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-rime and pleonasm

Romanticism redux

Leo Strauss

The spiritual je ne sais quoi of tragedy

The horror film “Martyrs”

“Norma” by Vincenzo Bellini

“Tristan und Isolde” by Richard Wagner

Stoic vs. Christian resignation

Bourgeois tragedy and the existential hero

“Hedda Gabler” by Ibsen

“Brand” by Ibsen

“Death of a Salesman” by Arthur Miller

“The Death of Tragedy” by George Steiner

“The Clouds” by Aristophanes

Tragedy vs. Comedy and the Absurd

“It’s A Wonderful Life” by Frank Capra

“Alcestis” by Euripides

History as Self-consciousness

The hazards of Protestantism

The history of the night before

“Swann’s Way” by Marcel Proust

Monuments as time capsules

The Egyptian legacy

The Book of Job

Friendship with the dead

The musical chain of being

Music as the Cosmic Will

Discord and re

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My favorite poetry podcasts for:
Sharp thoughts and cutting truths (Matthew): Sleerickets
Lovely introspection and sensitive reflection (Alice): Poetry Says
The landscape of Ohioan poetry (Jeremy): Poetry Spotlight

Supported in part by The Ohio Poetry Association
Art by David Anthony Klug

List of the most common metrical feet:
Iamb: weak-STRONG (u /)
Trochee: STRONG-weak (/ u)
Anapest: weak-weak-STRONG (u u /)
Amphibrach: weak-STRONG-weak (u / u)
Dactyl: STRONG-weak-weak (/ u u)
Cretic: STRONG-weak-STRONG (/ u /)
Pyrrhic: weak-weak (u u)
Spondee: STRONG-STRONG (/ /)