This month I met with Susanne Wofford, professor of English and Comparative Literature at New York University, to talk through the April eclogue. We travelled through a myriad of classical and mythological echoes, and at least one epiphany, to the culminating question of this project: how do we think about the relation between pastoral and epic? Susanne’s answer is excitingly different from the one you may expect. This is the final episode of the podcast as I’ve recorded them, and since it is to Susanne above all that I owe my fascination with The Shepheardes Calender, and my sense of its innumerable possibilities as a site of conversation, there could be no more fitting way to end it. It is also, delightfully, not the end, since the moment I press ‘publish’ we have achieved the circularity that Spenser deploys so cannily in his calender.

One of my companions in an idyllic graduate seminar called ‘The Ethics of Pastoral’, taught in 2015 by Professors Susanne Wofford and Jane Tylus, was Dr Tanya Schmidt-Morstein, who went on, like me, to take Susanne’s class on The Faerie Queene, and to complete her PhD under Susanne’s supervision. Reunited by the Boston conferences, Tanya and I decided to go on an adventure to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, one of the most famous art collections in the U.S. Here we found two paintings of Isabella herself, which caused us to reflect on another presiding theme of the April eclogue: female power and its pictorial, and perhaps pastoral, representation.

Since it isn’t too long, this episode opens with a recording of the entire April eclogue, read by me and Susanne. In the conversation that follows we often refer to Spenser’s epic-romance poem, The Faerie Queene. I apologise if any of these references are mysterious. Here is a link to the part of the poem that we talked about the most—Book VI, Canto x—known as ‘the dance of the Graces on Mount Acidale’. I hope that you may be inspired to read Spenser’s epic-romance next, if you haven’t already.

At the beginning of May 2024, the month in which I started this project, I was at Tampere University in Finland, where a group of around 40 of us read the entire of Spenser’s Faerie Queene aloud over the course of three long days. On April 5th 2025, this month, Verity Spott and I, acting as the Hollingdean Poetry Group, organised a marathon reading of the whole of John Milton’s Paradise Lost in the Hollingdean Community Center, at the top of a hill overlooking the downs in East Brighton. There was laughter, and shaking of heads, and, thanks to Anna and Katya Schwarz, amazing food. This podcast has stretched between the two events, so it feels like a continuation of the impulse to gather in poetry, to experience the mutual excitement, thoughtfulness, mystery, frustration and companionship of that gathering.

Have no doubt that other occasions will be found, and stay subscribed to find out what they will be! It remains for me to thank the International Spenser Society and the huge group of people—interlocutors, collaborators, listeners—who have made this podcast possible.

And thank you to Tanya Schmidt-Morstein for adventuring with me, to Susanne Wofford for leading the dance, to artist Noonie Minogue for interpreting the woodcut, to N.L. Chaundler (I can’t fathom why I swapped your ‘L’ for an ‘H’ in this episode) for accompanying us all this way with mesmerising poetic reflections, to Ella Mahony for designing the wonderful goat picture, and to Femi Oriogun-Williams for mixing and mastering so many episodes, as well as creating the theme music.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit occasionoftheseason.substack.com

The first of two bumper spring-specials. Buckle up for the season of increasing abundance! This month Archie Cornish and I sat in the boot of my Citroen Berlingo in Ashdown Forest and talked through the March eclogue, to the puzzlement of passing dog-walkers. Archie’s reading of the poem emphasises the value of pastoral attention, the Greek roots of this poem, why Elizabethans were obsessed with bird-catching, and the importance of getting tangled up in nets. Read more of his thoughtfulness here!

I also had the huge pleasure of talking to Jill, Jon and John, the current senior members of the legendary Copper family of Sussex. Husband and wife team Jon and Jill open this episode with a snippet of the venerable old song, ‘Shepherd of the Downs’. Here is some archival footage of a much earlier recording. The three of them were incredibly gracious and kind to let me turn up in their kitchen and ask them questions about what it is like to have inherited–and spread around the world–the vast folk song collection that their father (in-law), Bob Copper, had himself inherited from his father, Jim, and his father, James, before him.

Finally, the episode is tied together by the voices of members of the Deep Throat Choir collective, who gathered into a kitchen on a March Sunday to sing for two members who are due to give birth very soon. They will sing us out to the words of a Cherokee proverb: “when you were born you cried, and the world rejoiced; live your life so that when you die the world cries, and you rejoice”.

Thank you to the Copper family – especially Jill, John and Jon – for their generosity and brilliance at telling humorous anecdotes, and the inspiring work that they have done to keep folk music alive. Thank you to Archie for a fascinating conversation. Thank you to the members of the Deep Throat collective for sharing their voices, to Mary and Michael for describing the woodcut, to Joseph Minden for being Thomalin, to NH Chaundler for our latest instalment of poetic responses to the calendar, to Ella Mahony for the art, and to Femi Oriogun-Williams for mixing, mastering and the original theme music.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit occasionoftheseason.substack.com

This month I talked with Richard Danson Brown, professor of English at the Open University. He illuminated the significance of complaint for the February eclogue, guided me through its anarchic rhythms, and made a spirited defence of Cuddie, the feisty young herdsman to Thenot’s sententious shepherd. I had the pleasure of reading this eclogue with Professor Valerie Minogue, who is also my grandmother, and an even more senior shepherd than Thenot. You’ll also hear a snippet of the long conversation we had after reading the poem.

Thank you to Ruth and Jason for describing the woodcut, to Richard Danson Brown for opening out the poem in so many great directions. Thank you to Valerie Minogue for giving voice to Thenot with the usual verve. Thank you to N.H. Chaundler for the tenth poetic response to the poem from rural Scotland. Thank you to the International Spenser Society for sponsoring this podcast, to Ella Mahony for the art, and to Femi Oriogun-Williams for making it sound great with mastering (and when it doesn’t sound great, that is because Femi’s been away and I have taken matters into my own hands).

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit occasionoftheseason.substack.com

I talked through the January eclogue with Jessica Beckman, assistant professor of English at Dartmouth College, from whom I learned so much about Colin’s sympathies with nature and the material history of this strange book. If you stay to the end you’ll hear her magnificent reframing of the E.K. question. You’ll also hear a kind of cadenza on the relationship between Spenser’s calendar and Beyonce’s album, Cowboy Carter, from Margo Kolenda-Mason at the University of Central Arkansas. You’ll also hear a poem—sort of about sheep—by Fernando Pessoa, beautifully read in Portuguese and English by Lucas Naccache-Pope. This episode is honoured to host a song—Lemany—by the folk musician Nick Hart, whose voice you heard a teasing snippet of if you listened to the September episode. Although it seems to start out on a fine summer morning, the song—like Colin—looks back on that warmth from a much sadder vantage point. It’s the fourth track from his acclaimed album Nick Hart Sings Ten English Folk Songs. Apart from all this and N.H. Chaundler’s regular installment, you’ll hear the austere January sounds of ice cracking and sliding across frozen ponds in mid Wales, and Hereford’s cathedral bells ringing out on a freezing January morning. A warning for your ears: Femi is away this month, and so I have done without expert mastering of sound levels; expect grittier transitions, and don’t be freaked out when you hear eery cracking noises: that’s ice in the podcast, not you, falling through the floor.

Thank you to Lucy and Tom for describing the woodcut, to Jessica Beckman for guiding us through this month’s eclogue, and to Joseph Minden for being Colin. Thank you to Nick Hart for sharing your version of ‘Lemany’ with us, to Margo Kolenda-Mason for sharing your thoughts, to Lucas for reading us Pessoa, and to N.H. Chaundler for your January reflection from the borderlands. Thank you Ella, James and Joe, my ice musicians. Thank you to the International Spenser Society for funding this podcast, to Ella Mahony for the artwork and to Femi Oriogun-Williams for making it sound good.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit occasionoftheseason.substack.com

I met up with Hannah Crawforth at her office in King's College London, and we became completely immersed for an hour in all the nostalgia and pride and virtuosity of the December eclogue. Hannah - current president of the International Spenser Society - writes about English Renaissance literature, poetry in general, political thought and, in her first book, etymology. This last makes her a particular fan of our friend E.K. Stay until the end to find out her take on his identity.

This episode introduces Joseph Minden reading poems not only as Colin but as himself, because he is a poet in his own right, with one book (Poppy) available from Carcanet Press and another out with them next year. You'll hear him reading some of Paddock Calls, a long poem that circulates through the associative grids of nostalgia, teaching, learning and love. Just like, and very unlike, Spenser. He is accompanied by his once and eternal bandmates from Sweat.

Thank you to artist Karen Tilley for describing the woodcut, to Hannah Crawforth for sharing so many illuminating thoughts about December, to Joseph Minden for playing Colin and sharing his own work, to N.H. Chaundler for the latest poetic response to Spenser. Thank you to the International Spenser Society for sponsoring this podcast, to Ella Mahony for the art, and to Femi Oriogun-Williams for mixing and mastering.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit occasionoftheseason.substack.com

I talked through the November eclogue with Conor Wilcox-Mahon, from the English department at UCL in London, who has thought hard about this poem in terms of conceptions of nature, and time, and what death means in these contexts. You’ll also hear sounds from All Saints Day (November 1st) at the Basilica of St Francis in Assissi, in Umbria.

This episode is, thrillingly, the world premier of a song written especially for us in response to the November eclogue, by two extremely talented musicians based in New York: Alexandra Lily Cohen and Edward Lyle Barton. They are holding the candle for the sociability of song.

Finally, actor Helen Schlesinger returns to read Shakespeare’s sonnet 126 with inimitable grace.

Thank you to Kimberly and Liam for describing the woodcut, to Conor Wilcox-Mahon for a deeply thoughtful conversation, to Joseph Minden for being Colin, to the choir and congregation of the Basilica of St Francis for their beautiful singing, to Joseph, James and Ella, for being my companions in Italy, to NH Chaundler for her seventh poetic response to Spenser from the borders. Thank you to Alex and Eddy for bringing their warmth, generosity and musical talents to the November eclogue. Thank you Helen Schlesinger for bringing sonnet 126 to life. Thank you to the International Spenser Society for their sponsorship of this podcast, to Ella Mahony for the art, and to Femi Oriogun-Williams for mixing and mastering, and advice, and troubleshooting on all fronts.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit occasionoftheseason.substack.com

This month I conversed with Sukanta Chaudhuri, Professor Emeritus at Jadavpur University in Calcutta. Sukanta is an expert in English Renaissance pastoral poetry, and among many other publications, he has brought forth ‘Renaissance Pastoral and Its English Developments’ and more recently ‘English Renaissance Pastoral Poetry: An Anthology and Companion’, from Manchester University Press. It is wonderful to listen as he brings that knowledge of the entire genre to this relatively short eclogue in the series. Interspersed with that you’ll hear the generous and thoughtful voices of members of the Hollingdean Community Poetry Group, who sustain this project in many different ways. And I’ve included a small insight into how sleepy Joseph Minden and I can sometimes be when I remember that we urgently need to record ourselves reading a dense Spenser poem. You’ll also hear Femi Oriogun-Williams, folk musician, sound artist, and another integral part of this project, singing a song called ‘the rustler,’ in a voice note that he sent to me which made my day. Massive thanks to the International Spenser Society for their support and some hugely generous funding that has refloated this podcast in its sixth month. Overall, this episode is my version of an ode to all the people I admire who are building social worlds around poetry - including this small one. 

Thank you to Seamus for an opening reflection on the point of poetry, to Susanne, Ralph and Lucy for a tripartite ekphrastic description of the woodcut, to Sukanta Chaudhuri for a lovely conversation, to Joseph Minden as always for playing the morose shepherd to my brash, jolly one, to Karen, Susanne, Niki, Julia, Joanna, Christopher, and Reanna for letting me put their thoughts into this episode, to NH Chaundler for the sixth installment of her poetic response from the borderlands, to Ella Mahony for the art, and to Femi Oriogun-Williams for singing ‘the rustler,’ as well as mixing and mastering the episode. 

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit occasionoftheseason.substack.com

This eclogue was cracked open for me by Ashley Sarpong, assistant professor of British literature at Stanislaus State University in California. She revealed so much that’s going in this poem at the level of genre, and much that’s funny and delightful about it. It’s a classic eclogue, structurally, in that it starts with an exchange between two temperamentally contrasting shepherds and ends with a little story about sheep and wolves. 

Thank you to Joe Minden for not only playing the part of Diggon the morose shepherd but also describing the woodcut and taking my recorder on a field trip to Bristol where he asked his expert friend, folk musician Nick Hart, to peruse shepherd-themed folk songs in the Roud index. A huge thank you to Ashley Sarpong for a wonderful conversation, thank you to NH Chaundler for the fifth installment of her continuous response to the shepherds calender from the Scottish borderlands, thank you to Ella Mahony for the logo, thank you to Theo Addis for technical advice and help, and especial thank you to Femi Oriogun-Williams for mixing and mastering the episode, as always, but also for fixing an especially thorny sound problem that would have run us aground, without his help.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit occasionoftheseason.substack.com

This month I spoke to Professor Jeff Dolven, at Princeton University. He reframed the August eclogue for me as an exploration of the playfulness, comradeship, shame and uncertainty of growing up, and a virtuosic experiment in poetic forms. I am also delighted to introduce actress Helen Schlesinger, reading the part of Cuddie, the third shepherd in this eclogue. Helen had to rush off immediately after recording this to her matinee/evening job: playing The Duke of Buckingham in Richard III at Shakespeare’s Globe. There are some sounds in this episode gathered from Brighton’s anti-racism protest early in August.

Thank you to Chrissie Dobson for describing the woodcut, and to Jeff Dolven for opening up so many resonances of Spenser’s August, thank you to Helen Schlesinger for playing the part of Cuddie, and Joseph Minden for playing Willye. Thank you to N.L. Chaundler for our latest installment of poetic responses to the Calender from the borderlands of Scotland, and to Bud Beginnings for their words and rhythm at the protest. As ever, thank you to Ella Mahony for the logo and Femi Oriogun-Williams for mixing, mastering and theme music. Please send me your own sounds, suggestions and feedback at [email protected] with podcast in the subject line.

Thank you to everyone who is already subscribing, and do please share this podcast with anyone you know who would enjoy it!

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit occasionoftheseason.substack.com

In this month’s episode I talked with Professor Andrew Hadfield, of Sussex University, about the rich complexities of the seemingly simple July eclogue, peppered with fascinating information about Spenser’s social life and worldviews, more of which is to be found in Andrew’s book Edmund Spenser, A Life. 

I also visited a beautiful farm where you can take a goat for a walk around the Sussex downs, to find out more about what it is really like to take care of goats, and live alongside them - often in very close proximity!

Thank you to Nell Howe for describing the woodcut, to Andrew Hadfield for sharing a representative sample of his vast Spenser knowledge in such an enjoyable form, and to Joseph Minden for playing the role of Thomalin. Thanks to N.L. Chaundler for the latest instalment of her poetic response to the Calender from the borderlands of Scotland, huge thank you to Jenny, Zara, Duncan and their family for welcoming me to Wilbees farm and introducing me to the goats, and to the lovely goats themselves [find out more about how to do a goat walk here]. Thank you as ever to Ella Mahony for the podcast art, and Femi Oriogun-Williams for incredibly skillful mixing, mastering and theme music. 

Please send me your own sounds, suggestions and feedback at [email protected] with podcast in the subject line. 

Take care!

Kat

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit occasionoftheseason.substack.com