Versecraft

Feb 18 2025 92 ep. 29 mins 8

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Exploring the art of poetry through the craft of some of the world's best but most underrated poems.

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"Lachrimae Antiquae Novae" by Geoffrey Hill

Feb 18 2025 27 mins

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 wild

"Nor Strange It Is" by Frederick Goddard Tuckerman

Feb 04 2025 19 mins

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 s

"Kermes Red" by Melissa Range

Jan 21 2025 17 mins

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 Mar

Cosmic Architecture feat. David Klug

Jan 10 2025 40 mins

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

Scansion Is Boring! feat. David Klug

Jan 03 2025 51 mins

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, a

"Christmas Tree" by James Merrill

Dec 17 2024 20 mins

Soundtrack to this episode Text of poem Topics discussed in this episode include: -New Critical Rococo -The Changing Light at Sandover -The Ingram Merrill Foundation -Shape poems -My George Herbert episode -"Pindarick Odes" -"Intimations of Immortality" by William Wordsworth -"Dover Beach" by Matthew Arnold -"Santa Baby" by Eartha Kitt -What do Christmas trees and dying men have in

10 More Poems I Like

Dec 03 2024 37 mins

Soundtrack to this episode The original 10 Poems I Like "New Advances in Quitting Poetry" on SLEERICKETS "This is not Exactly What I Mean" on the SLEERICKETS Secret Show My Dante essay at Voegelin View! Poems discussed in this episode: "An Irish Airman Foresees His Death" by W.B. Yeats "Miriam Tazewell" by John Crowe Ransom "I Will Put Chaos Into Fourteen Lines" by Edna St. Vincent

"An Arundel Tomb" by Philip Larkin

Nov 20 2024 29 mins

Soundtrack to this episode Text of poem here Topics discussed in this episode include: -Sentimentality -National character -Philip Larkin, novelist: "Jill," and "A Girl in Winter" -"The Movement" movement -The Oxford Book of 20th Century English Verse -"Church-Going" by Philip Larkin -The blindness of historical consciousness -Temporal and generational erosion -"Miniver Cheevy" by

"The Education of the Blind Poet" by Cameron Clark

Nov 06 2024 27 mins

Soundtrack to this episode Topics discussed in this episode include: -Listen to my talk on Melville here -Listen to my poetry reading with Dan Brown here -Outsider poetry -The Education of Henry Adams -Metrical hijinks -The inherent negations of blindness -"Durer: Insbrook, 1495" by Ern Malley -"Lycidas" by John Milton -Forging a new sensibility in identitarian poetry Text of poem:

"The Last Act" by John Martin Finlay

Oct 23 2024 27 mins

Soundtrack to this episode Text of poem: The Last Act ‘Tis the god Hercules, whom Antony loved, Now leaves him. It is too often only close to death, or utter failure, when the mind is held to truth, we see the outlines of the gods, those whom we loved but never realized. Above us in a void burnt-out and cold, at unfamiliar heights their forms return like ghosts to move across the