Topics discussed in this episode include: Read the polished transcript of this episode on Substack! My lecture on The Grand Style in English My poem, "Spelunker," in New Verse Review The 2025 ALSCW Conference Cameron’s substack Ethan’s substack Poetry’s psychological effect and moral charge The burden of genius Poetry vs. Philosophy Maimonides and Augustine The decadence of the academy "Poetry as Enchantment" by Dana Gioia The function of meter and rhyme The heresy of paraphrase Bouts...

Topics discussed in this episode include: Read the polished transcript of this episode here! Cameron’s substack Ethan’s substack "The World as Will and Representation" by Arthur Schopenhauer Why you Kant do metaphysics anymore Matter, Phenomena, Representation, Maya vs. Form, Noumena, Will, Nirvana Terrains of flesh French vs. English gardens From Schopenhauer to Freud Perception vs Reflection Art vs. Philosophy Idea vs. Conception The Symbolist Movement Classical Architecture suprema...

Topics discussed in this episode include: -My recent class at the Frost Farm Conference -My trip to Europe -Come to the ALSCW Conference! -Part I and Part II of my essay on French poetry in Marginalia Review of Books -New poems and translations of mine in the latest issue of Literary Matters -My essays The Iron Lyre and The Monumentalist Manifesto -The most recent SLEERICKETS -The Romantic within the Classicist -Philosophy within poetry -The mystique of Santayana -"The Morning Song of Senlin...

Topics mentioned in this episode: -The use of the term “poetry” and the death of the genuine article -Building metrical literacy -My essay “The Iron Lyre” -Modern small-souledness -My essay “The Poisoned Well: Melville and Gnosticism” -My essay “The Monumentalist Manifesto” -“Science, Politics, and Gnosticism” by Eric Voegelin -“The Whiteness of the Whale” in Herman Melville’s “Moby Dick” -“The Gnostic Gospels” ed. Elaine Pagels -“Fragment of a Lost Gnostic Poem of the 12th Century” b...

Text of poem here Soundtrack to this episode Topics discussed in this episode: -The University of St. Thomas, Houston -"The Flaming Heart" by Mario Praz -Giambattista Marino -Metaphysical vs. Baroque -The poetry of rapture -The Greek Anthology -Laudianism -Crashaw's Teresa poems -Mixed meter and phantom&n...

Topics discussed in this episode include: -The MFA Program at the University of St. Thomas -My episode on Ryan’s poem “Disobedience” -"How to Think Like a Poet" by Ryan Wilson -Wiseblood Books -New editions of Dryden and Pope soon come! -“The Catholic Writer Today” by Dana Gioia -David Rothman -New Verse Review’s St. Thomas issue -“A Season in Hell” by Arthur Rimbaud -“Pure and Impure Poetry” by Robert Penn Warren -The Fugitives, Agrarians, and New Critics -“The Waste Land” by T.S. Eliot -“Da...

Topics discussed in this episode include: Wiseblood Books The University of St. Thomas MFA Program My episode on James Matthew Wilson "The Fortunes of Poetry in an Age of Unmaking" by James Matthew Wilson "The Wayward Thomist" by James Matthew Wilson The Complete Essays of J.V. Cunningham Jacques Maritain "Crime and Punishment" by Dostoevsky "La Vita Nuova" by Dante Matthew 16 "In Ghostlight" by Ryan Wilson "The River of the Immaculate Conception" by James Matthew Wilson "Mass of the Americas...

Topics discussed in this episode include: Matthew Buckley Smith over at SLEERICKETS Alice Allan over at Poetry Says and In Future Posts Ethan McGuire over at The Flummoxed Zina Gomez Liss over at The Beauty of Things Cameron Clark over at Minor Tiresias Rationalist, Socialist, Humanist, Bicameral Demo-Oligarchic Utopia? Ironkraft and Cheesecraft An incomplete list of people I envy: Kendrick Lamar, Shane McCrae, James Matthew Wilson, Chris Childers, Dick Davis, Amit Majmudar, Matthew Buckley ...

Poems/Prose Lyrics featured: "The Eagles" by Jones Very "The Oracles" by A.E. Housman "An Equation" by Hyam Plutzik "Plato and the Serpent" by Catherine Davis "Crow's Theology" by Ted Hughes "Changeling" by Rhina Espaillat "Hardy" by Robert Mezey "The Master of Metaphor" by Carl Dennis "Lust" by J.D. McClatchy "An Incident in the Sublime" by Wyatt Prunty Poems/Prose Lyrics mentioned: "Jones Very in the Parlor" by Brian Brodeur "The Proverbs of Hell" by William Blake "Antarctica" by Elij...

Topics discussed in this episode: -Email me your questions!! -Cameron's substack, "Minor Tiresias" -My poem, "At Woodlawn" in Merion West -My poem, "Aztec Support" in Light -My episode on Learning the Secrets of English Verse -"Missing Measures" and "All the Fun's In How You Say A Thing"&n...

Soundtrack to this episode Text of poem here Send me your AMA questions for Versecraft 100! Topics discussed in this episode include: -Greatest Generation poets -"Because You Asked About the Line Between Prose and Poetry" by Howard Nemerov -"De Anima" by Aristotle -On loose iambics -The ghost of Sapphics -A transexual volta -Life engenders the great romance of death -"Spring and Fall" by Gerard Manley Hopkins -The nature of empathy and tragedy -Orpheus and Eurydice and my Shane McCrae Episo...

Soundtrack to this episode Text of poem: Bird Watcher It returns to the same nest. The watcher lies beneath spring brushwood to await its coming– at watch so long he dreams himself becoming less than himself and more, the landscape’s eyes. Though far beyond his eyes, beyond the range of field-glasses, he knows it breaks no bonds: its instinct to his knowledge corresponds, riding the current of the season’s change. What is there in a small bird’s blood that learns to pl...

Topics discussed in this episode include: -Go buy Learning the Secrets of English Verse! -The Monumentalist Manifesto -My episode, The Idea Of A Poetry Conservatory -Poetry as skill -The Fitzgerald system of scansion -Parallelism, Syllabics, Loose Iambics, Stress-counting, rhyme-driving, sprung rhythm, oh my! -"All the Fun's In How You Say A Thing" by Timothy Steele -Sonnets don't cure polio, but they're pretty great. -Rhyme Royal, Ottava Rima, Spenserians, Onegin, oh my! -L'dor Vador Suppo...

Soundtrack to this episode Text of poem Topics discussed include: -Your host has an identity crisis -RIP POETRY SAYS! -Listen to Alice on Milton and with me. -Moira Egan! -My Pindar essay -My Melville essay -The Iron Lyre! -Matthew, Alice, and I argue about The Iron Lyre -THE ERN MALLEY HOAX -The New York School and the Generation of '68 -Read the entire text of The Darkening Ecliptic here. -A Primer of English Versification -Dickinson and Blake -The loneliness of love -The mysticism of lus...

Soundtrack to this episode Link to translations Topics discussed: -Alice tackles Milton on Poetry Says -Check out my Substack here! -My episode on Ryan Wilson -My episode on Geoffrey Hill -The long and short of a long fellow -Longfellow's Dante -The Monster of Literature -Romance languages and hendecasyllabics -Faithful to which fidelity? -Translational hijinks ensue -Mosaic rhymes! Support the show BUY VERSECRAFT MERCH HERE. Please subscribe, rate, and review! Thanks so much for l...

Soundtrack to this episode Note: My use of the phrase "men without chests" and Matthew's were completely coincidental! Text of poem: Lachrimae Antiquae Novae Crucified Lord, so naked to the world, you live unseen within that nakedness, consigned by proxy to the judas-kiss of our devotion, bowed beneath the gold, with re-enactments, penances foretold: scentings of love across a wilderness of retrospection, wild and objectless longings incarnate in the carnal child. Beautiful for themse...

Soundtrack to this episode Text of poem: Nor strange it is, to us who walk in bonds Of flesh and time, if virtue's self awhile Gleam dull like sunless ice; whilst graceful guile— Blood-flecked like hematite or diamonds With a red inward spark—to reconcile Beauty and evil seems and corresponds So well with good that the mind joys to have Full wider jet and scope nor swings and sleeps Forever in one cradle wearily: Like those vast weeds that off d'Acunha's isle Wash with the surf and flap t...

Soundtrack to this episode Read the text of the poem here Topics discussed in this episode include: The Iron Lyre: Poetry, Heavy Metal, and the New Sublime Alice and Elijah vs. The Abyss on SLEERICKETS Melissa Range! Aaron Baker! David Southward! "The Rhythms of English Poetry" by Derek Attridge My John Donne episode My George Herbert episode My Gerard Manley Hopkins episode My Mark Jarman episode Speech stress vs. meter Adventures in etymology What was accomplished on the cross? The Azte...

Topics discussed in this episode include: -Jewelcraft, Housecraft, Guitarcraft -The utilities of form -David Gilmour -The mysticism of scientific discovery -Technology: What is it good for? -Cosmic double-consciousness -Does a cosmic perspective lead to enlightenment or nihilism? -The functional aesthetics of Nature Support the show BUY VERSECRAFT MERCH HERE. Please subscribe, rate, and review! Thanks so much for listening. You can leave me a tip, support the podcast, or request a commis...

Topics discussed in this episode include: -Simple Syrup -Why poetry? -Poetry vs. Music -David vs. Versecraft -My "What Is Art?" episode -The Case For Meter and Rhyme Part I -The Case For Meter and Rhyme Part II -The Case Against Versecraft by Matt Wall -"Cain" by Lord Byron -"Empedocles On Etna" by Matthew Arnold Support the show BUY VERSECRAFT MERCH HERE. Please subscribe, rate, and review! Thanks so much for listening. You can leave me a tip, support the podcast, or request a c...