Critical Readings

The panel follows the work of Poe and Lear to the macabre and surreal art of Edward Gorey, looking at four of his early, and most famous, works including The Gashlycrumb Tinies (an abecedarium), The Evil Garden, The Insect God, and The Doubtful Guest. Continue reading

How pleasant to know Mr. Lear! Who has written such volumes of stuff! Some think him ill-tempered and queer, But a few think him pleasant enough. Continue reading

The panel reads a selection of Poe's most significant verse, including "The Raven" and "Annabel Lee", and considers not only how Poe's use of Gothic and Romantic themes shapes the content and form of his poems, but also surprising mediæval connexions. Continue reading

The panel reads a small selection of poems by Geoffrey Hill, with a focus on his use of paradoxical language, complex metaphors, and highly imagistic description--and, contrasts Hill's work with that of the mid-20th century poet, Philip Larkin. Continue reading

The panel concludes its summer reading of The Canterbury Tales with a look at penitence, sin, and freedom in The Parson's Tale, and then considers whether Chaucer's Retraction (Boece excluded!) is an appropriate end to the Tales and to Chaucer's oeuvre. Continue reading

In the penultimate episode covering the Canterbury Tales, the panel discusses the potential links between Fragments VIII and IX, the morals of the tales included in them, particularly Cecilia's active piety and the Manciple's reserved discretion. Continue reading

The panel discusses the final two tales in Fragment VII: the tragic vignettes of unfortunate individuals described in The Monk's Tale, and the jolly (and much beloved) fable of the rooster Chanticleer and the wily Fox in the Nun's Priest's Tale. Continue reading

The panel considers vice in the Shipman's tale and piety in the Prioress' tale, before moving on to examine Chaucer's humble self-depiction in his rollicking minstrel song, The Tale of Sir Thopas, and in his dialogue on Prudence, The Tale of Melibee. Continue reading

The panel looks at the honor-before-death connexion between Fragment V and Fragment VI as exemplified by Virginia in the Physician's Tale, and then considers the multiple levels of moral instruction on offer in the boldly hypocritical Pardoner's Tale. Continue reading

The panel discusses Fragment V, with attention given both to scholarly theories about whether Chaucer deliberately left the Squire's tale interrupted and unfinished, and to Chaucer's use of estates satire in his depiction of the Franklin and his tale. Continue reading

The panel discusses Fragment IV, containing two tales that deal with men who deliberately engage in unequal marriages to both good and ill results, and considers what these tales demonstrate about historical critiques of progress and the human condition. Continue reading

Clinton Collister joins the panel to discuss Fragment III and its potential connexions to The Man of Law's Tale (Fragment II), with a focus on the role of justice, legalism, crime, intent, contractual obligations, and the judicial purpose of punishment. Continue reading

The panel examines The Man of Law's Tale and scholarly arguments about whether it is suited to its putative teller, and consider the tale's depictions of crime and justice (temporal and divine), constancy, providence, misadventure, and religious strife. Continue reading

Leaving behind the Knight's noble depictions of courtly love, the panel descends through bawdy, sexual misadventures in the form of 'quites'--narrative responses--offered by the drunken Miller and the vengeful Reeve, and the Cook's incomplete tale. Continue reading

In the second part of the Canterbury Tales series, the panel reads selections from The Knight's Tale, with a focus on how the three shines--to Venus, to Mars, and to Diana--serve as an interpretive device, and on the connexion to Boethian philosophy. Continue reading

In the first week of the Canterbury Tales series, the panel reviews the biography of Geoffrey Chaucer, introduces the Canterbury Tales in general, and then reads selections from the General Prologue, with emphasis on Chaucer's development of character. Continue reading

The panel discusses selections from the poetry of Rudyard Kipling, including his most famous poem, "If", and three poems related to The Great War and, its mechanised social aftermath: "Gethsemane", "The Benefactor", and "The Secret of the Machines". Continue reading

The panel discusses Ben Jonson's role as critic and author of the Elizabethan age, and reads four of his poems, including several of his Epigrams, before concluding with his rhapsodic ode written in memory of his friend, William Shakespeare. Continue reading

The panel reads excerpts from Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass, including poems from the inscriptions, Song of Myself, Children of Adam, and Calamus, considering the formal nature of the 'American Epic', and Whitman's use of individualism and universalism. Continue reading

The panel examines a selection of sonnets and a song from Sir Philip Sidney's Astrophil and Stella, considering the formal and tonal connexions between Sidney's poetry and the works of earlier and later poets, including Chaucer, Petrarch, and Shakespeare. Continue reading

The panel discusses a selection of poems covering the entire span of Abraham Cowley's oeuvre: beginning with his college years and the unfinished epic 'Davideis', through his popular collections, and concluding with his late 'Ode to the Royal Society'. Continue reading

The panel discusses a selection of John Milton's shorter poems, the oft-paired 'L'Allegro' and 'Il Penseroso', and examines their use of Orpheus as a metaphor, and their different attitudes to finding communal delight and solitary pleasure in life. Continue reading

The panel analyses the use of irony in the poetic works of Stephen Crane, including selections from "War Is Kind" (1899), and discusses the development of realism and imagism in English literature, especially in poetry about the experience of war. Continue reading

The panel analyses contradiction in Melville's earliest and latest published poems: three selections from Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War--his first collection--and "Art" from Timoleon and Other Ventures, published only four months before his death. Continue reading

In a return to the works of Alexander Pope, the panel reads his "Eloisa to Abelard" in full and discusses the complexity of Eloisa's tragic circumstances: her love for Abelard, her vocation as a nun, and the suffering to which they have been subjected. Continue reading