The Troubadour Podcast

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The ultimate question of the sexes: Do men love women more than Women love Men?

Donne argues that his masculine love is superior than the love his woman feels for him. Maybe that's why he had such trouble with women?

In this (very challenging) poem we will see two major analogies: Masculine love and angels.

To understand this analogy I am going to share with you some important PRE-Newtonian concepts about the world in which we inhabit.

The best way to understand history is to live it and the best way to live it is through literature.

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There is deep value in removing yourself from your own skin and entering the skin of another person. Only through poetry and literature and painting can we exercise this ability of humans. And in this poem, Wordsworth teaching you how


Lines Written Near Richmond, upon the Thames at Evening

By William Wordworth

How rich the wave, in front, imprest

With evening-twilight’s summer hues,

While,  facing thus the crimson west,

The boat her silent path pursues!

And see how dark the backward stream!

A little moment past, so smiling!

And still, perhaps, with faithless gleam,

Some other loiterer beguiling.

Such views the youthful bard allure,

But,  heedless of the following gloom,

He deems their colours shall endure

‘Till peace go with him to the tomb.

—And let him nurse his fond deceit,

And what if he must die in sorrow !

Who would not cherish dreams so sweet,

Though grief and pain may come to-morrow ?

Glide gently,  thus for ever glide,

O Thames !  that other bards may see,

As lovely visions by thy side

As now,  fair river! come to me.

Oh glide, fair stream! for ever so ;

Thy quiet soul on all bestowing,

‘Till all our minds for ever flow,

As thy deep waters now are flowing.

Vain though! yet be as now thou art,

That in thy waters may be seen

The image of a poet’s heart,

How bright,  how solemn,  how serene !

Such heart did once the poet bless,

Who, pouring here a* later ditty,

Could find no refuge from distress,

But in the milder grief of pity.

Remembrance! as we glide along,

For him suspend the dashing oar,

And pray that never child of Song

May know his freezing sorrows more.

How calm !  how still !  the only sound,

The dripping of the oar suspended !

—The evening darkness gathers round

By virtue’s holiest powers attended.

* Collin’s Ode on the death of Thomson, the last written, I believe, of the poems which were published during his life-time  This Ode is alluded to in the next stanza.

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On this special episode I will read The Idiot Boy by William Wordsworth. This poem was published in the 1798 Lyrical Ballads and it was very controversial. Yet, it is a beautifully written poem. 

I spend the majority of the time simply reading the poem. I hope you enjoy the reading! At the end I give a small critique of Wordsworth's philosophy, but mostly I defend him and Romanticism from the cliche attacks toward Romanticism.


THE IDIOT BOY

By William Wordsworth

‘Tis eight o’clock, – a clear March night,

The moon is up– the sky is blue,

The owlet in the moonlight air,

He shouts from nobody knows where ;

He lengthens out his lonely shout,

Halloo ! halloo ! a long halloo !

–Why bustle thus about your door,

What means this bustle, Betty Foy?

Why are you in this mighty fret?

And why on horseback have you set

Him whom you love, your idiot boy?

Beneath the moon that shines so bright,

Till she is tired, let Betty Foy

With girt and stirrup fiddle-fiddle;

But wherefore set upon a saddle

Him whom she loves, her idiot boy?

There’s scarce a soul that’s out of bed;

Good Betty! put him down again;

His lips with joy they burr at you,

But, Betty! what has he to do

With stirrup, saddle, or with rein?

The world will say ’tis very idle,

Bethink you of the time of night;

There’s not a mother, no not one,

But when she hears what you have done,

Oh! Betty she’ll be in a fright.

But Betty’s bent on her intent,

For her good neighbour, Susan Gale,

Old Susan, she who dwells alone,

Is sick, and makes a piteous moan,

As if her very life would fail.

There’s not a house within a mile,

No hand to help them in distress:

Old Susan lies a bed in pain,

And sorely puzzled are the twain,

For what she ails they cannot guess.

And Betty’s husband’s at the wood,

Where by the week he doth abide,

A woodman in the distant vale;

There’s none to help poor Susan Gale,

What must be done? what will betide?

And Betty from the lane has fetched

Her pony, that is mild and good,

Whether he be in joy or pain,

Feeding at will along the lane,

Or bringing faggots from the wood.

And he is all in travelling trim,

And by the moonlight, Betty Foy

Has up upon the saddle set,

The like was never heard of yet,

Him whom she loves, her idiot boy.

And he must post without delay

Across the bridge that’s in the dale,

And by the church, and o’er the down,

To bring a doctor from the town,

Or she will die, old Susan Gale.

There is no need of boot or spur,

There is no need of whip or wand,

For Johnny has his holly-bough,

And with a hurly-burly now

He shakes the green bough in his hand.

And Betty o’er and o’er has told

The boy who is her best delight,

Both what to follow, what to shun,

What do, and what to leave undone,

How turn to left, and how to right.

And Betty’s most especial charge,

Was, “ Johnny! Johnny! mind that you

“Come home again, nor stop at all,

“Come home again, whate’er befal,

“My Johnny do, I pray you do.”

To this did Johnny answer make,

Both with his head, and with his hand,

And proudly shook the bridle too,

And then! his words were not a few,

Which Betty well could understand.

And now that Johnny is just going,

Though Betty’s in a mighty flurry,

She gently pats the pony’s s

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Ah to love is to be a fool, to tell your love is to be a double fool. But to be  a triple fool? How does one do that?

John Donne will show you how.

In this special episode I go in to this poem with no prep. That means you will experience a live analysis and exploration of this poem. There will be times when I say "oh I was wrong about that interpretation, I'm quite sure it means this." And, "hmm what does this mean!?" I hope by the end you will see that there is intense exercise for the mind in exploring great poetry.

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What is the purpose of a penal system? Is it strictly to punish or can it be to reform? If it can reform what are the best methods of accomplishing this?

The romanticist Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote a poem called The Dungeon, which is a soliloqouy from a man who resides in a medieval dungeon. He is lamenting more than his own personal situation, but the idea of what man has made of man. Do dungeons and prisons truly work for the guilty? Or do they make their souls even more rotted than when they entered? 

And, of course, in the heart of a romanticist is an answer to the proper way to reform those souls plagued from within. Listen to find out Coleridge's proposed solution.

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I had the pleasure of visiting the Quent Cordair Fine Art Gallery in Napa Valley and chatting with poet, painter, author, novelist, Marine, businessman (etc etc!) Author Quent Cordair. 

William Wordsworth said that a poet is a "man speaking to men." This is certainly true of Quent Cordair's poetry. We chatted about his poetic influences and fiction and we dissected a Robert Frost poem along with two poems in Quent's latest book My Kingdom (https://www.amazon.com/My-Kingdom-other-stories-screen-ebook/dp/B07SVGNQG6/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=my+kingdom+quent&qid=1569908576&sr=8-1)

It was a great conversation with a talented man.

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Do you know that annoying couple that is always so lovey dovey? You know the type, they wear matching clothes and finish each other's sentences? Well get prepared to meet a man who believes he is so in love that he believes they should be canonized forever.

In "Canonization" John Donne makes a bizarre argument. Why can't two ideal lovers become canonized (made into saints by the Catholic Church?)

This is bizarre because by ideal lovers, he does not mean platonic lovers. These are lovers in sex and romance. These are the K I S S I N G type of lovers, but probably without a baby in a crib. 

The only people to be canonized are those who are selfless and often ascetic (abscond from the pleasures of the body) and yet Donne argues for the exact opposite. 

If you are in love or ever have been, you need to read The Canonization by John Donne.

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In this episode I will give you two extreme models of education. One is best represented in the tale of Petronilla and the other is best represented in that of #gretathunberg

A theme that runs throughout the 1798 Lyrical Ballads by Coleridge and Wordsworth is that of nature as educator for a child. In this poem—a fragment from a theatrical play by Coleridge—we see multiple viewpoints on education. One critical question we must answer is how much, if any, of the outside world and its social ills should a child know about?

Education, knowledge and moral upbringing were of paramount importance to many of the romantics. This is a key theme not only in Lyrical Ballads but in much of the philosophers of this time as well as literary writers such as Mary Shelley. This poem is a first in exploring important ideas in action of sibling affection, taboo and the morality imposed upon young children.

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Have you ever laid in bed with your significant other and just wished you could lay there all day but the cares of the world kept fighting their way into your life? Well, John Donne knows how ya feel and he proposes you do something about it.

As a Metaphysical Poet, witty and conceited, he proposes you start to command the sun, rather than the other way around.

In this episode you will learn a bit about Medieval Cosmology and the Chain of Beings Theory of the universe. And you'll see how a great poet uses language in all its glory to intellectually dissect a powerful emotion we all feel at some time in our lives.

P.S. Guys, there are a few lines in here which might make for a good one-liner to your lady friends (though no guarantees!)

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William Wordsworth changed the way we use language. He changed the way we investigate human beings. This is the romantic legacy. The usage of imagination to delve into the inner world of man. As Hugo put it "There is one thing grander than the ocean, that is the sky; there is one thing grander than the sky that is the interior of man's soul."

This is one of the major projects of the romantics, to illustrate the depth of man's inner world. How, for instance, an event can cause a schism in ones values in this world.

That's exactly what happens to the main character in Wordsworth's ballad, "The Last of the Flock." He has to butcher a single sheep in order to feed his growing family, but in dong so we learn about the values of christianity, modernism, industrialism and more. And we learn of the conflicts that arise in these systems.

Increase your imaginative faculty with "The Last of the Flock."