In this return from a short break, I chat with David Baker (Whale Fall) about Gerard Manley Hopkins' "terrible sonnet" "No worst, there is none." We talk about so much here: how David's students made sense of the poem, how modern Hopkins is, the attention to sound (of course). David also shares an astonishing insight from one of his students. Afterward, we play a game with a Welsh surprise. Brought to you by a new brewery.

Also mentioned:

• Wallace Stevens, "The Emperor of Ice Cream"
• "God's Grandeur"
• John Berryman's Dream Songs
• Dylan Thomas' "A Refusal to Mourn the Death, By Fire, of a Child in London"
• A Patricia Hampl essay from I Could Tell You Stories (sorry, the essay isn't online)
• A little information about a certain Welsh town
• Lewis Turco, The Book of Forms
• Wesli Court
• Writer's Digest List of Poetic Forms