Poems For People Who Hate Poetry

Send us a textIn this short story by Poe we hear a tale from a scientist who performs mesmerism on a man in articulo mortis. That is, "at the point of death." Mesmerism was a method of psychological and physical healing developed by Franz Anton Mesmer (1734-1815), a Viennese doctor. It was believed to be therapeutic, especially of nervous people, and many also believed it could override the will of another person, as is hypnotism.Poe shares a story from a man who actually performed mesmerism on a man at the point of death. What happens is unbelievable. Believe it.

Send us a textOn this episode I cover three very short poems by William Blake in his Songs of Innocence and Experience:1) The Shepherd2) The Lamb3) SpringThese are the pastoral poems in this book of poetry. You'll learn the difference between a pastoral poem and a georgic poem and why that is important. Also, we'll explore the deeper themes recurring throughout this work by Blake.

Send us a textWARNING: This is not an episode for people who cannot handle the reality of the decisions that parents had to make during the early years of the industrial revolution.On this episode I give you a history lesson on life during the early years of the Industrial Revolution, including a history of chimney sweepers.Blake's poem can be seen simply as a tale of a young chimney sweeper who has a vision about an angel setting him and his friends free, and it can be seen as an indictment of the way we indoctrinate children.Few poets have the ability to infuse the most simple poetry with a subtle power that can effect real change in the minds of individuals.

Send us a textStewart Wade Margolis joins me for another conversation about poetry and his work as a diretor. This time we discussed the poem by William Blake "The Garden of Love," as well as his short vignettes about dating as a gay man in Coffee House Chronicles.We had a great conversation about sexual repression in our society as well as the similarities and differences of dating and sexual taboos in modern culture.Here is the poem by Blake:The Garden of LoveBY WILLIAM BLAKEI went to the Garden of Love,And saw what I never had seen:A Chapel was built in the midst,Where I used to play on the green.And the gates of this Chapel were shut,And Thou shalt not. writ over the door;So I turn'd to the Garden of Love,That so many sweet flowers bore. And I saw it was filled with graves,And tomb-stones where flowers should be:And Priests in black gowns, were walking their rounds,And binding with briars, my joys & desires.

Send us a textGet ready for some difficult to read poetic moments. Here we will deal with racism and slavery. In this poem by Blake, from The Songs of Innocence, he expresses in beautiful verse a story that a mother tells to her young child about why they are black slaves living in England during the mid 18th century.If you have followed along with my readings of Blake you will know that this is only the surface level. It is the "innocent" reading. The experienced reading will metaphorically, shake your world.Do not miss this one.

Send us a textThis is an audio version of the video you can find at troubadourmag.com or on Facebook or Youtube:In this video I discuss Yaron Brook's review of The Irishman by Martin Scorsese. While there are several point of agreement I have with Yaron's assessment, I believe he fundamentally misses the point of the movie. Moreover, I believe he wrongly applies Ayn Rand's conception of esthetics to Scorsese's movie.Here I will defend The Irishman as great art, whether or not you subjectively like the movie. It is my understanding that Yaron hated the fim (totally understandable) but that he allowed this to cloud his judgment of assessing the film is improper.I hope you will enjoy a dissectioon of several scenes as well as a discussion of the gangster genre, Martin Scorse's filmography, the art of acting (and what we can judge of it) and much much more.This was a fun one to create and as I say in the video it comes from a place of love, as so much of Yaron's work has been an insp

Send us a text*I also read "The Tyger" by Blake from the Songs of Experience.Of all the innocence projected in The Songs of Innocence, none are more so than The Lamb! We will explore the imagery and metaphors as well as the tone of this poem by Blake. As I have recommended in my other videos on Blake, if you have a small child, try reading this to them and talking through it. You may be interested to hear what a child hears versus what you hear.

Send us a textThis is the third poem in The Songs of Innocence, where we see a simple pastoral scene with families playing in a green pasture during springtime, from a child's perspective. But as adults reading it we will see something different, maybe even something slightly dark. In this episode I will show teachers and parents a simple exercise to enjoy this Blake poem as a family. As all the songs of innocence, this is a great poem to read to children. And as Blake intended, children will have one experience of the poem, while adults will have a different one. Both are correct!We will explore the poem and the hand made illustrations by William Blake from a child's view of the poem (to the best of my old man abilities!) and from an adults perspective.

Send us a textWilliam Blake was the most eccentric of the Romantics. He was equally important in visual arts as well as poetry. His books included beautiful engravings all hand made, and for this reason he was not well known until the 20th century.A man opposed to oppression and repression of all times, in his work we see an imaginative mind building an entire world before our eyes. This first poem, "The Piper" is from The Songs of Innocence and it serves as the introduction to this book.

Send us a textThis episode was recording during the holidays 2019. The Holidays are a time of reflections on your past as you prepare for New Years Eve resolutions for your future.Can recollecting your past be done improperly? Is it an infallible process? If it is not infallible, what should we do about it? These are some of the themes we will see in Tintern Abbey by Wordsworth.The full title of this poem is Lines Composed a Few Miles above TinternAbbey, On Revisiting the Banks of the Wyeduring a Tour. July 13, 1798.In this episode I explore the final poem of the 1798 Lyrical Ballads, Tintern Abbey. Here we get the first poem that shows the Giant Wordsworth. The former poems in Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth were great explorations of his poetic abilities, but in Tintern Abbey we get the full philosophical, psychological, autobiographical and poetic mastery that is Wordsworth.For my full notes and breakdown go to troubadourmag.com

Send us a textThis is one of Wordsworth's most far-reaching poems. It takes place in a land he never set foot on: America.Based on stories he read about traveling tribes of American Indians, he wrote this harrowing tale about a woman who is too sick to continue walking with her tribe, so they abandon her.

Send us a textIn the Oxford Book of English Verse, edited by Christopher Ricks, there are 9 William Wordsworth poems. Old Man Travelling, animal tranquility and decay was selected twice.Like many of Wordsworth's best poems, this one power is so subtle it is easy to miss it. However, it is poetry and art par excellence. Since the poem is so short I do not wish to spoil the exhilerating emotional revelation that occurs in a renewed investigation into this poem, so I will merely say that the experience this poem will give you will make you a better person. (Please note that I do not say "may" make you a better person.)

Send us a textIn November, 2019 the state of Oklahoma released almost 500 "non-violent" criminals in the largest commutation in US history. This brought up many issues regarding the justice system and the court system. But it also brings up a critical issue about the role and goals of the penal system. Can convicts be reformed? If it is possible then what is in our best interest to support? If a convict CAN be reformed, then should not not attempt to help them do so? And at the very least, should we not get in the way of possible reform?These are some important questions, among many others,that WIlliam Wordsworth asked in this poem.It was so controversial, in fact, that he removed it from all subsequent publication.

Send us a textThe Female Vagrant is one of Wordsworth's most political poems. It tells the story two wanderers seeking shelter during a stormy night on Salisbury Plain in England. The woman tells how she came to be destitute and alone: her father had been evicted from his cottage in the Lakes by a wealthy industrialist neighbor, she had married but the advent of war had ruined them and, in a last desperate attempt to support her and their children, he volunteered for the army. He is shipped to fight in the war of the rebel colonialists in 1776 and she follows him. In America, he and their three children all die. She returns to wander Britain desolate, deprived of all home and sick.The poem is an investigation into the mind of the female wanderer (vagrant). As is Wordsworth's principal object in most of his poetry:  "I proposed to myself in these Poems was to chuse incidents and situations from common life, and to relate or describe them, throughout, as far as was possible, in a selection of lan

Send us a textIn this special episode I quote several passages from William Wordsworth's prefaces to the Lyrical Ballads and passages from C. Bradley Thompson's newest book "America's Revolutionary Mind."My argument is that Wordsworth, in telling people to put away their books and look to Nature is reflecting a philosophical view from Isaac Newton and John Locke.Up ! up ! my friend, and clear your looks,Why all this toil and trouble ?Up ! up ! my friend, and quit your books,Or surely you’ll grow double.There are times when we should put away our books. More importantly, there are dangers to only look in books for answers and not thinking for ourselves. Wordsworth in Lyrical Ballads and elsewhere is desperately trying to get people to look at the reality of human nature and the greater Nature that man inhabits.This is a lesson we need now more than ever, as we are turning our backs on Man, Nature and the Right morality for living on this earth.

Send us a textI am releasing this poem on Halloween, because it is indeed a horror story. In fact, it was so terrifying that when the young Mary Shelley first heard a reading of it, she hid behind a chair. Today, this poem may not terrify us in the way that it did people at the time, but I will be making two big arguments as to why you should challenge yourself to read poems like this even if you at first do not like them.Coleridge's Mariner may be one of the most influential poems of the British romantics. Not only is there a popular Iron Maiden song but much gothic literature of the 19th century, from Frankenstein and Dracula to The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Picture of Dorian Gray, The House of the Seven Gables and the Fall of Usher was inspired by this poem. In fact, Coleridge's Mariner brings a major new strain of literary experience onto the scene. In this episode I will give you the arguments to read poems you don't like, provide a summary of the poem, read a special version of the poe

Send us a textPaul Guay conceived and co-wrote "Liar, Liar" and co-wrote "The Little Rascals" and "Heartbreakers." We had a wonderful conversation about movies and movie making, art and culture, the changing tide of media, being a writer and the writing process, Paul's love of WWE, his filmmaking experiences, the Auteur Theory of FIlmmaking and much much more. If you are interested in how movies are made, how to make a career in Hollywood, how the landscape is changing as well as the art of cinema, novels, short stories, poems and how that culture impacts our lives and society, this is a conversation not to be missed.

Send us a textIn his conversation poem, "Expostulation and Reply," William Wordsworth brings the art of argument into poetry. A school teacher, Matthew, trained in the classical method of jamming facts into people's foreheads, admonishes young William for sitting out in nature and contemplating it. “Up! Up! and drink the spirit breath’d / “From dead men to their kind," he says. In other words, get out of nature and read your books young Willy!Well, you can imagine the young romantic poet had something to say about that!

Send us a textThe 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.

Send us a textThere 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 howLines Written Near Richmond, upon the Thames at EveningBy William WordworthHow rich the wave, in front, imprestWith 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 sideAs now,  fair river! c