Conrad Aiken (1889-1973) is a wonderful poet who doesn't seem to be read that much anymore. But he writes profoundly moving poetry, poetry whose lyricism, at its best moments, does not seem to contain a false note. Aiken is a poet one can return to again and again, and feel in the presence of something important happening, as if glimpses of life are captured in ways only this particular poet could capture, which he does in lines that are melodious but not saccharine, elegant but not ostentatious, sentimental in the best sense without being bathetic. Of course, we might turn to other poets for bathos, or ostentation; but for pure melody, and for a kind of timeless haunting that reverberates in Aiken's words and worlds, Aiken is a marvelous modernist that should be read more. In this podcast, we read two sections from Aiken's long poem, "Preludes for Memnon," and talk about Aiken's representations of the seasons, and how these representations serve as meditations on life and death.