of a Polish River.” Smithsonian. 2/6/2024. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/this-medieval-sword-spent-1000-years-at-the-bottom-of-a-polish-river-180983684/ “Megalithic ‘Blinkerwall' Found in the Baltic Sea.” 2/14/2024. https://www.archaeology.org/news/12157-240214-baltic-sea-blinkerwall “Unbaked Neolithic Bread Identified in Turkey.” 3/6/2024. https://www.archaeology.org/news/12195-240306-turkey-unbaked-bread org. “Ship's Bell Recovered From Torpedoed WWI Destroyer.” 2/15/2024. https://www.archaeology.org/news/12161-240215-jacob-jones-bell ArtNet News. “Archaeologists Discover a Medieval Kitchen in a Polish Museum's Basement.”2/8/2024. https://news.artnet.com/art-world/royal-kitchen-poland-museum-basement-2429236 Babbs, Verity. “A Chinese Imperial Robe Found in a Cardboard Box Could Fetch $60,000 at Auction.” ArtNet. 2/29/2024. https://news.artnet.com/market/imperial-robe-dreweatts-2444018 Babbs, Verity. “A Liverpool Museum Wants Your Help to ID This Enigmatic Portrait.” ArtNet. 3/22/2024. https://news.artnet.com/art-world/liverpool-museums-black-boy-information-request-2457075 Babbs, Verity. “An Artifact Found by a Metal Detectorist in Wales Is Officially Treasure.” 3/19/2024. https://news.artnet.com/art-world/silver-thimble-treasure-2454023 Babbs, Verity. “Experts Have Identified the Tombs Where Alexander the Great's Family Are Buried.” Artnet. 2/21/2024. https://news.artnet.com/art-world/alexander-the-great-father-tomb-2437376 Babbs, Verity. “Is the Secret Ingredient to Preserving Ancient Papyrus…Wasabi?.” ArtNet. 2/29/2024. https://news.artnet.com/art-world/wasabi-ancient-egyptian-papyrus-2443171 Bangor University. “Researchers locate cargo ship SS Hartdale, torpedoed in 1915.” Phys.org. 3/13/2024. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-cargo-ship-ss-hartdale-torpedoed.html#google_vignette Bartelme, Tony. “Searching for Amelia Earhart.” Post and Courier. https://www.postandcourier.com/news/special_reports/amelia-earhart-search-tony-romeo-deep-sea-vision/article_3a42e6a8-a0e5-11ee-a942-77a1581d6b19.html Binswanger, Julia. “Engravings on 2,000-Year-Old Knife Might Be the Oldest Runes Ever Found in Denmark.” 1/25/2025. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/archaeologists-find-denmarks-oldest-written-word-on-a-2000-year-old-knife-180983650/ Binswanger, Julia. “Metal Detectorist Finds a Rare 3,000-Year-Old Dress Fastener.” Smithsonian. 3/13/2024. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/metal-detectorist-finds-a-potentially-life-changing-3000-year-old-gold-accessory-180983770/ Cardiff University. “Evidence of ancient medieval feasting rituals uncovered in grounds of historic property.” Phys.org. 1/4/2024. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-evidence-ancient-medieval-feasting-rituals.html Cawley, Laurence & Sam Russell. “Medieval paintings found at Christ's College, Cambridge by builders.” 1/9/2024. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-67926737 CBS News. “Theft of ruby slippers from "Wizard of Oz" was reformed mobster's "one last score," court memo says.” 1/21/2024. https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/news/reformed-mobster-one-last-score-judy-garlands-wizard-of-oz-ruby-slippers/. Clayton, Abene. “Second man charged with stealing Dorothy's Wizard of Oz ruby slippers.” The Guardian. 3/18/2024. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/mar/18/wizard-of-oz-ruby-slippers-stolen-second-man-charged “Discovery of immense fortifications dating back 4,000 years in northwestern Arabia.” Phys.org. 1/10/2024. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-discovery-immense-fortifications-dating-years.html#google_vignette “Solving the 120-year maritime mystery of the SS Nemesis.” PhysOrg. 2/26/2024. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-year-maritime-mystery-ss-nemesis.html Deb, Sopan. “Old Newspaper Stories Offer Clues to 19th-Century Shipwreck in Lake Michigan.” New York Times. 3/28/2024. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/28/us/uss-milwaukee-shipwreck.html?smid=em-share Deter-Wolf A, Robitaille B, Riday D, Burlot A, Sialuk Jacobsen M. Chalcolithic Tattooing: Historical and Experimental Evaluation of the Tyrolean Iceman's Body Markings. European Journal of Archaeology. Published online 2024:1-22. doi:10.1017/eaa.2024.5 Dietrich, Oliver. “Burial mounds and a chariot grave. Archaeologists discover a Neolithic burial landscape on the Eulenberg near Magdeburg.” 3/15/2024. https://idw-online.de/en/news830373 Drury-Bradey, Paul. “Huge tsunami with 20 meter waves may have wiped out Stone Age communities in Northumberland.” Phys.org. 1/29/2024. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-huge-tsunami-meter-stone-age.html#google_vignette El-Aref, Nevine. “Spanish archaeologists unearth Ptolemaic and Roman treasures in Minya's Al Bahnasa.” Ahram Online. 1/8/2024. https://english.ahram.org.eg/News/515253.aspx Eskandari, N., De Carlo, E., Zorzi, F. et al. A Bronze Age lip-paint from southeastern Iran. Sci Rep 14, 2670 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-52490-w Georgiou, Aristos. “Prehistoric Burials Reveal Early Evidence of Body Piercing 11,000 Years Ago.” Newsweek. 3/11/2024. https://www.newsweek.com/prehistoric-burials-reveal-early-evidence-body-piercing-11000-years-ago-1877984 Green, Clare. “First prehistoric person with Turner syndrome identified from ancient DNA.” Via EurekAlert. 1/11/2024. https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1030707 Hemsworth, Wade. “Researchers create method to detect cases of anemia in archaeological remains.” Via EurekAlert. 2/28/2024. https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1035984 Huntington, Stewart. “New NAGPRA rules: ‘We have an obligation to change'.” Indian Country Today. 3/20/2024. https://ictnews.org/news/new-nagpra-rules-we-have-an-obligation-to-change “ICT Reports: NAGPRA crackdown sends museums reeling.” Indian Country Today. 3/22/2024. https://ictnews.org/news/ict-reports-nagpra-crackdown-sends-museums-reeling Killgrove, Kristina. “1st known tuberculosis cases in Neanderthals revealed in prehistoric bone analysis.” LiveScience. 2/2/2024. https://www.livescience.com/archaeology/1st-known-tuberculosis-cases-in-neanderthals-revealed-in-prehistoric-bone-anaylsis Kuta, Sarah. “Everyone Thought This 4,000-Year-Old Tomb Had Been Destroyed. Then, an Archaeologist Found It.” Smithsonian. 1/30/2024. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/lost-tomb-rediscovered-ireland-180983662/ Lawson-Tancred, Jo. “A Stolen Van Gogh Painting Worth $6.5 Million Will Go Back on Display.” Artnet. 2/8/2024. https://news.artnet.com/art-world/stolen-van-gogh-on-display-2430094 Lawson-Tancred, Jo. “British Museum Will Publicly Display Some of Its Stolen Gems.” 2/2/2024. https://news.artnet.com/art-world/british-museum-gems-on-display-2427128 Lawson-Tancred, Jo. “Students Make Major Breakthrough in Use of A.I. to Decipher Ancient Scrolls.” Artnet. 2/7/2024. https://news.artnet.com/art-world/students-make-major-breakthrough-in-use-of-a-i-to-decipher-ancient-scrolls-2429506 Leonardo P. Troiano et al, A remarkable assemblage of petroglyphs and dinosaur footprints in Northeast Brazil, Scientific Reports (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-56479-3 Lewsey, Fred. “Study reveals ‘cozy domesticity' of prehistoric stilt-house dwellers in England's ancient marshland.” University of Cambridge via EurekAlert. 3/19/2024. https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1037495 Marx, Danae. “Unraveling the mysteries of the Mongolian Arc: exploring a monumental 405-kilometer wall system in Eastern Mongolia.” EurekAlert. 1/3/2024. https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1030161 Matthew Steggle, John Shakespeare's "Spiritual Testament" Is Not John Shakespeare's, Shakespeare Quarterly (2024). DOI: 10.1093/sq/quae003 net. “Medieval love badge discovered in Poland.” https://www.medievalists.net/2024/02/medieval-love-badge-discovered-in-poland/ Metcalfe, Tom. “3,300-year-old tablet from mysterious Hittite Empire describes catastrophic invasion of four cities.” LiveScience. 3/11/2024. https://www.livescience.com/archaeology/3300-year-old-tablet-from-mysterious-hittite-empire-describes-catastrophic-invasion-of-four-cities Metcalfe, Tom. “Undeciphered script from Easter Island may predate European colonization.” LiveScience. 2/9/2024. https://www.livescience.com/archaeology/undeciphered-script-from-easter-island-may-predate-european-colonization Moran, Tony. “First DNA study of ancient Eastern Arabians reveals malaria adaptation – study.” EurekAlert. 2/27/2024. https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1035287 Morris, Steven. “Tintern Abbey excavation suggests poor people were later buried alongside lords.” Steven Morris. The Guardian. 1/3/2024. https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/jan/04/tintern-abbey-excavation-suggests-poor-people-were-later-buried-alongside-lords O'Laughlin Frank. “‘Rising tide lifts all boats': Century-old shipwreck unearthed on Massachusetts beach.” Boston 25 News. 3/12/2024. https://www.boston25news.com/news/local/rising-tide-lifts-all-boats-century-old-shipwreck-unearthed-massachusetts-beach/DLLJF5C3DZGKJOEUU7KTRUWUZI/ org. “Archaeologists probe mysterious Canadian shipwreck.” 2/6/2024. https://phys.org/news/2024-02-archaeologists-probe-mysterious-canadian-shipwreck.html org. “Vessel off Florida Keys identified as British warship that sank in the 18th century.” 3/10/2024. https://phys.org/news/2024-03-vessel-florida-keys-british-warship.html#google_vignette Qiblawi, Adnan. “Italians Worry the Deciphering of the Herculaneum Scrolls Could Lead to More Digs.” 2/20/2024. https://news.artnet.com/art-world/italians-fear-more-herculaneum-digs-vesuvius-2437451 Quiblawi, Adnan. “Spanish Archaeologists Make the Sweet Discovery of a 19th-Century Chocolate Factory.” ArtNet. 2/15/2024. https://news.artnet.com/art-world/barcelona-19th-century-chocolate-factory-2435176 Rascius, Brendan. “Spicy wine: New study reveals ancient Romans may have had peculiar tastes.” Phys.org. 1/24/2024. https://phys.org/news/2024-01-spicy-wine-reveals-ancient-romans.html Schrader, Adam. “Ancient Lipstick Dating Back More Than Three Millennia Is Found in Iran.” ArtNet. 2/14/2024. https://news.artnet.com/art-world/ancient-lipstick-found-in-iran-2434396 Schrader, Adam. “The Van Gogh Museum Fires Four Staff Members Over Pokémon Chaos.” ArtNet. 1/24/2024. https://news.artnet.com/art-world/van-gogh-museum-fires-workers-pokemon-2422901 Shoichet, Catherine E. “A new trove of records could help many reconnect with their Irish roots. They come from a surprising source.” CNN. 3/8/2024. https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/08/world/irish-ancestry-guinness-brewery-archives-cec/index.html Smithsonian Magazine. “Metal Detectorist Finds Rare 1,500-Year-Old Gold Ring in Denmark.” 2/26/2024. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/metal-detectorist-discovers-a-rare-1500-year-old-gold-ring-in-denmark-180983830/ ‘ South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology. “Ötzi's tattooing technique through self-experimentation.” https://www.iceman.it/en/tattootechniqueotzi/ Sullivan, Will. “Ancient DNA From Eurasian Herders Sheds Light on the Origins of Multiple Sclerosis.” Smithsonian Magazine. 1/12/2024. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/ancient-dna-from-eurasian-herders-sheds-light-on-the-origins-of-multiple-sclerosis-180983579/ The Francis Crick Institute. “First prehistoric person with Turner syndrome identified from ancient DNA.” 1/11/2024 https://phys.org/news/2024-01-prehistoric-person-turner-syndrome-ancient.html The History Blog. “Full gamut of Neolithic occupation, funerary practices found at site in France.” http://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/69681 The History Blog. “Medieval love token found under Gdańsk port crane.” 2/17/2024. https://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/69492 The History Blog. “Rare medieval belt loop found in Poland.” 3/20/2024. https://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/69734 The History Blog. “Rare Merovingian gold ring found in Jutland.” 2/20/2024. https://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/69517 The History Blog. “Roman silver toilet spoon found in Wales.” 1/30/2024. https://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/69380 The History Blog. “Section of Roman 3rd century wall found in Aachen.” 3/24/2024. http://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/69767 The History Blog. “Warring States cemetery with chariot burial found in central China.” https://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/69748 The National Archives. “Pristine sweater in parcel posted in 1807.” 2/29/2024. https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/about/news/pristine-sweater-found-in-parcel-posted-in-1807/ Thijs Porck, Newly Discovered Pieces of an Old English Glossed Psalter: The Alkmaar Fragments of the N-Psalter, Anglo-Saxon England (2024). DOI: 10.1017/S0263675123000121 Thorsberg, Christian. “DNA From 2,000-Year-Old Skeletons Hints at the Origins of Syphilis.” Smithsonian Magazine. 1/29/2024. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/dna-from-2000-year-old-skeletons-hints-at-the-origins-of-syphilis-180983657/ Tondo, Lorenzo. “Archaeologists find Pompeii fresco depicting Greek mythological siblings.” The Guardian. 3/1/2024. https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/mar/01/pompeii-fresco-phrixus-and-helle-greek-mythological-siblings S. Department of the Interior. “Interior Department Announces Final Rule for Implementation of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act.” 12/6/2023. https://www.doi.gov/pressreleases/interior-department-announces-final-rule-implementation-native-american-graves “Anglo-Saxon cemetery discovered in Lincolnshire to appear on BBC.” https://www.viking-link.com/news/anglo-saxon-cemetery-discovered-in-lincolnshire-to-appear-on-bbc-s-digging-for-britain/ Weber, Bob. “Divers involved in Franklin expedition say the 2023 season 'highly productive'.” CBC. 1/29/2024. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/franklin-expedition-update-2024-1.7097874 Whiddington, Richard. “Archaeologists in Brazil Discover 16 New Rock Art Sites.” ArtNet. 3/14/2024. https://news.artnet.com/art-world/16-new-rock-art-sites-brazil-2452134 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: On attunement, published by Joe Carlsmith on March 25, 2024 on LessWrong. (Cross-posted from my website. Podcast version here, or search for "Joe Carlsmith Audio" on your podcast app. This essay is part of a series that I'm calling "Otherness and control in the age of AGI." I'm hoping that the individual essays can be read fairly well on their own, but see here for brief summaries of the essays that have been released thus far.) "You, moon, You, Aleksander, fire of cedar logs. Waters close over us, a name lasts but an instant. Not important whether the generations hold us in memory. Great was that chase with the hounds for the unattainable meaning of the world." ~ Czeslaw Milosz, "Winter" "Poplars (Autumn)," by Claude Monet (image source here) My last essay examined a philosophical vibe that I (following others) call "green." Green is one of the five colors on the Magic the Gathering Color Wheel, which I've found (despite not playing Magic myself) an interesting way of classifying the sort of the energies that tend to animate people.[1] The colors, and their corresponding shticks-according-to-Joe, are: White: Morality. Blue: Knowledge. Black: Power. Red: Passion. Green: ... I haven't found a single word that I think captures green. Associations include: environmentalism, tradition, spirituality, hippies, stereotypes of Native Americans, Yoda, humility, wholesomeness, health, and yin. My last essay tried to bring the vibe that underlies these associations into clearer view, and to point at some ways that attempts by other colors to reconstruct green can miss parts of it. In particular, I focused on the way green cares about respect, in a sense that goes beyond "not trampling on the rights/interests of moral patients" (what I called "green-according-to-white"); and on the way green takes joy in (certain kinds of) yin, in a sense that contrasts with merely "accepting things you're too weak to change" (what I called "green-according-to-black"). In this essay, I want to turn to what is perhaps the most common and most compelling-to-me attempt by another color to reconstruct green - namely, "green-according-to-blue." On this story, green is about making sure that you don't act out of inadequate knowledge. Thus, for example: maybe you're upset about wild animal suffering. But green cautions you: if you try to remake that ecosystem to improve the lives of wild animals, you are at serious risk of not knowing-what-you're-doing. And see, also, the discourse about "Chesterton's fence," which attempts to justify deference towards tradition and the status quo via the sort of knowledge they might embody. I think humility in the face of the limits of our knowledge is, indeed, a big part of what's going on with green. But I think green cares about having certain kinds of knowledge too. But I think that the type of knowledge green cares about most isn't quite the same as the sort of knowledge most paradigmatically associated with blue. Let me say more about what I mean. How do you know what matters? "I went out to see what I could see..." ~ Annie Dillard, "Pilgrim at Tinker Creek" An 1828 watercolor of Tintern Abbey, by J.M.W. Turner (image source here) Blue, to me, most directly connotes knowledge in the sense of: science, "rationality," and making accurate predictions about the world. And there is a grand tradition of contrasting this sort of knowledge with various other types that seem less "heady" and "cognitive" - even without a clear sense of what exactly the contrast consists in. People talk, for example, about intuition; about system 1; about knowledge that lives in your gut and your body; about knowing "how" to do things (e.g. ride a bike); about more paradigmatically social/emotional forms of intelligence, and so on. And here, of course, the rationalists protest at the idea ...

Link to original articleWelcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: On attunement, published by Joe Carlsmith on March 25, 2024 on LessWrong. (Cross-posted from my website. Podcast version here, or search for "Joe Carlsmith Audio" on your podcast app. This essay is part of a series that I'm calling "Otherness and control in the age of AGI." I'm hoping that the individual essays can be read fairly well on their own, but see here for brief summaries of the essays that have been released thus far.) "You, moon, You, Aleksander, fire of cedar logs. Waters close over us, a name lasts but an instant. Not important whether the generations hold us in memory. Great was that chase with the hounds for the unattainable meaning of the world." ~ Czeslaw Milosz, "Winter" "Poplars (Autumn)," by Claude Monet (image source here) My last essay examined a philosophical vibe that I (following others) call "green." Green is one of the five colors on the Magic the Gathering Color Wheel, which I've found (despite not playing Magic myself) an interesting way of classifying the sort of the energies that tend to animate people.[1] The colors, and their corresponding shticks-according-to-Joe, are: White: Morality. Blue: Knowledge. Black: Power. Red: Passion. Green: ... I haven't found a single word that I think captures green. Associations include: environmentalism, tradition, spirituality, hippies, stereotypes of Native Americans, Yoda, humility, wholesomeness, health, and yin. My last essay tried to bring the vibe that underlies these associations into clearer view, and to point at some ways that attempts by other colors to reconstruct green can miss parts of it. In particular, I focused on the way green cares about respect, in a sense that goes beyond "not trampling on the rights/interests of moral patients" (what I called "green-according-to-white"); and on the way green takes joy in (certain kinds of) yin, in a sense that contrasts with merely "accepting things you're too weak to change" (what I called "green-according-to-black"). In this essay, I want to turn to what is perhaps the most common and most compelling-to-me attempt by another color to reconstruct green - namely, "green-according-to-blue." On this story, green is about making sure that you don't act out of inadequate knowledge. Thus, for example: maybe you're upset about wild animal suffering. But green cautions you: if you try to remake that ecosystem to improve the lives of wild animals, you are at serious risk of not knowing-what-you're-doing. And see, also, the discourse about "Chesterton's fence," which attempts to justify deference towards tradition and the status quo via the sort of knowledge they might embody. I think humility in the face of the limits of our knowledge is, indeed, a big part of what's going on with green. But I think green cares about having certain kinds of knowledge too. But I think that the type of knowledge green cares about most isn't quite the same as the sort of knowledge most paradigmatically associated with blue. Let me say more about what I mean. How do you know what matters? "I went out to see what I could see..." ~ Annie Dillard, "Pilgrim at Tinker Creek" An 1828 watercolor of Tintern Abbey, by J.M.W. Turner (image source here) Blue, to me, most directly connotes knowledge in the sense of: science, "rationality," and making accurate predictions about the world. And there is a grand tradition of contrasting this sort of knowledge with various other types that seem less "heady" and "cognitive" - even without a clear sense of what exactly the contrast consists in. People talk, for example, about intuition; about system 1; about knowledge that lives in your gut and your body; about knowing "how" to do things (e.g. ride a bike); about more paradigmatically social/emotional forms of intelligence, and so on. And here, of course, the rationalists protest at the idea ...

This episode focuses on three bands that came from the English psychedelic Summer of Love of 1967. They each recorded music that year and it fitted in perfectly with the times but unfortunately, they didn't catch the public's eye or ear. The Blossom Toes, Tintern Abbey and The End are footnotes to that Psychedelic scene in London, and we'll listen to select tracks of their recorded work. Please have a look at these special interest sites.If you would, please make a donation of love and hope to St. Jude Children's HospitalMake an impact on the lives of St. Jude kids - St. Jude Children's Research Hospital (stjude.org)Get your Vegan Collagen Gummies from Earth & Elle, available thru Amazon at this link.Amazon.com: Earth & Elle Vegan Collagen Gummies - Non-GMO Biotin Gummies, Vitamin A, E, C - Plant Based Collagen Supplements for Healthier Hair, Skin, Nails - 60 Chews of Orange Flavored Gummies, Made in USA : Health & HouseholdKathy Bushnell Website for Emily Muff bandHome | Kathy Bushnell | Em & MooListen to previous shows at the main webpage at:https://www.buzzsprout.com/1329053Pamela Des Barres Home page for books, autographs, clothing and online writing classes.Pamela Des Barres | The Official Website of the Legendary Groupie and Author (pameladesbarresofficial.com)Listen to more music by Laurie Larson at:Home | Shashké Music and Art (laurielarson.net)View the most amazing paintings by Marijke Koger-Dunham (Formally of the 1960's artists collective, "The Fool").Psychedelic, Visionary and Fantasy Art by Marijke Koger (marijkekogerart.com)For unique Candles have a look at Stardust Lady's Etsy shopWhere art and armor become one where gods are by TwistedByStardust (etsy.com)For your astrological chart reading, contact Astrologer Tisch Aitken at:https://www.facebook.com/AstrologerTisch/For booking Children's parties and character parties in the Los Angeles area contact Kalinda Gray at:https://www.facebook.com/wishingwellparties/I'm listed in Feedspot's "Top 10 Psychedelic Podcasts You Must Follow". https://blog.feedspot.com/psychedelic_podcasts/Please feel free to donate or Tip Jar the show at sonictyme@yahoo.com

If you enjoy this conversation, come explore the theme online on our Home Retreat with Vidyamala and Vishvapani! Join Entering the Mandala: Mindfulness and Imagination, September 1-7 “Imagine an enormous subterranean chamber all lit up from within. We are living in a tiny chamber next to – indeed, part of – the larger one. We can see nothing at all of what's going on in the large chamber. In fact, we have no idea that the large chamber is even there.” Sangharakshita This week we're opening portals to awareness and the wonders that can arise when we really start to pay attention to everything that's going on in the world around us. What would it be like to experience yourself without restrictive concepts? What dimensions might open up in your life as you engage with myths and symbols? Awareness, or mindfulness, is an essential foundation for all spiritual growth. And through knowing experience directly we can transform difficulties and become happier, calmer and more fulfilled. But awareness offers much more: it also provides a doorway to other dimensions in the large chamber of our being. Awareness of the body, heart and mind can blossom into awareness of boundlessness, love and mystery, as Buddhist teachers have taught down the millennia. Imagination is a key to this opening. When our minds are clear and we're alive to what's within us and around us, our imaginations wake up to new possibilities. Kusaladevi joins Vidyamala and Vishvapani in a conversation exploring the theme of their upcoming Home Retreat, Entering the Mandala: Mindfulness and Imagination. This Home Retreat is an opportunity to live for a week with mindfulness, kindness, poetry and creativity, even in the midst of our daily lives. An exploration of mindfulness and imagination through talks, meditation, creative activities, discussion and shared ritual, particularly focused on the richly evocative symbol of the mandala. Come join us in the vastness of the present moment! *** Show notes Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) Urgyen Sangharakshita Dharma talks by Vidyamala | Dharma talks by Vishvapani More about the Five Buddha mandala Listen to 'Vidyamala, OBE! - A Platinum Jubilee Honour for Breathworks' From Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey, On Revisiting the Banks of the Wye during a Tour. July 13, 1798 by William Wordsworth —And I have felt A presence that disturbs me with the joy Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime Of something far more deeply interfused, Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns, And the round ocean and the living air, And the blue sky, and in the mind of man: A motion and a spirit, that impels All thinking things, all objects of all thought, And rolls through all things.  William Wordsworth *** Vidyamala was ordained into the Triratna Buddhist Order in 1995 and is co-founder of Breathworks, a leading mindfulness organisation and she focuses particularly on using awareness and kindness training to work with pain and illness. This draws on her own experience of managing spinal pain and disability. She is an award-winning author of three books and was awarded an OBE in 2022 for her services to pain management and well-being. She regularly leads retreats and workshops, and speaks at international summits, events and webinars. Vidyamala has long had an interest in the creative mind and heart and how to access this through myth, ritual and non-conceptual approaches and looks forward to deepening this even more on this online retreat. www.vidyamala-burch.com www.breathworks-mindfulness.org.uk Vishvapani has practised meditation and Buddhism for over 40 years. He's a writer, best known for Gautama Buddha: the Life and Teachings of the Awakened One and as the Buddhist contributor to Thought for the Day on BBC Radio 4. He's a prominent figure in the UK's mindfulness world and has taught over 150 mindfulness courses. He loves to explore poetry, myth and imagination, along with Buddhism, in his writing, teaching and practice. www.vishvapani.org www.mindfulnessinaction.co.uk *** Visit The Buddhist Centre Live (events year-round on Buddhism, mindfulness, meditation, and culture) Come meditate with us online six days a week! Theme music by Ackport! Used with kind permission.

The legends of Tintern Abbey are diverse and numerous. this is one of the finest. happy new year my friends. please sit back and enjoy the tale of The Devils Pulpit Email owenstaton@aol.com Twitter @owensgriffiths www.ko-fi.com/owenstaton Take care and have a fantastic week Owen x

In Part 2, Luke and I discuss the esoteric connections and intersections with the figures of Blake and Ginsberg. We talk about in the influence of Emmanuel Swedenborg and Gnosticism on the worldviews of both Blake and Ginsberg, how Ginsberg saw Buddhism and Gnosticism as being connected in a syncretic way, and what contemporary artists could be viewed as ‘carrying on the Blakean torch' in our own popular culture. Dr Luke Walker has published widely on the intersections between British Romantic poetry, American counterculture, and esotericism.His publications include "‘One physical-mental inspiration of thought': Allen Ginsberg and Black Mountain poetics", in The Beats, Black Mountain, and New Modes in American Poetry, ed. Matt Theado (2021), “Beat Britain: poetic vision and division in Albion's ‘underground'”, in The Routledge Handbook of International Beat Literature, ed. A. Robert Lee (2018), “Tangled up in Blake: the triangular relationship among Dylan, Blake, and the Beats”, in Rock and Romanticism: Blake, Wordsworth, and Rock from Dylan to U2, ed. James Rovira (2018), “Allen Ginsberg's ‘Wales Visitation' as a neo-Romantic response to Wordsworth's ‘Tintern Abbey'”, in Romanticism journal (2013), and “Allen Ginsberg's Blakean Albion,” in Comparative American Studies journal (2013). Most recently, Luke co-edited a special issue of the Bulletin of the John Rylands Library, on “The Artist of the Future Age: William Blake, Neo-Romanticism, Counterculture and Now” (2022). He is now writing a book entitled William Blake and Allen Ginsberg: Romanticism, Counterculture and Radical Reception.PROGRAM NOTESDr. Luke Walker:academia.edu page: (99+) Luke Walker | Home - Academia.eduTwitter: Luke Walker (@DrLukeWalker) / TwitterSelected Articles:(99+) Tangled Up in Blake: the Triangular Relationship among Dylan, Blake, and the Beats | Luke Walker - Academia.edu(99+) Allen Ginsberg's Blakean Albion | Luke Walker - Academia.edu(99+) Beat Britain: poetic vision and division in Albion's 'underground' | Luke Walker - Academia.edu(99+) Psychedelic Romanticism: Ginsberg, Blake and Wordsworth | Luke Walker - Academia.edu(99+) 'One physical-mental inspiration of thought': Allen Ginsberg and Black Mountain Poetics | Luke Walker - Academia.eduWilliam Blake Archive: The William Blake ArchiveAllen Ginsberg sings William Blake's 'The Nurse's Song': Allen Ginsberg sings William Blake's "The Nurse's Song" - YouTubeMike Goode, 'Blakespotting': (99+) Blakespotting | Mike Goode - Academia.eduAllen Ginsberg: The Allen Ginsberg Project - AllenGinsberg.org'Wichita Vortex Sutra': Allen Ginsberg: Wichita Vortex Sutra (chriscander.com)Bob Dylan 'Tempest': Bob Dylan - Tempest (Official Audio) - YouTube'Rough and Rowdy Ways': I Contain Multitudes - YouTube'Subterranean Homesick Blues': Bob Dylan - Subterranean Homesick Blues (Official HD Video) - YouTubeOTHER RESOURCES:patti smith: official siteHome - Kae TempestJohn Higgs – Author of Love And Let Die, William Blake Vs The World, Watling Street and The KLFTheme Music: Daniel P. SheaOther music: Stephanie Shea

In Part One, Luke discusses the great influence of the poet and artist William Blake on Allen Ginsberg, one of the most influential people from the Beat Generation and the ‘counterculture' movement of 1960s United States. He also talks in detail about Ginsberg's “Blake Vision,” the name Ginsberg gave to a series of extraordinary events in his life in 1948. We then discuss Luke's article “Tangled Up in Blake” that focuses on Ginsberg's views about Bob Dylan and their complex relationship. Lastly, we talk about the influence of Buddhism on Ginsberg and how this affected his views about Blake and his worldview in general.Dr Luke Walker has published widely on the intersections between British Romantic poetry, American counterculture, and esotericism.His publications include "‘One physical-mental inspiration of thought': Allen Ginsberg and Black Mountain poetics", in The Beats, Black Mountain, and New Modes in American Poetry, ed. Matt Theado (2021), “Beat Britain: poetic vision and division in Albion's ‘underground'”, in The Routledge Handbook of International Beat Literature, ed. A. Robert Lee (2018), “Tangled up in Blake: the triangular relationship among Dylan, Blake, and the Beats”, in Rock and Romanticism: Blake, Wordsworth, and Rock from Dylan to U2, ed. James Rovira (2018), “Allen Ginsberg's ‘Wales Visitation' as a neo-Romantic response to Wordsworth's ‘Tintern Abbey'”, in Romanticism journal (2013), and “Allen Ginsberg's Blakean Albion,” in Comparative American Studies journal (2013). Most recently, Luke co-edited a special issue of the Bulletin of the John Rylands Library, on “The Artist of the Future Age: William Blake, Neo-Romanticism, Counterculture and Now” (2022). He is now writing a book entitled William Blake and Allen Ginsberg: Romanticism, Counterculture and Radical Reception.PROGRAM NOTESDr. Luke Walker:academia.edu page: (99+) Luke Walker | Home - Academia.eduTwitter: Luke Walker (@DrLukeWalker) / TwitterSelected Articles:(99+) Tangled Up in Blake: the Triangular Relationship among Dylan, Blake, and the Beats | Luke Walker - Academia.edu(99+) Allen Ginsberg's Blakean Albion | Luke Walker - Academia.edu(99+) Beat Britain: poetic vision and division in Albion's 'underground' | Luke Walker - Academia.edu(99+) Psychedelic Romanticism: Ginsberg, Blake and Wordsworth | Luke Walker - Academia.edu(99+) 'One physical-mental inspiration of thought': Allen Ginsberg and Black Mountain Poetics | Luke Walker - Academia.eduWilliam Blake Archive: The William Blake ArchiveAllen Ginsberg sings William Blake's 'The Nurse's Song': Allen Ginsberg sings William Blake's "The Nurse's Song" - YouTubeMike Goode, 'Blakespotting': (99+) Blakespotting | Mike Goode - Academia.eduAllen Ginsberg: The Allen Ginsberg Project - AllenGinsberg.org'Wichita Vortex Sutra': Allen Ginsberg: Wichita Vortex Sutra (chriscander.com)Bob Dylan 'Tempest': Bob Dylan - Tempest (Official Audio) - YouTube'Rough and Rowdy Ways': I Contain Multitudes - YouTube'Subterranean Homesick Blues': Bob Dylan - Subterranean Homesick Blues (Official HD Video) - YouTubeOTHER RESOURCES:patti smith: official siteHome - Kae TempestJohn Higgs – Author of Love And Let Die, William Blake Vs The World, Watling Street and The KLFTheme Music: Daniel P. SheaOther music: Stephanie Shea

“Once again Do I behold these steep and lofty cliffs, That on a wild secluded scene impress Thoughts of more deep seclusion; and connect The landscape with the quiet of the sky.”   Excerpt from “Lines Written a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey,” by Williams Wordsworth This past summer, we offered our first round of Summer Symposiums in the Magnus Fellowship; enjoy this excerpt from Helen Freeh's course comparing the views of the early and late romantic poets Williams Wordsworth and Percy Bysshe Shelley.  You can catch the rest of this symposium, and all other course recordings,  by donating just $25/ month. https://magnusinstitute.org/give/

The post From Tintern Abbey by William Wordsworth appeared first on A Mouthful of Air.

Episode 21 of What's the story, Ghost? Today, Annette and Steven discuss the unholy history of Tintern Abbey. Annette gets into the history a bit on this episode and leaves out the gore but no the ghouls. Hope you enjoy this episode of WTGSMusic by Red_Skies from Pixabay - Intro and outro Music by SergeQuadrado from Pixabayhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tintern_Abbey,_County_Wexford https://myrealireland.com/wexford/tintern-abbey-county-wexford/https://heritageireland.ie/articles/tintern-abbey/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfuMVAwvVsQ&list=PLWrrXSVt8vmVPXpavtGCdn3yDDPGrgR0Zhttps://mylesdungan.com/2014/05/30/on-this-day-drivetime-30-may-1807-alcock-colclough-duel-and-a-dubious-link-to-the-kennedy-fortune/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Synopsis In 2010, the American Composers Forum launched ChoralQuest, a specially-commissioned series of works written especially for middle and junior high school choirs.  The idea was to expand the available repertoire for young choirs, introduce them to contemporary composers, and give composers the chance and challenge of writing for young voices. One of these new works received its premiere on today's date in 2011 with the Oak Grove Middle School Singers in Bloomington, Minnesota. Bryan Blessing conducted his young singers in lines from “Tintern Abbey” by the 19th century British poet William Wordsworth set to music by the 21st Century composer Stephen Paulus, who titled his piece “Through All Things.”  “I chose a poem that conveys some deep thoughts,” says Paulus. “People often underestimate the sophistication of young people… The Wordsworth poem speaks about ‘a motion and a spirit that rolls through all things.'” “But a composer really needs to know the range of young singers and what they can do,” admits Paulus, who spent time with the Oak Grove Singers and confessed it's not just the kids who benefited.  “You're never too old or too experienced not to learn something from writing a new piece, whether it's for kids or professional musicians.” Music Played in Today's Program Stephen Paulus (1949 - 2014) — Through All Things (Minnesota Boychoir; Todd Price, p.Mark S. Johnson, cond.) ACF score and recording (ISBN 0983388709)

In Part 1 of our discussion of “Tintern Abbey,” we talked about whether Wordsworth was right to suggest that our experience of nature was good not just for restoring our weary spirits, but for helping us to mature and even for making us better people. In part two, we explore his justifications for this thesis, in particular the claim that nature connects us not just to our senses and baser instincts, but to our capacity to think, experience beauty, and ultimately act ethically and autonomously. Does nature really never betray the heart that loves her, or has the poet ignored her more sinister dimensions?

After an absence of five years, the poet William Wordsworth returned to the idyllic ruins of a medieval monastery along the River Wye. The spot was perhaps not so very different from his last visit, but Wordsworth found that he had undergone a significant transformation in the intervening years. In a long blank-verse meditation, he explores the changes that the memory of this landscape has affected on his psyche and the role it played in his now-mature comportment towards nature, impulse, and desire. What can Wordsworth's poem teach us about our own relationships to the natural world? Can Mother Nature truly exert a parental influence? Can nature even make us better people? In this Part One of a two-part episode, Wes & Erin discuss the first three stanzas of Wordsworth's 1798 poem, “Tintern Abbey.” 

After an absence of five years, the poet William Wordsworth returned to the idyllic ruins of a medieval monastery along the River Wye. The spot was perhaps not so very different from his last visit, but Wordsworth found that he had undergone a significant transformation in the intervening years. In a long blank-verse meditation, he explores the changes that the memory of this landscape has affected on his psyche and the role it played in his now-mature comportment towards nature, impulse, and desire. What can Wordsworth's poem teach us about our own relationships to the natural world? Can Mother Nature truly exert a parental influence? Can nature even make us better people? In this Part One of a two-part episode, Wes & Erin discuss the first three stanzas of Wordsworth's 1798 poem, “Tintern Abbey.”  Subscribe: (sub)Text won't always be in the PEL feed, so please subscribe to us directly: Apple | Spotify | Android | RSS Bonus content: The conversation continues on our after-show (post)script. Get this and other bonus content at by subscribing at Patreon or directly on the Apple Podcasts app. Follow (sub)Text: Twitter | Facebook | Website

The complete audiobook is available for purchase at Audible.com: voicesoftoday.net/tt99cc6 Lines written a few miles above Tintern Abbey, on revisiting the banks of the Wye during a Tour July 13, 1798 By William Wordsworth Narrated by Denis Daly This poem was written by Wordsworth after a walking tour through the Welsh Borders. As usual with many of Wordsworth's poem, it opens with a description of the countryside which is then developed into a philosophical reflection about beauty and the suggestive power of recollection. The poem was first published in 1798 in Lyrical Ballads, an anthology in which Wordsworth collaborated with Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

And we come to the conclusion of our read of the first version of Lyrical Ballads. Want to know what Claude has been on about for the past few years with the term ontological/epistemological crisis? Here's your answer with a close exploration of Wordsworth's “Tintern Abbey,” the poem that closes the volume. The Canon Ball is part of the Agora podcast network. If you're online check us out at thecanonballpodcast.wordpress.com, on Twitter at Canonballpod, and on Facebook @TheCanonBallPodcast. And if you like our show but want to know more about film and what goes into the making of it check out Beyond the Big Screen, a podcast that goes into the intricate details (historical, philosophical, and otherwise) behind major motion pictures. And if you're really hankering for more drama, friends of the show Andrew Pfannkuche and Ana Weinberg have put together a biographical discussion show about the life of Alexandre Dumas called “Two Musketeers.” If you like the show, they've entered it for competition in the Tongal creative community. Go vote for them at the link: https://tongal.com/welcome/ngp/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Rudy shares a section from William Wordsworth's Tintern Abbey.

No introduction is necessary into the work of this master poet. Analysis of his work is also best sought elsewhere onto the pages of those who are far more knowledgeable than I. As a suggestion this link is wonderfully informative and well worth a look:The Eight Greatest Poems of William Wordsworth | Society of Classical PoetsMy interpretation is that of an amateur, I make no claim of artistic merit. I simply enjoy reading and feeling those sentiments that such glorious wordsmiths have lain down before us. There will I hope be many more to come. It is my hope that you enjoy my recitation...

If you are preparing for UPSC and your optional is English Literature, my podcast on "Tintern Abbey" by William Wordsworth will help you cover all the topics required to completely understand the poem and study for CSE. Any suggestions, requests are welcomed. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

The poet traces his intimate connect with nature from boyhood to mature age his spiritual growth, with nature as his guardian and guide and how he sees nature as the salvation for humanity

We invited a British bookbinder Hannah Brown to discuss two of her projects. The first one is a binding with architectural motifs she made several years ago. The other is a board she recently made for a Designer Bookbinders' project. Watch this episode on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sX3iCxs8zGI Brought to you by iBookBinding. Bookbinding resources and tutorials: http://www.iBookBinding.com Become a patron (and get more content): https://www.patreon.com/ibookbinding You can ask our future guests questions on: Instagram — https://www.instagram.com/ibookbinding/ Discord — https://discord.gg/TJY5FeS Facebook — https://www.facebook.com/iBookBinding/ Follow Hannah's projects: Website: https://han-made.net/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hannah.brown.7169709 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hannah_brown_bookbinding/ 00:00 - Beginning 00:30 - Architecture and Bookbinding. "Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey, on Revisiting the Banks of the Wye during a Tour, July 13, 1798." 03:15 - What's a board? 05:01 - From an image to the binding's design, to making a board for Designer Bookbinders 08:24 - The use of embroidery in design bindings 09:44 - What was first for Hannah, embroidery or bookbinding? 10:42 - Embroidery on leather 11:54 - Sewing machine for working with leather 13:47 - Embroidery in the Medieval bookbinding 14:19 - Other bookbinders who do embroidery on their bindings 15:33 - Making wooden boxes for bindings 17:45 - Are there any plans to continue the project in the future? 19:45 - Is it harder to bind a book in an embroidered leather? 23:14 - Using polymer threads 24:24 - Making books that last for centuries 24:58 - Where is the binding now?

URL for The Lakes - Taylor Swifthttps://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=taylor+swift+%22the+lakes%22Learn about why Tintern Abbey is such a big dealFollow Lucy GrayLearn what Taylor Swift has to do with the English Romantic poets0:00 Introduction0:50 Podcast host attack (Nothing to worry about)02:27 Ghost enters02:40 Lines Written a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey (and analysis)09:39 “Thoughtless youth”14:00 Lines Written in Early Spring16:43 Lucy Gray19:11 Poet Laurete20:16 Religious beliefs 20:49 My Heart Leaps Up20:14 Taylor Swift and the Lakes24:23 Sources and conclusionCredits: Taylor Swift at the 2019 American Music Awards, 24 November 2019, Source‭YouTube: The Best Outfits At The 2019 American Music Awards |‬

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. 

Another new era began in the wake of the first wave of the British Invasion and this time the World went from a black and white bleak scene to a world that was glowing in glorious colours. The psychedelic era in London encapsulated multi media events, poetry readings, free schools, the first underground press with the publication of The International Times, the 14-Hour Technicolour Dream at the Alexandra Palace and the release of The Beatles 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" album. These are some of the bands that were part of the scene.Also:Listen to previous shows at the main webpage at:https://www.buzzsprout.com/1329053You may also enjoy Becky Ebenkamp's "Bubblegum & Other Delights" show. Join the fun at her WFMU New York page link and access the media player at:https://www.wfmu.org/playlists/OD?fbclid=IwAR0Efrmj-ts-uSiGq5qK7EETHFTXdtsiaXTYq-ng-7QDUkJxC-X0QfHB-EIFor your astrological chart reading, contact Astrologer Tisch Aitken at:https://www.facebook.com/AstrologerTisch/I'm listed in Feedspot's "Top 10 Psychedelic Podcasts You Must Follow". https://blog.feedspot.com/psychedelic_podcasts/

Iain McGilchrist is writer, lecturer and former Consultant Psychiatrist. He is committed to the idea that the whole of our physical and spiritual existence and wider human culture helps to mould, and in turn is moulded by, our minds and brains. His latest work, The Matter With Things, a book of epistemology and metaphysics, will be published by Penguin/Random House. You can read written pieces by Iain and watch videos of him on Channel McGilchrist.Imaginal Inspirations is hosted by David Lorimer, Programme Director of the Scientific and Medical Network and Chair of the Galileo Commission, an academic movement dedicated to expanding the evidence base of a science of consciousness.scientificandmedical.netgalileocommission.orgbeyondthebrain.orgWorks mentioned:Against Criticism, Iain McGilchristMaster and His Emissary, Iain McGilchristLines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey, William WordsworthAwakenings, Oliver SacksAn Introduction to Mathematics, A N WhiteheadThe Two Hands of God: The Myths of Polarity, Alan WattsPrinciples of Pyschopathology, J CuttingA Pluralistic Universe, William JamesCreative Mind, Ernest HolmesHistory of Western Philosophy, Bertrand RussellProduction: Charlotte LorimerArtwork: Amber HaasMusic: Mary McDougall

In this episode, I'll talk about reading poetry out loud and my six favorite poems to read in class. I'll read "Tintern Abbey" by William Wordsworth. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/scott-cameron6/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/scott-cameron6/support

Rudy shares some lines from Wordsworth's Tintern Abbey : "Nature never did betray the heart that loved her..."

In the first part of this program we listen to the new pop/rock sound as influenced by psychedelia from straight forward rock to something more eccentric.. On the second part of the show we hear the more pastoral English Folk influence that emerged with the new psychedelic music form.Listen to previous shows onhttps://www.buzzsprout.com/1329053I'm listed in Feedspot's "Top 10 Psychedelic Podcasts You Must Follow". https://blog.feedspot.com/psychedelic_podcasts/You may also enjoy Becky Ebenkamp's "Bubblegum & Other Delights" show. Join the fun at her WFMU New York page link and access the media player at: https://www.wfmu.org/playlists/OD?fbclid=IwAR0Efrmj-ts-uSiGq5qK7EETHFTXdtsiaXTYq-ng-7QDUkJxC-X0QfHB-EI

Frances reads Neville's letter, all about bicycles, describing a family bicycling tour in 1907.Four brothers and two sisters set off from Studland for an 8 day cycling tour. Edmund, Neville, Bernard, Cuthbert, Avice and Vera. They cycle 186 miles (300km) around England, visiting Stonehenge, castles and churches. If you are interested in following Arthur's lead, you may like to look up their route, but you don't have to use a Harmsworth atlas as Arthur did. Online maps are now much better.They cycled from Studland to Swanage, then took a train to Salisbury. Then they cycled to Stonehenge, Devizes, Bradford-upon Avon and Bath. Then they took a train from Bath to Chepstow. Then they cycled to Tintern Abbey, Monmouth, Ross-on-Wye, Hereford, Leominster and Ludlow. Then they cycled up and over Clee Hill, then to Cleobury Mortimer and Bewdley. Then they took a train to Stourbridge, then cycled to Enville (where they lived, as children). Then they took a train to Coventry. Then they cycled to Kenilworth, Warwick and Stratford-upon-Avon. And finally they took a train back to Sydenham in South London.You can contact Frances by email – machellcoxletters@gmail.com or Twitter - @CoxLettersIntro - 00:00Bicycles - 00:34Studland 1907 - 19:56Neville's letter 2 September - 26:52Notes on Neville's letter - 35:28

Amanda Holmes reads William Wordsworth’s poem, “Tintern Abbey,” formally entitled “Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey, On Revisiting the Banks of the Wye during a Tour. July 13, 1798.” Plus, read her essay on the poem for the Washington Independent Review of Books. Have a suggestion for a poem by a (dead) writer? Email us: podcast@theamericanscholar.org. If we select your entry, you’ll win a copy of a poetry collection edited by David Lehman.This episode was produced by Stephanie Bastek and features the song “Canvasback” by Chad Crouch. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Inspiration is often an assertive act -- simply waiting around for it doesn't guarantee its arrival. Go forth and talk to ghosts. Mentioned in this episode: Concord, Massachusetts; public library; Henry David Thoreau; Sophia Thoreau; Thoreau's "Walking"; Ralph Waldo Emerson; Ticknor & Fields; John Guare; Thornton Wilder; Wilder's "Our Town"; William Wordsworth; Tintern Abbey; Prague; Rilke; Kafka; Glen Ellen, California; Jack London; London's "The Call of the Wild"; American Civil War; Walt Whitman; Whitman's "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry"  Music: "Family" by Josh Leake; "The Art of Loneliness" by ANBR; "La Stanza di Nelson 2" by Bottega Baltazar; "On the Trail" by Cameron Mackay (All music used by courtesy of the artists through a licensing agreement with Artlist) Reprised from the ITA Archives --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/in-the-atelier/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/in-the-atelier/support

In this week's episode, Rachel visits County Wexford. There are so many reasons to visit this ancient county. Invaded by Vikings and Normans, Rachel introduces you to Tintern Abbey, Enniscorthy Castle, and much more! She chats with Chef Kevin Dundon and his wife Catherine to talk about their Wexford estate, Dunbrody Country House, his cooking school, cookbooks, and tv shows.For more information about Dunbrody House and Chef Kevin Dundon, click the links down below:Dunbrody House website: https://www.dunbrodyhouse.com/Kevin's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kevindundon/

On Easter Monday, Andrew Marr talks to the psychiatrist and keen gardener Sue Stuart-Smith on our love for nature. In The Well-Gardened Mind: Rediscovering Nature in the Modern World, she blends neuroscience, psychoanalysis and real-life stories. She reveals the remarkable effects that gardens and the great outdoors can have on us. William Wordsworth was the great poet of the British countryside, celebrated for his descriptions of daffodils and the passing of the river above Tintern Abbey. But in a new biography, Radical Wordsworth: The Poet Who Changed the World, Sir Jonathan Bate shows how Wordsworth also made nature something challenging and even terrifying. The poet drew on shocking revolutionary ideas from the continent, including pantheistic atheism: the worship of nature. Producer: Hannah Sander

Todd Pedlar talks with David Grubbs and Michial Farmer about the William Wordsworth poem titled "Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey."

Todd Pedlar talks with David Grubbs and Michial Farmer about the William Wordsworth poem titled "Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey."

White Ash Flies presents Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey by William Wordsworth, read by Colin Mahoney.

Emma looks at the intertextual references in Mary Shelly's Frankenstein for your AP English Lit Exam. In this episode, she looks at the influence of poetry on Frankenstein, namely her husband Percy Bysshe Shelley's poem Mutability and the romantic epic Tintern Abbey by William Wordsworth. Ideal for preparing you for your AP English Literature & Composition Exam. Click here for the full course, or visit this link: http://bit.ly/2FAkiv6

The complete audio is available for purchase at Audible.com: https://adbl.co/342lqmZ Lyrical Ballads: 1798 by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge Narrated by Sarah Mitchell, Sarah Bacaller, and Denis Daly. In this collection, the authors were striving for a natural and unaffected style of verse that sought to avoid the elaborate structures and artifice that they considered had characterized much of the poetry of the 18th century. Of the 23 poems, only four are by Coleridge, including "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner", which is the most famous poem in the collection. The most notable contribution by Wordsworth is the concluding poem, "Tintern Abbey". A further collection of Lyrical Ballads, containing poems only by Wordsworth, was published in 1800. Audio edited by Denis Daly.

In this episode, we're in the flow with Dr. L. Scott Mills, Associate VP Global Change and Sustainability and Professor of Wildlife Biology. Scott reads an excerpt from “Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey,” by William Wordsworth which propels our discussion about Scott's path to becoming a research professor, his attraction to Montana, and his ideas about graduate study, interdisciplinarity, and international collaboration. For more on Scott's lab, see: http://www.umt.edu/research/millslab/scott.php

Inspiration is often an assertive act, and pilgrimage is one way to harness it. Mentioned in this episode: Concord, Massachusetts; public library; Henry David Thoreau; Sophia Thoreau; Thoreau's "Walking"; Ralph Waldo Emerson; Ticknor & Fields; John Guare; Thornton Wilder; Wilder's "Our Town"; William Wordsworth; Tintern Abbey; Prague; Rilke; Kafka; Glen Ellen, California; Jack London; London's "The Call of the Wild"; American Civil War; Walt Whitman; Whitman's "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry"  Music: "Family" by Josh Leake; "The Art of Loneliness" by ANBR; "La Stanza di Nelson 2" by Bottega Baltazar; "On the Trail" by Cameron Mackay (All music used by courtesy of the artists through a licensing agreement with Artlist) --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/in-the-atelier/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/in-the-atelier/support

This episode was recording during the holidays 2019. The Holidays are a time of reflections on your past as you prepare for New Years Eve resolutions for your future.Can recollecting your past be done improperly? Is it an infallible process? If it is not infallible, what should we do about it? These are some of the themes we will see in Tintern Abbey by Wordsworth.The full title of this poem is Lines Composed a Few Miles above TinternAbbey, On Revisiting the Banks of the Wyeduring a Tour. July 13, 1798.In this episode I explore the final poem of the 1798 Lyrical Ballads, Tintern Abbey. Here we get the first poem that shows the Giant Wordsworth. The former poems in Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth were great explorations of his poetic abilities, but in Tintern Abbey we get the full philosophical, psychological, autobiographical and poetic mastery that is Wordsworth.For my full notes and breakdown go to troubadourmag.com

This episode was recording during the holidays 2019. The Holidays are a time of reflections on your past as you prepare for New Years Eve resolutions for your future.Can recollecting your past be done improperly? Is it an infallible process? If it is not infallible, what should we do about it? These are some of the themes we will see in Tintern Abbey by Wordsworth.The full title of this poem is Lines Composed a Few Miles above TinternAbbey, On Revisiting the Banks of the Wyeduring a Tour. July 13, 1798.In this episode I explore the final poem of the 1798 Lyrical Ballads, Tintern Abbey. Here we get the first poem that shows the Giant Wordsworth. The former poems in Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth were great explorations of his poetic abilities, but in Tintern Abbey we get the full philosophical, psychological, autobiographical and poetic mastery that is Wordsworth.For my full notes and breakdown go to troubadourmag.com

Where we talk about the amazing ruins of Tintern Abbey and Caerphilly around Cardiff and Rachel's reminiscing about our walk from Swansea to Mumbles in southern Wales with stops along the way. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/reinitin/message

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".

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".

What does contemplation look like and how can we know it when we are doing it? This will be one of the themes to be explored on this episode. On this Sunday Morning Poetry I'll be reading not only the Lines poem but a passage from Wordsworth's The Prelude and a poem from Robert Burns. We will learn much about a pivotal shift in the early Wordsworth's philosophy and poetry. It is the shift that made Romanticism... Well... Romanticism.In Lyrical Ballads there are several poems by Wordsworth with the title simply "lines" and then a subtitle like (written in early spring) or (left upon a yew tree...). The most famous of these, and the most famous of all Wordsworth's poetry is the finale of the 1798 Lyrical Ballads, Lines (written a few miles above Tintern Abbey, on revisiting the banks of the Wy during a tour, July 13th, 1798). These "lines" poems have at their core a certain way of contemplation reality. It is one that has changed English writing and thinking ever since. And it is a way of contemplation that will make your life worth living.

What does contemplation look like and how can we know it when we are doing it? This will be one of the themes to be explored on this episode. On this Sunday Morning Poetry I'll be reading not only the Lines poem but a passage from Wordsworth's The Prelude and a poem from Robert Burns. We will learn much about a pivotal shift in the early Wordsworth's philosophy and poetry. It is the shift that made Romanticism... Well... Romanticism.In Lyrical Ballads there are several poems by Wordsworth with the title simply "lines" and then a subtitle like (written in early spring) or (left upon a yew tree...). The most famous of these, and the most famous of all Wordsworth's poetry is the finale of the 1798 Lyrical Ballads, Lines (written a few miles above Tintern Abbey, on revisiting the banks of the Wy during a tour, July 13th, 1798). These "lines" poems have at their core a certain way of contemplation reality. It is one that has changed English writing and thinking ever since. And it is a way of contemplation that will make your life worth living.

It’s Episode Thirteen: Ghostly Goings On of Not for the Dinner Table!! There is no NFTDT news this week as after six months of episodes we’re going back to where it all began with ghost stories. Sophie explores Goodrich Castle and Tintern Abbey. Tintern Abbey is fabled to have a ghostly Dark Knight and Goodrich Castle is famed for the ghosts of two star crossed lovers who met their demise on a stormy night. Dave explores Yester Castle in Scotland and the Wizard of Yester said to be a Necromancer who could control a Goblin Army. The stories surround the Wizard and his family. There is no Listeners Leftovers, but if you want your story read out get in touch with any of your listener stories, ideas for the conspiracy fondue or send a version of our Not for the Dinner Table News jingle by emailing notforthedinnertable@gmail.com Remember everyone is welcome at our dinner table, except… Follow us on Twitter @NFTDT Follow us on Instagram @notforthe_dinnertable Follow us on Facebook @ Not for the Dinner Table You can listen to our podcast on the Apple Podcast App, Soundcloud, Stitcher and Spotify or wherever you find podcasts. If you like the show, please leave a review wherever you have listened to this podcast.

In this episode the Dogs complete their European trip reports, with special guest Mike from Rossland. Also, RJ gets a purse, Dick's just isn't Dirty any more, poetry corner, and the effects of adenosine on lock-up torque converters.Links: Dirty Dick and his dead cats; Tintern Abbey; coffee naps

T. Rex go from making rock to baroque in a musical career change. The film The Trip, staring Peter Fonda, happily confuses Marc and Rob as to its location.

Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey, On Revisiting the Banks of the Wye during a Tour. July 13, 1798 By William Wordsworth      Five years have past; five summers, with the length  Of five long winters! and again I hear  These waters, rolling from their mountain-springs  With a soft inland murmur.—Once again  Do I behold these steep and lofty cliffs,  That on a wild secluded scene impress  Thoughts of more deep seclusion; and connect  The landscape with the quiet of the sky.  The day is come when I again repose  Here, under this dark sycamore, and view  These plots of cottage-ground, these orchard-tufts,  Which at this season, with their unripe fruits,  Are clad in one green hue, and lose themselves  'Mid groves and copses. Once again I see  These hedge-rows, hardly hedge-rows, little lines  Of sportive wood run wild: these pastoral farms,  Green to the very door; and wreaths of smoke  Sent up, in silence, from among the trees!  With some uncertain notice, as might seem  Of vagrant dwellers in the houseless woods,  Or of some Hermit's cave, where by his fire  The Hermit sits alone.                                                  These beauteous forms,  Through a long absence, have not been to me  As is a landscape to a blind man's eye:  But oft, in lonely rooms, and 'mid the din  Of towns and cities, I have owed to them,  In hours of weariness, sensations sweet,  Felt in the blood, and felt along the heart;  And passing even into my purer mind  With tranquil restoration:—feelings too  Of unremembered pleasure: such, perhaps,  As have no slight or trivial influence  On that best portion of a good man's life,  His little, nameless, unremembered, acts  Of kindness and of love. Nor less, I trust,  To them I may have owed another gift,  Of aspect more sublime; that blessed mood,  In which the burthen of the mystery,  In which the heavy and the weary weight  Of all this unintelligible world,  Is lightened:—that serene and blessed mood,  In which the affections gently lead us on,—  Until, the breath of this corporeal frame  And even the motion of our human blood  Almost suspended, we are laid asleep  In body, and become a living soul:  While with an eye made quiet by the power  Of harmony, and the deep power of joy,  We see into the life of things.                                                            If this  Be but a vain belief, yet, oh! how oft—  In darkness and amid the many shapes  Of joyless daylight; when the fretful stir  Unprofitable, and the fever of the world,  Have hung upon the beatings of my heart—  How oft, in spirit, have I turned to thee,  O sylvan Wye! thou wanderer thro' the woods,           How often has my spirit turned to thee!       And now, with gleams of half-extinguished thought,  With many recognitions dim and faint,  And somewhat of a sad perplexity,  The picture of the mind revives again:  While here I stand, not only with the sense  Of present pleasure, but with pleasing thoughts  That in this moment there is life and food  For future years. And so I dare to hope,  Though changed, no doubt, from what I was when first  I came among these hills; when like a roe  I bounded o'er the mountains, by the sides  Of the deep rivers, and the lonely streams,  Wherever nature led: more like a man  Flying from something that he dreads, than one  Who sought the thing he loved. For nature then  (The coarser pleasures of my boyish days  And their glad animal movements all gone by)  To me was all in all.—I cannot paint  What then I was. The sounding cataract  Haunted me like a passion: the tall rock,  The mountain, and the deep and gloomy wood,  Their colours and their forms, were then to me  An appetite; a feeling and a love,  That had no need of a remoter charm,  By thought supplied, not any interest  Unborrowed from the eye.—That time is past,  And all its aching joys are now no more,  And all its dizzy raptures. Not for this  Faint I, nor mourn nor murmur; other gifts  Have followed; for such loss, I would believe,  Abundant recompense. For I have learned  To look on nature, not as in the hour  Of thoughtless youth; but hearing oftentimes  The still sad music of humanity,  Nor harsh nor grating, though of ample power  To chasten and subdue.—And I have felt  A presence that disturbs me with the joy  Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime  Of something far more deeply interfused,  Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,  And the round ocean and the living air,  And the blue sky, and in the mind of man:  A motion and a spirit, that impels  All thinking things, all objects of all thought,  And rolls through all things. Therefore am I still  A lover of the meadows and the woods  And mountains; and of all that we behold  From this green earth; of all the mighty world  Of eye, and ear,—both what they half create,  And what perceive; well pleased to recognise  In nature and the language of the sense  The anchor of my purest thoughts, the nurse,  The guide, the guardian of my heart, and soul  Of all my moral being.                                                Nor perchance,  If I were not thus taught, should I the more  Suffer my genial spirits to decay:  For thou art with me here upon the banks  Of this fair river; thou my dearest Friend,  My dear, dear Friend; and in thy voice I catch  The language of my former heart, and read  My former pleasures in the shooting lights  Of thy wild eyes. Oh! yet a little while  May I behold in thee what I was once,  My dear, dear Sister! and this prayer I make,  Knowing that Nature never did betray  The heart that loved her; 'tis her privilege,  Through all the years of this our life, to lead  From joy to joy: for she can so inform  The mind that is within us, so impress  With quietness and beauty, and so feed  With lofty thoughts, that neither evil tongues,  Rash judgments, nor the sneers of selfish men,  Nor greetings where no kindness is, nor all  The dreary intercourse of daily life,  Shall e'er prevail against us, or disturb  Our cheerful faith, that all which we behold  Is full of blessings. Therefore let the moon  Shine on thee in thy solitary walk;  And let the misty mountain-winds be free  To blow against thee: and, in after years,  When these wild ecstasies shall be matured  Into a sober pleasure; when thy mind  Shall be a mansion for all lovely forms,  Thy memory be as a dwelling-place  For all sweet sounds and harmonies; oh! then,  If solitude, or fear, or pain, or grief,  Should be thy portion, with what healing thoughts  Of tender joy wilt thou remember me,  And these my exhortations! Nor, perchance—  If I should be where I no more can hear  Thy voice, nor catch from thy wild eyes these gleams  Of past existence—wilt thou then forget  That on the banks of this delightful stream  We stood together; and that I, so long  A worshipper of Nature, hither came  Unwearied in that service: rather say  With warmer love—oh! with far deeper zeal  Of holier love. Nor wilt thou then forget,  That after many wanderings, many years  Of absence, these steep woods and lofty cliffs,  And this green pastoral landscape, were to me  More dear, both for themselves and for thy sake! 

In this talk Rita Felski reported at new research on how we engage with works of art across a broad range (including cat videos) and considered the puzzling question of why we are drawn by some pieces of music, art and literature, and not by others. Why do we prefer, say, Matisse to Picasso, or Joni Mitchell over Bob Dylan, and how can those preferences change quite sharply in a life-time? Drawing on an essay by writer Zadie Smith, in which she describes falling in love with Joni Mitchell quite by surprise one afternoon at Tintern Abbey while longing for a sausage roll, Rita Felski explored a range of explanations that have been given for these responses. She came to settle on actor-network theory as offering the most satisfactory explanation taking account of the many factors that come together when we turn to a certain book or choose a piece of music: education, temporality, and the relationships we have with other people and things.

In this talk Rita Felski reported at new research on how we engage with works of art across a broad range (including cat videos) and considered the puzzling question of why we are drawn by some pieces of music, art and literature, and not by others. Why do we prefer, say, Matisse to Picasso, or Joni Mitchell over Bob Dylan, and how can those preferences change quite sharply in a life-time? Drawing on an essay by writer Zadie Smith, in which she describes falling in love with Joni Mitchell quite by surprise one afternoon at Tintern Abbey while longing for a sausage roll, Rita Felski explored a range of explanations that have been given for these responses. She came to settle on actor-network theory as offering the most satisfactory explanation taking account of the many factors that come together when we turn to a certain book or choose a piece of music: education, temporality, and the relationships we have with other people and things.

Tintern Abbey Reading

Welcome Mere Rhetoric, the podcast for beginners and insiders about the ideas, people and movements who have shaped rhetorical history. Today's episode is brought to you by the Humanities Media Project and viewers like you, because today is a listener-suggested topic. Today we’re going to talk about Longinus, which is to say we’re going to talk about On the Sublime,which is to say we're going to talk about the sublime. We don’t know anything about Longinus except that he wrote On the Sublime, and, if we’re going to be strictly honest, we don’t know whether the author of On the Sublime  was actually named Longinus. So we have this key rhetorical text and the only thing we know for sure about its author is that they wrote this key rhetorical text.   Maybe that’s over-stating it. Maybe this was Dionysies of Halicarnassus. You remember him, Greek fellow, loved Romans? Maybe it was Hermagoras, whom you might remember from the stasis episode. Or it was this other bloke, Cassius Longinus. It’s all very confusing, and you’d think the Roman empire could come up with a naming system that didn’t rely on like the same four names and a series of embarrassing nicknames, but evidentally not. Also, authorship wasn’t so well documented. So all of this is conjecture, but  for the sake of the podcast today we’re going to say that Longinus was the author of “On the Sublime“ and leave it at that.   Historical vaguaries aside, in “On the Sublime,” Longinus advances a poetics that is rhetorical not in the sense that he expects poetry to develop and elaborate explicit persuasive claims, but rather seeks “to transport [audiences] out of themselves” (163). You may be familiar with a bastardization of the word “sublime” that talks about sublime chocolate or music, but the idea of the sublime is that it’s such a consuming process that you lose yourself completely. The chocolate becomes your entire experience.This  “irresistible power and mastery” has greater influence over the audience than any deliberate persuasive argument (163). Is the sublime, then a competitor with rhetoric or is it a mode of rhetoric? Is the sublime just high-falutin’ flowery language or something more? Longinus is vague about this point.   While the sublime comes from the world of poetry, it doesn’t exclusively reign there. Longinus may keep a traditional view of persuasion out of the sublime, but he does allow for sublime moments in traditionally persuasive orations, including legal discourse. Yes, in addition to waterfalls and chocolate, legal briefs can be sublime. I knew that, but then, I watched a lot of old school Law and Order. In such cases, when a sublime visualization is “combined with factual arguments it not only convinces the audience, it positively masters them” (223). Both poets and orators, then, can use the sublime to control an audience and “carry the audience away ” (227). With such incredible power, sublimity seems to be the ultimate skill to develop.            But while Longinus advises us in methods to improve our likelihood of sublimity (choosing weighty words for weighty topics, considering the context, borrowing from the greats, etc.), ultimately he gives us no great writer, nor any great work, as a model of constant sublimity. The sublime comes rather as “a well-timed flash” or “a bolt of lightning” that “shatters everything […] and reveals the power of the speaker” (163-4). This lightning bolt metaphor highlights some of Longinus’ difficulty in teaching someone to be sublime: sublimity is sudden, short, and almost divine in origin.  As you put it, the sublime “takes you out of this world into a heavenly life” (22/02/2011).                       But just as we aren't so sure whether Longinus wrote On the Sulime, we also seem to be constantly redefining what the Sublime is and how much we think Longinus' conception of the Sublime should set the tone for every else. Pretty much, everyone wants to redefine the sublime. The modern mania for the sublime started in in 1671 with a translation of Longinus into the French. But the real break for Longinus in the modern work was Edmund Burke’s “Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful” in 1757. That date make clue you in that this is the Burke who was a politician in the late 18th century, not the 20th century rhetorician. This Burke, Edmund, defined the sublime a little more narrowly: the sublime is “whatever is fitted in any sort to excite the ideas of pain and danger.” I can see where Burke is coming from on this--what takes you away from the every day and focuses your attention more than the threat of imminent danger? Still, it somewhat restricts what the sublime can be. Now rather  than just a “bolt of lightning” it’s a bolt of lightning on a dark and stormy night.            This broodiness led to the sublime being picked up by all those romantic poets fifty years later, who loved to stand on top of Alpine cliffs in the fog and stare into the abyss and all that. Wordsworth, who was always have out-of-body sublime moments, wrote in “Tintern Abbey” about “of aspect more sublime; that blessed mood/ in which the burden of the mystery/ in which the heavy and weary weight of all this unintelligible world”--certainly solemn stuff. Wordworth’s sister, Dorothy, made fun of some tourists who were unforuntate enough to talk with Coleridge at a waterfall. She relates “Yes, sir’, says Coleridge, ‘it is a majestic waterfall.’ ‘Sublime and beautiful,’ replied his friend.” Coleridge thought this was the funniest thing ever and straight away ditched the tourists and came to his poet friends to laugh about how people were overusing the word “sublime.” Jerk move on Coleridge’s part, but gets to the point of how the “sublime” was becoming a specific term for the Romantics.            This isn’t to say everyone in the 18th and early 19th century had one idea about what the sublime is. Kant, for instance, found the sublime not in nature, but in the “presentation of an indeterminate concept of reason.” Yes, while Longinus describes the sublimity of language and the Romantics found the sublime in nature, Kant can be carried away by an abstraction. For Kant, the sublime isn't just about aesthetics, but about the contrast between something very big and grand and the littleness of man—you can try to comprehend something incomprehendable when you encounter the sublime. That's heavy stuff.            The sublime has continued to fascinate modern rhetoricians and thinkers. More recently, in the 1980s Suzanne Guerlac has contended that Longinus' “On the Sublime" “has traditionally been read as a manual of elevated style and relegated to the domain of the 'merely' rhetorical. The rhetorical sublime has in turn been linked with a notion of affective criticism in which analysis of style and expression centers upon questions of subjective feeling and emotive force” (275). Instead, and remember this is the 80s, she salutes “on the sublime” as being an assault on simple subjectivity, disrupting binaries like form/content and means/ends (276). The sublime in Longinus is about being sincere, but a sincerity that can be forced.  This isn't the only contradiction, but one that is representative of the paradoxes of art. " The Longinian sublime implies a dynamic overlapping, or reciprocity, between the orders of the symbolic and the imaginary" writes Guerlac (286).            The little essay that maybe Longinus wrote, or maybe someone else wrote, has had a big influence in art, literature and rhetoric. Also, evidentally, waterfall-watching.  Do you know what else is influential? Email I get. Even those I don't respond to for like, more than a year.  That's my bad. Mike Litts wrote in asking for an episode on the sublime back in 2015, but here we are, a year and a half later and by gum, we've done an episode about the sublime. If you like delayed gratification, please feel free to write in to mererhetoricpodcast@gmail.com and suggest your own favorite topic. No, I'm just kidding. I think I fixed my email problem, so if you write in, I'll respond in less than a year. And won't that be sublime?      

Dewey aesthetic Today on Mere Rhetoric, we talk about John Dewey. John Dewey was a big ol’ deal, even back in his day. Just after his death in 1952, Hilda Neaby wrote”Dewey has been to our age what Aristotle was to the later Middle Ages, not just a philosopher, but the philosopher.” And what does a person have to do to be compared to Aristotle? I mean to be compared in a serious way to Aristotle, because I’m like Aristotle because, you know, I enjoy olive oil on occasions, not because I’m the philosopher. I think one thing Neaby means is that Dewey was involved in everything. Just like how Aristotle had huge impact in politics, theology, science and rhetoric, John Dewey seemed to have a finger in every pie. By the time he died at age 92, he had written significantly on education, politics, art, ethics and sociology. But it’s not enough to be a big freakin’ deal a hundred years ago, but Dewey is a big deal in rhetoric today. It’s rare to search too many issues back in Rhetoric Review, Rhetoric Society Quarterly or Rhetoric  and Public Affairs without hitting on an article either directly about or draws on Dewey, and books about Dewey are popping up all over the map. John Dewey is hot real estate.   So because John Dewey is such an important thinker for rhetoricians today, we have to take more time than today to talk about him. That’s right-- a Mere Rhetoric two-parter. A to-be-continued. A cliffhanger. If that cliff is carefully divided, I guess and that division is this: today we’ll talk about John Dewey’s contribution to aesthetics, his book Art as Experience  and responses to that book from contemporary rhetoricans. Next week we’ll talk more about his politics, the dream of his pragmatism, what he means by Individualism Old and New  and the famous Dewey-Lippmann debate. So that’s what we’ll be doing the next two weeks. So let’s get started on the first part of this Dewey-twoey.   Like many great thinkers, Dewey started his career by realizing that what he thought he wanted to do, he  really, really didn’t. In Dewey’s case it was education. It’s ironic that Dewey became one of the 20th century’s most important voices in education because he did not teach secondary or primary school for longer than a couple of years each. Good thing he had a back-up plan as a major philosopher. He joined the ground floor of the University of Chicago and became one of the defining voices of the University of Chicago style of thinking, although he eventually left, somewhat acrimoniously, and taught at Columbia for the rest of his career. Somewhere along the way, though, he became president of the American philosophical association and published Art as Experience.   The title kind of gives away Dewey’s claim--he situates art in the experience which you have with art. As he says “the actual work of art is what the product does with and in experience” (1). But he also means the opposite, that experience can be art. Instead of thinking of art as something that happens in rarified situations behind glass and velvet ropes, Dewey opens up “art” to mean popular culture, experiences with nature and even just a way of living.   Being in the moment is a big part of this artful living. If you’re experiencing or rather, to use the particular philosophical parlance Dewey insists on “having an experience” then you are totally being in the moment: “only when the past ceases to trouble and anticipations of the future are not perturning is a being wholly united with his environment and therefore fully alive. Art celebrates with peculiar intensity the moments in which the past reenforces the present and in which the future is a quickening of what is now is” (17). In such a view, any time we live the moment artfully, in full presence of being, we’re having an artful experience. In having an experience, you have some sort of awareness and some kind of form.   As Dewey says, “art is thus prefigured in the very processes of life” (25).   This idea may sound radical. How can sitting in a crowded bus be art the way that the Mona Lisa is art? But Dewey is insistent. He sighs, “the hostility to association of fine art with normal processes of living is a pathetic, even a tragic, commentary on life as it is ordinarily lived” (27-28).   That’s not to say that there can’t be objects of art that concentrate the sensation of having an experience. But it’s the whole experience. For example, “Reflections on Tintern Abbey” isn’t really about Tintern Abbey any more than it’s about Wordworth and evenings and homecomings and 1798 and that sycamore and all of it. It expresses a complete experience of Wordsworth. And that expression is always changing as times change.“the very meaning,” Dewey writes “of an important new movement in any art is that it expresses something new in human experience” (316). Meanwhile the art that remains after the moment passes and the movement becomes cliche. “Art is the great force in effecting [...] consolidation. The individuals who have minds pass away one by one. The works in which meanings have received objective expression endure. [...] every art in some manner is a medium of this transmission while its products are no inconsiderable part of the saturating matter” (340)   And the value of art is moral. First off, Dewey says that“The moral function of art itself is to remove prejudice, do away with the scales that keep the eye from seeing, tear away the veils due to wont and custom, perfect the power to perceive. The critic’s office is to further this work, performed by the object of art” (338).   Pretty cool stuff, huh? But wait, there’s more. The process of having an experience, that complete being, has its own moral value, or so argues Scott Stroud in John Dewy and the Artful Life: Pragmatism, aesthetics and morality. There he claims “I want to examine how art can be seen as a way of moral cultivation” (3) because“At various places, Dewey’s work provides us with tantalizing clues to his real project--the task of making more of life aesthetic or artful” (5) Put in other words: “art can show individuals how certain value schemes feel, how behaviors affect people, etc.--in other words, art can force the reflective instatement (creation) of moral values” (9)   Stroud connects the pragmatists like Dewey with mysticism in Eastern philosophy and medieval monastic Christianity. Remember how Dewey is all about having an experience, really being in the moment? So Stroud says, “The way to substantially improve our experience is not by merely waiting for the material setup of the world to change, but instead lies in the intelligent altering of our deep-seated bahits (orientations) toward activity and toward other individuals” (11). “The important point,” writes Stroud, “is that attentiveness to the present is a vital way to cultivate the self toward the goal of progressive adjustment and it is also a vital means in the present to do so” (69)   For Stroud, as for Dewey“the art object [...] imbued with meaning partially by the actions of the artist, but also because of the crucial contributions of meaning that a common cultural background contributes to the activity of producing and receiving art objects” (97)--the way that the artistic object is received popularly and by critics. And for that aim “criticism does more than merely tell one what an important work of art is or what impression was had; instead, it gives one a possible orientation that is helpful in ordering and improving one’s past and future experiences” (122). And in that, criticism, or even appreciation, is also a moral act. Stroud’s argument has immediate application of the artful life. He ponders “How can we render everyday communication, such as that experiences in mundane conversations with friends, cashiers, and so on, as aesthetic?” (170). To answer this, he draws on dewey to suggest that we avoid focusing on a remote goal, cultivate habits of attending to the demands of the present communication situation and fight against the idea of reified, separate self (186-7). Next week we’ll continue our Dewey Twoey by talking about Dewey’s political and educational contributes and Individualism Old and New and modern responses to it. Between then and now, I hope you have the chance to enjoy some great art, even if that great art is popular art, or even just this moment you’re in ...right ...now.

Have you ever dealt with frustrating wrist pain or carpal tunnel or tennis elbow or golfer's elbow or climber's elbow - pain that is aggravated by typing and computer work? Have you ever wished you could walk one, five or ten miles while still being able to work on a book, a project, or a paper? Have you ever wished you could simply talk your thoughts into existence, and have them appear in your emails, documents, books and more? Then today's podcast episode is for you. -------------------- Before jumping into today's episode, let's take a look at folks who have abandoned traditional methods of simply sitting down to produce, create and be productive. The list of historical figures who have used standing desks is veritable “who’s who”. Here is just a brief snapshot of famous folks, writers, and inventors who leveraged the standing desk’s benefits throughout history. For example, Leonardo da Vinci painted the Mona Lisa while he stood at his standing desk. Da Vinci also stood at his desk while sketching new inventions, including parachutes, flying machines, and armored vehicles. The standing desk also made its appearance in one of the world’s oldest colleges, the University of Cambridge, founded in 1209. Standing desks were first recorded as being used in the library in 1626, and the idea of writing while standing was placed at the epicenter of intellectual thought. Napoléon Bonaparte also used a standing desk and found it conducive to quick thinking and strategizing for battle. Thomas Jefferson also used the standing desk while composing documents, including the Declaration of Independence (he actually developed a six-legged adjustable standing desk, and was one of the first known people to use an adjustable standing desk). Charles Dickens' workspace where he penned such timeless classics as Oliver Twist, A Christmas Carol, and A Tale of Two Cities. is described as having “books all round, up to the ceiling and down to the ground; a standing-desk at which he writes; and all manner of comfortable easy chairs.” Winston Churchill was often seen writing at his standing desk. Ernest Hemingway’s fashioned a standing desk out of a bookcase near his bed. Honest Abe Lincoln was never too far from his trusty standing desk. He used it to deliver the Emancipation Proclamation and is famously quoted as saying 'Verily, 'tis my standing desk that gave me the inspiration to end this wicked and iniquitous trade.' In addition to standing while writing, both dictating while writing is also something famous authors have done. For example, in her book , author Cindy Grigg reports: “Leo Tolstoy received one of the earliest dictaphone prototypes. To this he replied that the “Ediphone” was impressive but “too dreadfully exciting” for his methods. Instead, he seemed to favor dictating to his daughter Alexandra or even house guests. Fyodor Dostoyevsky reportedly struck a bargain with his publisher to pay off his and/or his brother’s debts. The deal required that the author submit his manuscript for The Gambler in short order. To do so, he employed stenographer Anna Grigorievna, who gave him collaborative feedback as well. He finished the manuscript in four weeks then married Anna. “Thomas Hardy dictated his wife Florence Hardy’s ‘biography’ about himself to her, seemingly to retain control of the account. Like many authors, Hardy also dictated once he became ill. Stricken with pleurisy, he spoke his last poem to his wife Florence. John Milton was blind when he created Paradise Lost, dictating the epic poetical work to his several daughters. This inspired paintings of him and his daughters by artists George Romney, Delacroix, and others. Alexander Dumas was rumored to never touch up his drafts, having served as a historian, which had given him practice in thinking about what he wanted to say before he dictated it. Michel de Montaigne , an acclaimed 16th-century essayist, dictated his journal and possibly other writings. Henry James referred to his hired transcriptionists as amanuenses, needing to contract such help at least partially due to rheumatism in his wrist. One of them, Theodora Bosanquet, recorded in her diary, “Indeed, at the time when I began to work for him, he had reached a stage at which the click of the Remington machine acted as a positive spur. He found it more difficult to compose to the music of any other make. During a fortnight when the Remington was out of order he dictated to an Oliver typewriter with evident discomfort, and he found it almost disconcerting to speak to something that made no responsive sound at all.” William Wordsworth was a kindred spirit to mobile writers such as myself. He ‘wrote’ Tintern Abbey mentally on a “ramble of four or five days…Not a line of it was altered, and not any part of it written down till I reached Bristol.'' Thanks to transcriptionist Isabella Fenwick, he also dictated The Fenwick Notes commentary about his poetry. Of his long poem The Excursion, Wordsworth mentions, “Something must now be said of this poem, but chiefly, as has been done through the whole of these notes, with reference to my personal friends, and especially to her who has perseveringly taken them down from my dictation.” Charles Dickens was rumored to act his characters out in front of a mirror, giving vocal dramatizations of dialogue and text. In 1882, The Brooklyn Daily Eagle published an interview with someone who claimed to be Dickens’ amanuensis, describing him this way: “‘Yes, I did shorthand work for Mr. Dickens for eighteen months. I did not take dictation for any of his novels, only his fugitive pieces…Most people seem to think Dickens was a ready writer. This is by no means the case. He used to come into his office in St. Catherine Street about eight o’clock in the morning and begin dictating. He would walk up and down the floor several times after dictating a sentence or a paragraph and ask me to read it. I would do so, and he would, in nine cases out of ten, order me to strike out certain words and insert others. He was generally tired out by eleven o’clock, and went down to his club on the Strand. A singular thing was that he never dictated the closing paragraphs of his story. He always finished it himself. I used to look in the paper for it, and find that he had changed it very greatly from what he had dictated to me. Dickens had a very odd habit of combing his hair. He would comb it a hundred times in a day. He seemed never to tire of it. The first thing he did on coming into the office was to comb his hair. I have seen him dictate a sentence or two, and then begin combing. When he got through he dictated another sentence.” Bram Stoker was himself a secretary and director of London's Lyceum Theatre, as well as a manager for Henry Irving. His own experiences may have influenced how several chapters of Dracula are dedicated to asylum director Dr. Seward recording dictations on a phonograph, to the chagrin of Mina Harker, who typed them up as soon as possible, believing the veracity and emotion of the audio to be too much for other readers to bear. “I have copied the words on my typewriter, and none other need now hear your heart beat, as I did.” Dictation is also mentioned in Stoker’s The Jewel of Seven Stars. Stendhal (the pen name for Marie-Henri Beyle) dictated The Charterhouse of Parma in seven weeks, 52 consecutive days--another kindred spirit to Marcel Proust dictated the Death of Bergotte to Celeste Albaret on his death bed, even though it was already finished, saying it needed to be written a second time. He supposedly explained, “I didn’t yet know what it’s like to die when I wrote it. I know it more now.” James Joyce found inspiration in a random happening while dictating Finnegan's Wake. While recording the story, Joyce was interrupted when someone came to the door and was welcomed with a phrase like, “Come in,” which Joyce thought worked well in the manuscript so he left it in his draft. Thomas Aquinas was apparently so skilled at dictation that he gave observers the impression he could speak on several topics at once to multiple scribes and even to dictate in his sleep.” In today's podcast, we're going to delve into how you too can be more productive, build endurance, maintain muscle, and burn more calories, all while writing from a standing desk and / or while dictating. ----------------------- My guest, is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of thrillers on the edge, as well as bestselling non-fiction for authors published under Joanna Penn. Joanna’s site for writers, has been voted one of the Top 10 sites for writers three years running. She is a professional speaker on creative entrepreneurship, digital publishing and internet marketing, and was voted one of The Guardian UK Top 100 creative professionals 2013. During our discussion, you'll discover: -How Joanna developed chronic repetitive motion injuries in her wrist, and why ergonomic keyboards and an ergonomic computer mouse weren't working for her... -Why Joanna decided to go way above and beyond simply using a standing workstation or treadmill desk... -How Joanna is simultaneously working on multiple books while also training for an ultramarathon... -Whether you can really, truly be creative while standing or walking, and why it's a myth that you need to sit to write effectively... -The exact tools, microphones and software that Joanna has found to work very well for dictation... -A book that will teach you exactly how to dictate quickly and effectively... -How to  "train" your computer to recognize your voice and accent... -How to enhance productivity with ambient noise and focus apps... -And much more! Resources from this episode: - - - - - -Dragon Anywhere cloud software - - - (an author who dictates while walking 4+ hours per day) - - - - (this is a place where you can also get  or we talk about) - - - - - - Do you have questions, comments or feedback for Joanna or I? Leave your thoughts at  and one of us will reply!

Institute of English Studies The Annual Wordsworth Lecture 'Wordsworth and the Meaning of Trees' Professor Fiona Stafford (University of Oxford) From the 'Sylvan Wye' by Tintern Abbey to the 'leafy glen' in 'Airey Force Valley', Wordsworth's...

A discussion of a few of Wordsworth's shorter poems as well as "Tintern Abbey."

This lectures covers Darwin, the concept of design, Wordsworth, Tintern Abbey, the romantic image of nature, the persistence of time, memory and Frost.

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Lyrical Ballads, the collection of poems by William Wordsworth and Samuel Coleridge first published in 1798. The work was conceived as an attempt to cast off the stultifying conventions of formal 18th-century poetry. Wordsworth wrote that the poems it contains should be "considered as experiments. They were written chiefly with a view to ascertain how far the language of conversation in the middle and lower classes of society is adapted to the purpose of poetic pleasure."Lyrical Ballads contains some of the best-known work by Coleridge and Wordsworth, including The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Tintern Abbey - and is today seen as a point of radical departure for poetry in English.With:Judith HawleyProfessor of Eighteenth-Century Literature at Royal Holloway, University of LondonJonathan BateProvost of Worcester College, OxfordPeter SwaabReader in English Literature at University College London.Producer: Thomas Morris.

The beginning of Romanticism proper.  The perceiving, half-creating consciousness in Coleridge and Wordsworth.  Vicarious experience.  Memory and memory of memory.  Hartley and Dorothy to have different experiences.  Loss and recompense.  No recompense without loss.  Meditative blank verse vs. the heroic couplet.

Benedictine Vespers for the Nativity of Our Lady of Tintern, at Tintern Abbey on Sunday  7th September 2008. Abbot Aidan Bellenger gave a wonderful, heavenly homily, Singers were Sr Emma Joy SSC and Susan Williams. Final Prayers by Archbitshop Peter. Sorry I messed up the Lords Prayer in a different setting ! Hope you enjoy this. I have also inserted one or two bits of plainchant to fill in gaps there and there. Psalm 84 Oculos tuos sing at Gloucester Cathedral by the Chamber Choir of the Kings School at Gloucester cathedral, conducted by David Harries. A wonderful accoustic and choir-and how Tintern would have sounded/ The Project at our Lady of Tintern and how you can participate. Rosary 3pm At Statue of Our Lady of Tintern on 21 September.

In "Everything is Alive," I approach the intelligent, innocent idea of our youth that there is life in the inanimate, and I look at some of Wordsworth's lines from the famous poem "Tintern Abbey."

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ideals, exponents and legacy of Romanticism. In the space of a few years around the start of the nineteenth century the Romantic period gave us: Wordsworth, Coleridge, Blake, Burns, two Shelleys, Keats, De Quincey, Carlyle, Byron, Scott… the list goes on and on. And the poems: The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner, Ode to a Nightingale, Tintern Abbey, Ozymandias, Don Juan… they make up some of the best known and most enjoyed works of literature in the English language. How do we explain what seems to be an extraordinary explosion of talent? Were the Romantics really a movement with their own philosphy and ideals? And when its adherents often died so tragically young, and its poems often seem so steeped in nostalgia and so wrapped in the transcendental, is Romanticism really good for you in a modern world? With Jonathan Bate, Professor of English, University of Liverpool; Rosemary Ashton, Professor of English, University College London; Nicholas Roe, Professor of English, University of St Andrews.

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ideals, exponents and legacy of Romanticism. In the space of a few years around the start of the nineteenth century the Romantic period gave us: Wordsworth, Coleridge, Blake, Burns, two Shelleys, Keats, De Quincey, Carlyle, Byron, Scott… the list goes on and on. And the poems: The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner, Ode to a Nightingale, Tintern Abbey, Ozymandias, Don Juan… they make up some of the best known and most enjoyed works of literature in the English language. How do we explain what seems to be an extraordinary explosion of talent? Were the Romantics really a movement with their own philosphy and ideals? And when its adherents often died so tragically young, and its poems often seem so steeped in nostalgia and so wrapped in the transcendental, is Romanticism really good for you in a modern world? With Jonathan Bate, Professor of English, University of Liverpool; Rosemary Ashton, Professor of English, University College London; Nicholas Roe, Professor of English, University of St Andrews.