My dearest boy,

This is to assure you of my immortal, my eternal love for you. Tomorrow all will be over. If prison and dishonour be my destiny, think that my love for you and this idea, this still more divine belief, that you love me in return will sustain me in my unhappiness and will make me capable, I hope, of bearing my grief most patiently. Since the hope, nay rather the certainty, of meeting you again in some world is the goal and the encouragement of my present life, ah! I must continue to live in this world because of that.

Brought to you by: Imposter Productions

Performance by: Jessica Munna

Research/Assistant Producer: Sharon Sybill Gatt

Intro & Episode music by ELPHNT: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://elphnt.io/youtube-audio⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ (search for ELPHNT & download for free from the Youtube Audio Library) ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://elphnt.io/⁠⁠

I have but one thought, Susie, this afternoon of June, and that of you, and I have one prayer, only; dear Susie, that is for you. That you and I in hand as we e’en do in heart, might ramble away as children, among the woods and fields, and forget these many years, and these sorrowing cares, and each become a child again — I would it were so, Susie, and when I look around me and find myself alone, I sigh for you again; little sigh, and vain sigh, which will not bring you home.

I need you more and more, and the great world grows wider, and dear ones fewer and fewer, every day that you stay away — I miss my biggest heart; my own goes wandering round, and calls for Susie — Friends are too dear to sunder, Oh they are far too few, and how soon they will go away where you and I cannot find them, don’t let us forget these things, for their remembrance now will save us many an anguish when it is too late to love them! Susie, forgive me Darling, for every word I say — my heart is full of you, none other than you is in my thoughts, yet when I seek to say to you something not for the world, words fail me. If you were here — and Oh that you were, my Susie, we need not talk at all, our eyes would whisper for us, and your hand fast in mine, we would not ask for language — I try to bring you nearer, I chase the weeks away till they are quite departed, and fancy you have come, and I am on my way through the green lane to meet you, and my heart goes scampering so, that I have much ado to bring it back again, and learn it to be patient, till that dear Susie comes. Three weeks — they can’t last always, for surely they must go with their little brothers and sisters to their long home in the west!

I shall grow more and more impatient until that dear day comes, for till now, I have only mourned for you; now I begin to hope for you.

Brought to you by: Imposter Productions

Performance by: Jessica Munna

Research/Assistant Producer: Sharon Sybill Gatt

Intro & Episode music by ELPHNT: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://elphnt.io/youtube-audio⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ (search for ELPHNT & download for free from the Youtube Audio Library) ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://elphnt.io/⁠⁠

I got your letter, my beloved; it has filled my heart with joy. I am grateful to you for the trouble you have taken to send me news; your health should be better to-day—I am sure you are cured. I urge you strongly to ride, which cannot fail to do you good.

Ever since I left you, I have been sad. I am only happy when by your side. Ceaselessly I recall your kisses, your tears, 20your enchanting jealousy; and the charms of the incomparable Josephine keep constantly alight a bright and burning flame in my heart and senses. When, free from every worry, from all business, shall I spend all my moments by your side, to have nothing to do but to love you, and to prove it to you? I shall send your horse, but I am hoping that you will soon be able to rejoin me. I thought I loved you some days ago; but, since I saw you, I feel that I love you even a thousand times more. Ever since I have known you, I worship you more every day; which proves how false is the maxim of La Bruyère that "Love comes all at once." Everything in nature has a regular course, and different degrees of growth. Ah! pray let me see some of your faults; be less beautiful, less gracious, less tender, and, especially, less kind; above all never be jealous, never weep; your tears madden me, fire my blood. Be sure that it is no longer possible for me to have a thought except for you, or an idea of which you shall not be the judge.

Have a good rest. Haste to get well. Come and join me, so that, at least, before dying, we could say—"We were happy for so many days!!"

Millions of kisses, and even to Fortuné, in spite of his naughtiness.

Brought to you by: Imposter Productions

Performance by: Jessica Munna

Research/Assistant Producer: Sharon Sybill Gatt

Intro & Episode music by ELPHNT: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://elphnt.io/youtube-audio⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ (search for ELPHNT & download for free from the Youtube Audio Library) ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://elphnt.io/⁠⁠

The sky is clear, the moon is shining. I hear sailors singing as they raise anchor, preparing to leave with the oncoming tide. No clouds, no wind. The river is white under the moon, black in the shadows. Moths are playing around my candles, and the scent of the night comes to me through my open windows. And you, are you asleep? Or at your window? Are you thinking of the one who think of you? Are you dreaming? What is the color of your dream? Yes, I will come back, and soon, for I think of you always; I keep dreaming of your face, of your shoulders, your white neck, your smile, of your voice that is like a love-cry, at once impassioned, violent, and sweet. I told you, I think, that it was above all your voice that I loved.

Brought to you by: Imposter Productions

Performance by: Jessica Munna

Research/Assistant Producer: Sharon Sybill Gatt

Intro & Episode music by ELPHNT: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://elphnt.io/youtube-audio⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ (search for ELPHNT & download for free from the Youtube Audio Library) ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://elphnt.io/⁠⁠

Making Life Worthwhile by George Eliot

Every soul that touches yours –

Be it the slightest contact–

Get there from some good;

Some little grace; one kindly thought;

One aspiration yet unfelt;

One bit of courage

For the darkening sky;

One gleam of faith

To brave the thickening ills of life;

One glimpse of brighter skies

–To make this life worthwhile

And heaven a surer heritage.

Brought to you by: Imposter Productions

Performance by: Jessica Munna

Research/Assistant Producer: Sharon Sybill Gatt

Intro & Episode music by ELPHNT: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://elphnt.io/youtube-audio⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ (search for ELPHNT & download for free from the Youtube Audio Library) ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://elphnt.io/⁠⁠

Revenge by Eliza Acton

I would not, in the wildness of revenge,

Give poison to mine enemy, nor strike

My dagger to his heart, but I would plant

Love--burning--hopeless--and unquenchable--

Within the inmost foldings of his breast,

And bid him die the dark, and ling'ring death,

Of the pale victims, who expire beneath

The pow'r of that deep passion. Earth can show

No bitterness like this !--The shroud of thought

Which gathers round them, gloomy as the grave;--

The wasting, but unpitied pangs, which wear

The frame away, and make the tortur'd mind

Almost a chaos in its agony;--

The writhings of the spirit, doom'd to see

A rival bless'd;-and utter, cold, despair :-

These are its torments !-Are they not enough

To satisfy the most remorseless hate?

Brought to you by: Imposter Productions

Performance by: Jessica Munna

Research/Assistant Producer: Sharon Sybill Gatt

Intro & Episode music by ELPHNT: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://elphnt.io/youtube-audio⁠⁠⁠⁠ (search for ELPHNT & download for free from the Youtube Audio Library) ⁠⁠⁠https://elphnt.io/⁠⁠

When latest autumn spreads her evening veil,

And the gray mists from these dim waves arise,

I love to listen to the hollow sighs

Through the half leafless wood that breathes the gale.

For at such hours the shadowy phantom pale,        

Oft seems to fleet before the poet's eyes;

Strange sounds are heard, and mournful melodies

As of night-wanderers who their woes bewail.

Here by his native stream, at such an hour,

Pity's own Otway I methinks could meet        

And hear his deep sighs swell the saddened wind!

O Melancholy, such thy magic power

That to the soul these dreams are often sweet

And soothe the pensive visionary mind.

Brought to you by: Imposter Productions

Performance by: Jessica Munna

Research/Assistant Producer: Sharon Sybill Gatt

Intro music by ELPHNT: ⁠⁠⁠https://elphnt.io/youtube-audio⁠⁠⁠ (search for ELPHNT & download for free from the Youtube Audio Library) ⁠⁠https://elphnt.io/⁠⁠

Episode music by The Lights: ⁠⁠https://thelights.bandcamp.com/⁠⁠

We are very excited to say that we are resuming releasing episodes and we are launching a Patreon in order to make this project sustainable.

Head over to https://www.patreon.com/ThePoetryPodcast to sign up for £4 a month to receive a downloadable digital audio file of the poem from episode that we release. No intro, no credits, no ads. Just poetry. Just for you.

Head over to our Patreon page to vote on other rewards you may want to see in the future.

LETTER VI (excerpt) from Letters written during a short residence in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark by Mary Wollstonecraft

Nature is the nurse of sentiment, the true source of taste; yet what misery, as well as rapture, is produced by a quick perception of the beautiful and sublime when it is exercised in observing animated nature, when every beauteous feeling and emotion excites responsive sympathy, and the harmonised soul sinks into melancholy or rises to ecstasy, just as the chords are touched, like the Æolian harp agitated by the changing wind. But how dangerous is it to foster these sentiments in such an imperfect state of existence, and how difficult to eradicate them when an affection for mankind, a passion for an individual, is but the unfolding of that love which embraces all that is great and beautiful!

When a warm heart has received strong impressions, they are not to be effaced. Emotions become sentiments, and the imagination renders even transient sensations permanent by fondly retracing them. I cannot, without a thrill of delight, recollect views I have seen, which are not to be forgotten, nor looks I have felt in every nerve, which I shall never more meet. The grave has closed over a dear friend, the friend of my youth. Still she is present with me, and I hear her soft voice warbling as I stray over the heath. Fate has separated me from another, the fire of whose eyes, tempered by infantine tenderness, still warms my breast; even when gazing on these tremendous cliffs sublime emotions absorb my soul. And, smile not, if I add that the rosy tint of morning reminds me of a suffusion which will never more charm my senses, unless it reappears on the cheeks of my child. Her sweet blushes I may yet hide in my bosom, and she is still too young to ask why starts the tear so near akin to pleasure and pain.

Brought to you by: Imposter Productions

Performance by: Jessica Munna

Researcher /Assistant Producer: Sharon Sybill Gatt

Intro music by ELPHNT: ⁠https://elphnt.io/youtube-audio⁠ (search for ELPHNT) https://elphnt.io/

Episode music by The Lights: https://thelights.bandcamp.com/