Welcome back to Risking Enchantment! For our first episode of 2024, Rachel and Phoebe discuss the place that poetry has in our everyday lives, its importance in our faith, and why it’s good to learn poetry by heart. We highlight some of the poems that have been most impactful in our lives and spotlight some of the great resources for Catholics interested in poetry today.

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Works Mentioned:

“Have it by Heart”, The Spectator by Douglas Murray

“Influences”, The Boston Review by Seamus Heaney

“Christianity and Poetry”, First Things by Dana Gioia

100 Great Catholic Poems by Sally Read

“America, and Fall, Needs Poetry”, The American Conservative by Katya Sedgwick

“Should Catholics care about poetry?”, Catholic News Agency, by Mary Farrow

“Catholics Need Poetry” Word on Fire by Andrew Tolkmith

Wiseblood Books

“The Integral Humanism of Poetry,” Evangelisation and Culture by James Matthew Wilson

Poems Referenced:

“The Lovesong of J.Alfred Prufrock” by T.S. Eliot

“A Christmas Childhood” by Patrick Kavanagh

“Wind” by Ted Hughes

“Advent” by Patrick Kavanagh

“Little Gidding” by T.S. Eliot

Murder in the Cathedral by T.S. Eliot

“Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” by Robert Frost

“The Road not Taken” by Robert Frost

“Oíche Nollaig na mBan” by Seán Ó Ríordáin

“‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers” by Emily Dickinson

The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare

Hamlet by William Shakespeare

“Ceasefire” by Michael Longely

“The Wasteland” by T.S. Eliot