Goretti Publications: The Podcast (mp3)

S01E07: Historical Poetry

For S01E07 of GorPod, we discuss historical poetry. That is, poetry about real historical events. There is plenty of this, of course; some is pretty accurate, some is only partly accurate, and some is based purely on the “feel” of an historical event. All these types are useful. We review a few examples of such poetry—“The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere”; “Lepanto”; and so forth—and discuss how they relate to this topic, and why they are useful as related to their topics, along with being good poetry. Our Goretti poem this episode is The Siege of Vienna [http://gorettipub.org/vienna.html], an historical poem about the eponymous siege of Vienna in 1683, and its famous lifting, along with many of the characters involved. Praise be to Christ the King!

S01E06: Narrative Poetry

For S01E06 of GorPod, we discuss narrative poetry. We have seen that poetry can be used to very powerfully speak about many deep and important topics; but thus far we have seen only short texts about single topics, presented in very figurative and illustrative ways. What about just narrating things? The ancients constantly used poetry in this way; anything that was worth saying was worth saying in verse. But this has been mostly lost in our own time. Should it have been? What are the benefits of writing in verse as opposed to prose, if there are any? Our Goretti poem this episode is The Question [http://gorettipub.org/the_question.html], a narrative poem about death, various perspectives on it, and how Christians should see it. Praise be to Christ the King!

S01E05: Does Poetry Even Matter?

For S01E05 of GorPod, we discuss the accessibility of poetry. We often hear that poetry just isn't accessible to people; it's difficult, convoluted, unecessary. Why can't people just speak in plain language? Why dress it up in fancy forms, as poetry does? We show from several examples that poetry is, in fact, accessible, and always has been. We read passages from the Iliad; from Lovelace; from Sassoon; and from Kilmer, to see the very clear, yet very beautiful and even haunting, meanings they express in their poetry, and how it is expressed far more clearly in verse than it ever could have been in prose. We show that poetry is supposed to be, adn historically has been, for the masses, for regular people, but that modernity has corrupted it into an art form appreciated only by the elites, and not even by most of them. We end with an exhortation to reclaim this great human art away from the academics and for humanity. Our Goretti poem this episode is Death Has Been Cheated Once [http://gorettipub.org/run_race.html], a relatively complex structure that is nevertheless a good example of the principles we discuss: a clear, yet lyrically interesting and compelling expression of a fundamental Christian idea.

S01E04: Rhyme

For S01E04 of GorPod, we discuss the rhyme. Rhyme is a very common poetic elements across many forms and languages, and yet it's often looked upon with some scorn today. Is it still important for poetry? We read Sonnet 18 from the great William Shakespeare, and look at how it uses rhyme to form its structure. We also see the closing couplets of several sonnets to demonstrate the “punch” that rhyme can give; we explore Sonnet 20 as an example of double (or feminine) rhyme, and read Frost's “Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening” as still another example of the powerful capabilities of rhyme. Our Goretti poem this episode is The Tulip Grows [http://gorettipub.org/tulip_grow.html], a nine-stanza, thirty-six-line poem which uses only two rhymes, in a b b a structure. We discuss its meaning and structure, particularly how rhyme is used therein.

S01E02: Structure in Poetry

For S01E02 of GorPod, we discuss structure in poetry. What role does structure play in poetry? Is it necessary? And, of course, the perennial question: does poetry really need to rhyme? We discuss poetry being different from prose precisely in its division into clearly defined lines, which are defined by some linguistic principle of structure. We talk about so-called “free verse”, and conclude that it doesn't really count as poetry because it rejects that very structure which defines poetry. Finally, we read the poem Winter's Joy [http://gorettipub.org/winter.html], and we talk about its form and meaning.