The Well Read Poem

Welcome to Season 4 of The Well Read Poem with poet and classicist Thomas Banks. This series of poetry readings will focus on poems having animals as the subject. Some poems will be by well known poets, while others will be by less popular poets. This week's poem is "Infant Innocence" by A. E. Houseman. This poem rather pokes fun at the more romantic treatment of animal characters by poets like William Blake. Poem begins at timestamp 5:09. Check out our sister podcast, The Literary Life Podcast, for more great discussions of literature!

By A. E. Houseman

The Grizzly Bear is huge and wild; He has devoured the infant child. The infant child is not aware It has been eaten by the bear.

Welcome to Season 4 of The Well Read Poem with poet and classicist Thomas Banks. This series of poetry readings will focus on poems having animals as the subject. Some poems will be by well known poets, while others will be by less popular poets. This first week's poem is by William Blake, the somewhat mystic and apocalyptic painter and poet. Thomas reads a selection from Auguries of Innocence due to its length. Poem begins at timestamp 7:12. Check out our sister podcast, The Literary Life Podcast, for more great discussions of literature!

By William Blake

To see a World in a Grain of Sand And a Heaven in a Wild Flower Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand And Eternity in an hour A Robin Red breast in a Cage Puts all Heaven in a Rage A Dove house filld with Doves & Pigeons Shudders Hell thr' all its regions A dog starvd at his Masters Gate Predicts the ruin of the State A Horse misusd upon the Road Calls to Heaven for Human blood Each outcry of the hunted Hare A fibre from the Brain does tear A Skylark wounded in the wing A Cherubim does cease to sing The Game Cock clipd & armd for fight Does the Rising Sun affright Every Wolfs & Lions howl Raises from Hell a Human Soul The wild deer, wandring here & there Keeps the Human Soul from Care The Lamb misusd breeds Public Strife And yet forgives the Butchers knife The Bat that flits at close of Eve Has left the Brain that wont Believe The Owl that calls upon the Night Speaks the Unbelievers fright He who shall hurt the little Wren Shall never be belovd by Men He who the Ox to wrath has movd Shall never be by Woman lovd The wanton Boy that kills the Fly Shall feel the Spiders enmity He who torments the Chafers Sprite Weaves a Bower in endless Night The Catterpiller on the Leaf Repeats to thee thy Mothers grief Kill not the Moth nor Butterfly For the Last Judgment draweth nigh…

Welcome to Season 3 of The Well Read Poem podcast. In this third season we will explore six lyric poems by the great English modernist W. H. Auden. The study of Auden's poetry is in many respects a study of the 20th Century itself, and of its religious, philosophical, and political concerns.

Auden was one of the great chroniclers of the so-called "Age of Anxiety," a term he coined, and a brilliant and sympathetic analyst of modern man's fears and hopes, beliefs and unbeliefs. Poem begins at timestamp 3:31.

By W. H. Auden

In a garden shady this holy lady

With reverent cadence and subtle psalm,

Like a black swan as death came on

Poured forth her song in perfect calm:

And by ocean's margin this innocent virgin

Constructed an organ to enlarge her prayer,

And notes tremendous from her great engine

Thundered out on the Roman air.

Blonde Aphrodite rose up excited,

Moved to delight by the melody,

White as an orchid she rode quite naked

In an oyster shell on top of the sea;

At sounds so entrancing the angels dancing

Came out of their trance into time again,

And around the wicked in Hell's abysses

The huge flame flickered and eased their pain.

Blessed Cecilia, appear in visions

To all musicians, appear and inspire:

Translated Daughter, come down and startle

Composing mortals with immortal fire.

Welcome to Season 3 of The Well Read Poem podcast. In this third season we will explore six lyric poems by the great English modernist W. H. Auden. The study of Auden's poetry is in many respects a study of the 20th Century itself, and of its religious, philosophical, and political concerns. Auden was one of the great chroniclers of the so-called "Age of Anxiety," a term he coined, and a brilliant and sympathetic analyst of modern man's fears and hopes, beliefs and unbeliefs. Poem begins at timestamp 7:58.

by W. H. Auden

Perfection, of a kind, was what he was after, And the poetry he invented was easy to understand; He knew human folly like the back of his hand, And was greatly interested in armies and fleets; When he laughed, respectable senators burst with laughter, And when he cried the little children died in the streets.

Welcome to Season 3 of The Well Read Poem podcast. In this third season we will explore six lyric poems by the great English modernist W. H. Auden. The study of Auden's poetry is in many respects a study of the 20th Century itself, and of its religious, philosophical, and political concerns. Auden was one of the great chroniclers of the so-called "Age of Anxiety," a term he coined, and a brilliant and sympathetic analyst of modern man's fears and hopes, beliefs and unbeliefs. Poem begins at timestamp 8:10.

by W. H. Auden

With conscience cocked to listen for the thunder, He saw the Devil busy in the wind, Over the chiming steeples and then under The doors of nuns and doctors who had sinned.

What apparatus could stave off disaster Or cut the brambles of man's error down? Flesh was a silent dog that bites its master, World a still pond in which its children drown.

The fuse of Judgement spluttered in his head: "Lord, smoke these honeyed insects from their hives. All Works, Great Men, Societies are bad. The Just shall live by Faith..." he cried in dread.

And men and women of the world were glad, Who'd never cared or trembled in their lives.

Welcome to Season 3 of The Well Read Poem podcast. In this third season we will explore six lyric poems by the great English modernist W. H. Auden. The study of Auden's poetry is in many respects a study of the 20th Century itself, and of its religious, philosophical, and political concerns.

Auden was one of the great chroniclers of the so-called "Age of Anxiety," a term he coined, and a brilliant and sympathetic analyst of modern man's fears and hopes, beliefs and unbeliefs. Poem begins at timestamp 8:51.

by W. H. Auden

Over the heather the wet wind blows,

I've lice in my tunic and a cold in my nose.

The rain comes pattering out of the sky,

I'm a Wall soldier, I don't know why.

The mist creeps over the hard grey stone,

My girl's in Tungria; I sleep alone.

Aulus goes hanging around her place,

I don't like his manners, I don't like his face.

Piso's a Christian, he worships a fish;

There'd be no kissing if he had his wish.

She gave me a ring but I diced it away;

I want my girl and I want my pay.

When I'm a veteran with only one eye

I shall do nothing but look at the sky.

Welcome to Season 3 of The Well Read Poem podcast. In this third season we will explore six lyric poems by the great English modernist W. H. Auden. The study of Auden’s poetry is in many respects a study of the 20th Century itself, and of its religious, philosophical, and political concerns. 

Auden was one of the great chroniclers of the so-called “Age of Anxiety,” a term he coined, and a brilliant and sympathetic analyst of modern man’s fears and hopes, beliefs and unbeliefs. Poem begins at timestamp 3:15.

by W. H. Auden

     She looked over his shoulder

       For vines and olive trees,

     Marble well-governed cities

       And ships upon untamed seas,

     But there on the shining metal

       His hands had put instead

     An artificial wilderness

       And a sky like lead.

A plain without a feature, bare and brown,

   No blade of grass, no sign of neighborhood,

Nothing to eat and nowhere to sit down, 

   Yet, congregated on its blankness, stood

   An unintelligible multitude,

A million eyes, a million boots in line, 

Without expression, waiting for a sign.

Out of the air a voice without a face

   Proved by statistics that some cause was just

In tones as dry and level as the place:

   No one was cheered and nothing was discussed;

   Column by column in a cloud of dust

They marched away enduring a belief

Whose logic brought them, somewhere else, to grief.

     She looked over his shoulder

       For ritual pieties,

     White flower-garlanded heifers,

       Libation and sacrifice,

     But there on the shining metal

       Where the altar should have been,

     She saw by his flickering forge-light

       Quite another scene.

Barbed wire enclosed an arbitrary spot

   Where bored officials lounged (one cracked a joke)

And sentries sweated for the day was hot:

   A crowd of ordinary decent folk

   Watched from without and neither moved nor spoke

As three pale figures were led forth and bound

To three posts driven upright in the ground.

The mass and majesty of this world, all

   That carries weight and always weighs the same

Lay in the hands of others; they were small

   And could not hope for help and no help came:

   What their foes like to do was done, their shame

Was all the worst could wish; they lost their pride

And died as men before their bodies died.

     She looked over his shoulder

       For athletes at their games,

     Men and women in a dance

       Moving their sweet limbs

     Quick, quick, to music,

       But there on the shining shield

     His hands had set no dancing-floor

       But a weed-choked field.

A ragged urchin, aimless and alone, 

   Loitered about that vacancy; a bird

Flew up to safety from his well-aimed stone:

   That girls are raped, that two boys knife a third,

   Were axioms to him, who'd never heard

Of any world where promises were kept,

Or one could weep because another wept.

     The thin-lipped armorer,

       Hephaestos, hobbled away,

     Thetis of the shining breasts

       Cried out in dismay

     At what the god had wrought

       To please her son, the strong

     Iron-hearted man-slaying Achilles

       Who would not live long.

From The Shield of Achilles by W. H. Auden, published by Random House. Copyright © 1955 W. H. Auden, renewed by The Estate of W. H. Auden. Reproduced for educational purposes only.

Welcome to Season 3 of The Well Read Poem podcast. In this third season we will explore six lyric poems by the great English modernist W. H. Auden. The study of Auden’s poetry is in many respects a study of the 20th Century itself, and of its religious, philosophical, and political concerns. 

Auden was one of the great chroniclers of the so-called “Age of Anxiety,” a term he coined, and a brilliant and sympathetic analyst of modern man’s fears and hopes, beliefs and unbeliefs. Poem begins at timestamp 4:00.

by W. H. Auden

The Ogre does what ogres can, 

Deeds quite impossible for Man, 

But one prize is beyond his reach, 

The Ogre cannot master Speech: 

About a subjugated plain, 

Among its desperate and slain, 

The Ogre stalks with hands on hips, 

While drivel gushes from his lips.

Welcome to Season 2 of The Well Read Poem podcast. During this season, our host, classicist and poet Thomas Banks will be reading and interpreting six poems of history. This week's poem is “To Virgil” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson. Poem begins at timestamp 6:06.

by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Roman Virgil, thou that singest 

Ilion's lofty temples robed in fire, 

Ilion falling, Rome arising, 

wars, and filial faith, and Dido's pyre; 

Landscape-lover, lord of language 

more than he that sang the "Works and Days," 

All the chosen coin of fancy 

flashing out from many a golden phrase; 

Thou that singest wheat and woodland, 

tilth and vineyard, hive and horse and herd; 

All the charm of all the Muses 

often flowering in a lonely word; 

Poet of the happy Tityrus 

piping underneath his beechen bowers; 

Poet of the poet-satyr 

whom the laughing shepherd bound with flowers; 

Chanter of the Pollio, glorying 

in the blissful years again to be, 

Summers of the snakeless meadow, 

unlaborious earth and oarless sea; 

Thou that seëst Universal 

Nature moved by Universal Mind; 

Thou majestic in thy sadness 

at the doubtful doom of human kind; 

Light among the vanish'd ages; 

star that gildest yet this phantom shore; 

Golden branch amid the shadows, 

kings and realms that pass to rise no more; 

Now thy Forum roars no longer, 

fallen every purple Cæsar's dome— 

Tho' thine ocean-roll of rhythm 

sound forever of Imperial Rome— 

Now the Rome of slaves hath perish'd, 

and the Rome of freemen holds her place, 

I, from out the Northern Island 

sunder'd once from all the human race, 

I salute thee, Mantovano, 

I that loved thee since my day began, 

Wielder of the stateliest measure 

ever moulded by the lips of man. 

Welcome to Season 2 of The Well Read Poem podcast. During this season, our host, classicist and poet Thomas Banks will be reading and interpreting six poems of history. This week's poem is “Stanzas Written in Passing the Ambracian Gulf” by Lord Byron. Poem begins at timestamp 6:28.

by Lord Byron

Through cloudless skies, in silvery sheen,

Full beams the moon on Actium's coast:

And on these waves for Egypt's queen,

The ancient world was won and lost.

And now upon the scene I look,

The azure grave of many a Roman;

Where stem Ambition once forsook

His wavering crown to follow woman.

Florence! whom I will love as well

As ever yet was said or sung

(Since Orpheus sang his spouse from hell),

Whilst thou art fair and I am young;

Sweet Florence! those were pleasant times;

When worlds were staked for ladies'

Had bards as many realms as rhymes;

Thy charms might raise new Antonies.

Though Fate forbids such things to be

Yet, by thine eyes and ringlets curl'd!

I cannot lose a world for thee,

But would not lose thee for a world.