The Troubadour Podcast

Send us a textOn this special episode I will read The Idiot Boy by William Wordsworth. This poem was published in the 1798 Lyrical Ballads and it was very controversial. Yet, it is a beautifully written poem. I spend the majority of the time simply reading the poem. I hope you enjoy the reading! At the end I give a small critique of Wordsworth's philosophy, but mostly I defend him and Romanticism from the cliche attacks toward Romanticism.THE IDIOT BOYBy William Wordsworth‘Tis eight o’clock, – a clear March night,The moon is up– the sky is blue,The owlet in the moonlight air,He shouts from nobody knows where ;He lengthens out his lonely shout,Halloo ! halloo ! a long halloo !–Why bustle thus about your door,What means this bustle, Betty Foy?Why are you in this mighty fret?And why on horseback have you setHim whom you love, your idiot boy?Beneath the moon that shines so bright,Till she is tired, let Betty FoyWith girt and stirrup fiddle-fiddle;But wherefore set upon a saddleHim whom she loves, her idiot boy?There’s scarce a soul that’s out of bed;Good Betty! put him down again;His lips with joy they burr at you,But, Betty! what has he to doWith stirrup, saddle, or with rein?The world will say ’tis very idle,Bethink you of the time of night;There’s not a mother, no not one,But when she hears what you have done,Oh! Betty she’ll be in a fright.But Betty’s bent on her intent,For her good neighbour, Susan Gale,Old Susan, she who dwells alone,Is sick, and makes a piteous moan,As if her very life would fail.There’s not a house within a mile,No hand to help them in distress:Old Susan lies a bed in pain,And sorely puzzled are the twain,For what she ails they cannot guess.And Betty’s husband’s at the wood,Where by the week he doth abide,A woodman in the distant vale;There’s none to help poor Susan Gale,What must be done? what will betide?And Betty from the lane has fetchedHer pony, that is mild and good,Whether he be in joy or pain,Feeding at will along the lane,Or bringing faggots from the wood.And he is all in travelling trim,And by the moonlight, Betty FoyHas up upon the saddle set,The like was never heard of yet,Him whom she loves, her idiot boy.And he must post without delayAcross the bridge that’s in the dale,And by the church, and o’er the down,To bring a doctor from the town,Or she will die, old Susan Gale.There is no need of boot or spur,There is no need of whip or wand,For Johnny has his holly-bough,And with a hurly-burly nowHe shakes the green bough in his hand.And Betty o’er and o’er has toldThe boy who is her best delight,Both what to follow, what to shun,What do, and what to leave undone,How turn to left, and how to right.And Betty’s most especial charge,Was, “ Johnny! Johnny! mind that you“Come home again, nor stop at all,“Come home again, whate’er befal,“My Johnny do, I pray you do.”To this did Johnny answer make,Both with his head, and with his hand,And proudly shook the bridle too,And then! his words were not a few,Which Betty well could understand.And now that Johnny is just going,Though Betty’s in a mighty flurry,She gently pats the pony’s s

Send us a textAh to love is to be a fool, to tell your love is to be a double fool. But to be  a triple fool? How does one do that?John Donne will show you how.In this special episode I go in to this poem with no prep. That means you will experience a live analysis and exploration of this poem. There will be times when I say "oh I was wrong about that interpretation, I'm quite sure it means this." And, "hmm what does this mean!?" I hope by the end you will see that there is intense exercise for the mind in exploring great poetry.

Send us a textWhat is the purpose of a penal system? Is it strictly to punish or can it be to reform? If it can reform what are the best methods of accomplishing this?The romanticist Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote a poem called The Dungeon, which is a soliloqouy from a man who resides in a medieval dungeon. He is lamenting more than his own personal situation, but the idea of what man has made of man. Do dungeons and prisons truly work for the guilty? Or do they make their souls even more rotted than when they entered? And, of course, in the heart of a romanticist is an answer to the proper way to reform those souls plagued from within. Listen to find out Coleridge's proposed solution.

Join a conversation with Quent Cordair at a fine art gallery discussing poetry, artistic origins, interpretations of 'Fire and Ice' poem, Greco-Roman culture, and literature promoting optimism and self-empowerment.

Send us a textDo you know that annoying couple that is always so lovey dovey? You know the type, they wear matching clothes and finish each other's sentences? Well get prepared to meet a man who believes he is so in love that he believes they should be canonized forever.In "Canonization" John Donne makes a bizarre argument. Why can't two ideal lovers become canonized (made into saints by the Catholic Church?)This is bizarre because by ideal lovers, he does not mean platonic lovers. These are lovers in sex and romance. These are the K I S S I N G type of lovers, but probably without a baby in a crib. The only people to be canonized are those who are selfless and often ascetic (abscond from the pleasures of the body) and yet Donne argues for the exact opposite. If you are in love or ever have been, you need to read The Canonization by John Donne.

Send us a textIn this episode I will give you two extreme models of education. One is best represented in the tale of Petronilla and the other is best represented in that of #gretathunbergA theme that runs throughout the 1798 Lyrical Ballads by Coleridge and Wordsworth is that of nature as educator for a child. In this poem—a fragment from a theatrical play by Coleridge—we see multiple viewpoints on education. One critical question we must answer is how much, if any, of the outside world and its social ills should a child know about?Education, knowledge and moral upbringing were of paramount importance to many of the romantics. This is a key theme not only in Lyrical Ballads but in much of the philosophers of this time as well as literary writers such as Mary Shelley. This poem is a first in exploring important ideas in action of sibling affection, taboo and the morality imposed upon young children.

Send us a textHave you ever laid in bed with your significant other and just wished you could lay there all day but the cares of the world kept fighting their way into your life? Well, John Donne knows how ya feel and he proposes you do something about it.As a Metaphysical Poet, witty and conceited, he proposes you start to command the sun, rather than the other way around.In this episode you will learn a bit about Medieval Cosmology and the Chain of Beings Theory of the universe. And you'll see how a great poet uses language in all its glory to intellectually dissect a powerful emotion we all feel at some time in our lives.P.S. Guys, there are a few lines in here which might make for a good one-liner to your lady friends (though no guarantees!)

Send us a textWilliam Wordsworth changed the way we use language. He changed the way we investigate human beings. This is the romantic legacy. The usage of imagination to delve into the inner world of man. As Hugo put it "There is one thing grander than the ocean, that is the sky; there is one thing grander than the sky that is the interior of man's soul."This is one of the major projects of the romantics, to illustrate the depth of man's inner world. How, for instance, an event can cause a schism in ones values in this world.That's exactly what happens to the main character in Wordsworth's ballad, "The Last of the Flock." He has to butcher a single sheep in order to feed his growing family, but in dong so we learn about the values of christianity, modernism, industrialism and more. And we learn of the conflicts that arise in these systems.Increase your imaginative faculty with "The Last of the Flock."

Send us a textOpposing his own view in "Go and Catch a Falling Star," Donne explains to us how to be braver than one of the nine worithes (Hector, Alexander the Great, Julius Ceasar, Joshua, David, Judas Maccabeus, King Arthur, Charlemagne, Godfrey of Boullion.)To be greater then these men, in one area at least, we must simply love a woman for her inner virtues as opposed to her outer virtues. Oh and it's even better to not tell anyone about it!

Send us a textIn this balladic poem, Wordsworth tells the tale of a "solitary thorn," or British Hawthorn Bush, that "marks the spot where a pregnant woman, driven from town and forced to give birth alone on the heath, died from famine, pain and cold and anguish." In typical Wordsworthian fashion, however, he was not at all interested in the tale of the woman. he was interested in how a tale like that, a stormy night and a solitary thorn can have a deep impact on the mind and soul of a certain type of man.For Hawthorn, his main purpose for many of his poems was "to illustrate the manner in which our feelings and ideas are associated in a state of excitment. But, speaking in language somewhat more appropriate, it is to follow the fluxes and refluxes of the mind when agited by the great and simple affections of our nature."Before listening to this poem it is important to note the narrator. In this case, it is NOT WIlliam Wordsworth. Instead, Wordsworth is projecting the character of a specific type of superstitious mind. In this poem the narrator is:A sufficiently common manA captain of a small trading vesselPast the middle age of his liferetired on an annuity to a small village or country town He is not a native of the town he has retired toMen such as this having little to do, become credulous and talkative from indolence. They are prone to superstition. This character is best able to exhibit, for Wordsworth "some of the general laws by which superstition acts upon the mind."This will be our journey for this episode. How does superstition act upon the mind? What effect does it have? What turns of passion do men and women operating under superstition make?