John Clare and the Madness of Poets

Snap Into A Slim Hymn: The Art of Epigram Pt. 2

-Read the poems on my Substack! [https://versecraft.substack.com/p/snap-into-a-slim-hymn-the-art-of] -If there is a “West,” all Semites and Aryans are part of it -Arab Classicism and the House of Wisdom -Al Ma’arri -Afzaladdin -Moses Ibn Ezra -Sehnsucht -Ibn Iyad -Manjik -Dick Davis -Samuel Johnson’s “Rasselas” -Proto-Imagism -My long road to appreciating haiku -Zen in the Art of Archery -Matsuo Basho -Ethan McGuire -Kireji, Kigo, Jisei -Minamoto no Shitago -Howard Nemerov -Derek Walcott -Anne Stevenson -Mary Jo Salter -Motherhood and the feminine mystique -John Frederick Nims -Nicky Beer -Sponsor an episode!! Support the show [https://www.buymeacoffee.com/versecraft] VISIT MY WEBSITE HERE. [https://www.elijahperseusblumov.com/] BUY VERSECRAFT MERCH HERE [https://www.bonfire.com/store/versecraft/]. VISIT THE VERSECRAFT SUBSTACK HERE [https://versecraft.substack.com/]. Please subscribe, rate, and review! Thanks so much for listening. You can leave me a tip, support the podcast, or request a commission here [https://www.buymeacoffee.com/versecraft]! TikTok:  @versecraft Send me a note at: versecraftpodcast@gmail.com My favorite poetry podcasts for: Sharp thoughts and cutting truths (Matthew): Sleerickets [https://www.matthewbuckleysmith.com/sleerickets]  Lovely introspection and sensitive reflection (Alice): Poetry Says [https://poetrysays.com/] The landscape of Ohioan poetry (Jeremy): Poetry Spotlight [https://www.ohiopoetryassn.org/poetry-spotlight]  Supported in part by The Ohio Poetry Association [https://www.ohiopoetryassn.org/] Art by David Anthony Klug [https://www.klugbrothers.com/] List of the most common metrical feet:  Iamb: weak-STRONG (u /) Trochee: STRONG-weak (/ u) Anapest: weak-weak-STRONG (u u /) Amphibrach: weak-STRONG-weak (u / u) Dactyl: STRONG-weak-weak (/ u u) Cretic: STRONG-weak-STRONG (/ u /) Pyrrhic: weak-weak (u u) Spondee: STRONG-STRONG (/ /)

Kvetched in Stone: The Art of Epigram Pt. 1

Read this essay (and view the poems) on Substack! Topics discussed include: The Monumentalist Manifesto [https://newversereview.substack.com/p/the-monumentalist-manifesto] The Iron Lyre [https://newversereview.substack.com/p/the-iron-lyre] Bright Soft Things (Crashaw Essay) [https://www.dappledthings.org/deep-down-things/bright-soft-things] The Penguin Book of Greek and Latin Lyric Verse [https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/764090/the-penguin-book-of-greek-and-latin-lyric-verse-by-translated-and-edited-by-christopher-childers-afterword-by-glenn-w-most/] trans. Christopher Childers Asclepiades 6 Zonas 9 Argentarius 26 Martial 5.73, 1.73, 3.65 "Prayer" by George Herbert "Cold Turkey" by Joshua Mehigan "Upon the Body of Our Blessed Lord, Naked and Bloody" by Richard Crashaw "To Our Lord, Upon the Water Made Wine," by Richard Crashaw "God is my Final End" by Angelus Silesius "The Rosebud Has No Why" by Angelus Silesius "Why Do I Exist?" by Daniel Brown "On My First Son" by Ben Jonson Support the show [https://www.buymeacoffee.com/versecraft] VISIT MY WEBSITE HERE. [https://www.elijahperseusblumov.com/] BUY VERSECRAFT MERCH HERE [https://www.bonfire.com/store/versecraft/]. VISIT THE VERSECRAFT SUBSTACK HERE [https://versecraft.substack.com/]. Please subscribe, rate, and review! Thanks so much for listening. You can leave me a tip, support the podcast, or request a commission here [https://www.buymeacoffee.com/versecraft]! TikTok:  @versecraft Send me a note at: versecraftpodcast@gmail.com My favorite poetry podcasts for: Sharp thoughts and cutting truths (Matthew): Sleerickets [https://www.matthewbuckleysmith.com/sleerickets]  Lovely introspection and sensitive reflection (Alice): Poetry Says [https://poetrysays.com/] The landscape of Ohioan poetry (Jeremy): Poetry Spotlight [https://www.ohiopoetryassn.org/poetry-spotlight]  Supported in part by The Ohio Poetry Association [https://www.ohiopoetryassn.org/] Art by David Anthony Klug [https://www.klugbrothers.com/] List of the most common metrical feet:  Iamb: weak-STRONG (u /) Trochee: STRONG-weak (/ u) Anapest: weak-weak-STRONG (u u /) Amphibrach: weak-STRONG-weak (u / u) Dactyl: STRONG-weak-weak (/ u u) Cretic: STRONG-weak-STRONG (/ u /) Pyrrhic: weak-weak (u u) Spondee: STRONG-STRONG (/ /)

"Bedtime Metaphysics" by Morri Creech

Read this episode on Substack! [https://versecraft.substack.com/p/bedtime-metaphysics] Text of the poem here. [https://32poems.com/poem/morri-creech/] Mea culpa: Yes, in the heat of the moment, I mispronounced mise en scene. A la guillotine!  Topics discussed include: -Some po-biz kvetching -Morri Creech!  [https://www.morricreech.com/bio] -The telos of Versecraft -The "ghost" of pentameter -The Stevensian cosmovision and the metaphysics of metaphor -The axis mundi -Nicholas of Cusa and coincidentia oppositorum -The Moirai -Contronyms -"An Ordinary Childhood" [https://rattle.com/an-ordinary-childhood-by-morri-creech/] by Morri Creech -Selve oscura dolce -I.A. Richards and tenor & vehicle -"Tintern Abbey" [https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45527/lines-composed-a-few-miles-above-tintern-abbey-on-revisiting-the-banks-of-the-wye-during-a-tour-july-13-1798]by William Wordsworth -"Poem Without Metaphors" [https://www.bpj.org/works/v70n1p009-poem-without-metaphors-smith] by Matthew Buckley Smith -The Blumovian Review [https://versecraft.substack.com/p/the-blumovian-review-jan-march-2026] -My chapbook, "The Necklace of Harmonia" -My book, "Against Oblivion" Support the show [https://www.buymeacoffee.com/versecraft] VISIT MY WEBSITE HERE. [https://www.elijahperseusblumov.com/] BUY VERSECRAFT MERCH HERE [https://www.bonfire.com/store/versecraft/]. VISIT THE VERSECRAFT SUBSTACK HERE [https://versecraft.substack.com/]. Please subscribe, rate, and review! Thanks so much for listening. You can leave me a tip, support the podcast, or request a commission here [https://www.buymeacoffee.com/versecraft]! TikTok:  @versecraft Send me a note at: versecraftpodcast@gmail.com My favorite poetry podcasts for: Sharp thoughts and cutting truths (Matthew): Sleerickets [https://www.matthewbuckleysmith.com/sleerickets]  Lovely introspection and sensitive reflection (Alice): Poetry Says [https://poetrysays.com/] The landscape of Ohioan poetry (Jeremy): Poetry Spotlight [https://www.ohiopoetryassn.org/poetry-spotlight]  Supported in part by The Ohio Poetry Association [https://www.ohiopoetryassn.org/] Art by David Anthony Klug [https://www.klugbrothers.com/] List of the most common metrical feet:  Iamb: weak-STRONG (u /) Trochee: STRONG-weak (/ u) Anapest: weak-weak-STRONG (u u /) Amphibrach: weak-STRONG-weak (u / u) Dactyl: STRONG-weak-weak (/ u u) Cretic: STRONG-weak-STRONG (/ u /) Pyrrhic: weak-weak (u u) Spondee: STRONG-STRONG (/ /)

John Clare and the Madness of Poets

Read this episode on Substack and subscribe! Text of poem [https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/49719/the-yellowhammers-nest] Topics discussed include: -Plato's "Ion" -The Muses and Schizophrenia -Poets must be weirdos -The normies are the willing slaves of the mad -Lewis's trilemma -The American Confessionals and the French Decadents -The Wild 18th century -Go read William Cowper's "The Task!" -Samuel Johnson, Richard Savage, William Collins, Christopher Smart, William Blake, Friederich Holderlin, The Marquis de Sade -Jubilate Agno, The Sorrows of Young Werther, Thomson's The Seasons, Tristram Shandy -The man who thought he was Byron -"I Am" by John Clare -Vers libre vs. verse libere -"Dover Beach" by Matthew Arnold -The Masque of the Red Death -Et in Arcadia Ego Support the show [https://www.buymeacoffee.com/versecraft] VISIT MY WEBSITE HERE. [https://www.elijahperseusblumov.com/] BUY VERSECRAFT MERCH HERE [https://www.bonfire.com/store/versecraft/]. VISIT THE VERSECRAFT SUBSTACK HERE [https://versecraft.substack.com/]. Please subscribe, rate, and review! Thanks so much for listening. You can leave me a tip, support the podcast, or request a commission here [https://www.buymeacoffee.com/versecraft]! TikTok:  @versecraft Send me a note at: versecraftpodcast@gmail.com My favorite poetry podcasts for: Sharp thoughts and cutting truths (Matthew): Sleerickets [https://www.matthewbuckleysmith.com/sleerickets]  Lovely introspection and sensitive reflection (Alice): Poetry Says [https://poetrysays.com/] The landscape of Ohioan poetry (Jeremy): Poetry Spotlight [https://www.ohiopoetryassn.org/poetry-spotlight]  Supported in part by The Ohio Poetry Association [https://www.ohiopoetryassn.org/] Art by David Anthony Klug [https://www.klugbrothers.com/] List of the most common metrical feet:  Iamb: weak-STRONG (u /) Trochee: STRONG-weak (/ u) Anapest: weak-weak-STRONG (u u /) Amphibrach: weak-STRONG-weak (u / u) Dactyl: STRONG-weak-weak (/ u u) Cretic: STRONG-weak-STRONG (/ u /) Pyrrhic: weak-weak (u u) Spondee: STRONG-STRONG (/ /)

"The Night Mirror" by John Hollander

Read this episode (and the poem) on Substack! [https://versecraft.substack.com/p/the-night-mirror-by-john-hollander] Topics discussed include: -Going to Oaxaca! -"Poetry and Music" and "Rhyme's Reason" by John Hollander -My Nemerov episode [https://versecraft.substack.com/p/de-anima-by-howard-nemerov] -My Donaghy episode [https://versecraft.substack.com/p/the-heirloom-by-michael-donaghy] -Jacques Lacan and the "mirror phase" -The nightmare of the self vs. the nightmare of the unconscious -The survival of Romanticism  Support the show [https://www.buymeacoffee.com/versecraft] VISIT MY WEBSITE HERE. [https://www.elijahperseusblumov.com/] BUY VERSECRAFT MERCH HERE [https://www.bonfire.com/store/versecraft/]. VISIT THE VERSECRAFT SUBSTACK HERE [https://versecraft.substack.com/]. Please subscribe, rate, and review! Thanks so much for listening. You can leave me a tip, support the podcast, or request a commission here [https://www.buymeacoffee.com/versecraft]! TikTok:  @versecraft Send me a note at: versecraftpodcast@gmail.com My favorite poetry podcasts for: Sharp thoughts and cutting truths (Matthew): Sleerickets [https://www.matthewbuckleysmith.com/sleerickets]  Lovely introspection and sensitive reflection (Alice): Poetry Says [https://poetrysays.com/] The landscape of Ohioan poetry (Jeremy): Poetry Spotlight [https://www.ohiopoetryassn.org/poetry-spotlight]  Supported in part by The Ohio Poetry Association [https://www.ohiopoetryassn.org/] Art by David Anthony Klug [https://www.klugbrothers.com/] List of the most common metrical feet:  Iamb: weak-STRONG (u /) Trochee: STRONG-weak (/ u) Anapest: weak-weak-STRONG (u u /) Amphibrach: weak-STRONG-weak (u / u) Dactyl: STRONG-weak-weak (/ u u) Cretic: STRONG-weak-STRONG (/ u /) Pyrrhic: weak-weak (u u) Spondee: STRONG-STRONG (/ /)