Critical Readings

The panel discusses Romanticism and begins a three-week examination of selected poems from Lyrical Ballads, the experimental collection by Wordsworth and Coleridge. This week's selections are Wordsworth's "The Female Vagrant" and "Tintern Abbey".Continue reading

As the panel continues the transition from the Augustans to the Romantics, they turn their attention to the notoriously self-critical Thomas Gray, who refused the Poet Laureateship and died at the age of fifty-four, leaving only thirteen published poems.Continue reading

The panel continues its focus on the poetry of the Augustan era of British letters, this time examining Goldsmith's poetic response to the increase of British wealth and the destruction posed by cultural shifts and legislation such as the Inclosure Acts.Continue reading

Having concluded Paradise Lost, the panel moves from the poetry of Milton to the opposing views of one of his contemporaries, examining John Dryden, and his panegyric Astræa Redux, written to celebrate the restoration of Charles II to the throne.Continue reading

The panel concludes Paradise Lost with an examination of Adam's hope and despair, differences between Michael and Raphael, biblical kingship, the worthy triumph of Christ, and--finally--the quality of Milton as an author and Paradise Lost as a work.Continue reading

The panel tackles the difficult problems of Adam's guilt, the nature of heavenly justice and its parallels with English Common Law, Milton's conception of the natural order, and Adam's acceptance of guilt and act of contrition for the sin of disobedience.Continue reading

The panel discusses the ninth book of Paradise Lost, with a special focus on Milton's depictions of gender roles, guilt and innocence, division of labour, and free will, to determine how the balance of Original Sin is divided amongst Adam and Eve.Continue reading

The panel considers whether the Garden of Eden required a robust space exploration programme (yes), whether Angels are real (yes), whether human beings turn into angels when they die (no), whether Dr. Cooper is an Anglophile (no)... oh, and Milton, too!Continue reading

The panel examines the moment of creation, the etymological development of atheism and chaos, divine warnings against transgressing the proper bounds of intellectual curiosity, and the potentially physical nature of Creation's hymn of praise to its Maker.Continue reading

The panel welcomes Zac Watson as special guest to discuss questions about Paradise Lost, before examining the War in Heaven, Classical cosmogeny, Satan's parodic inventiveness, angelic biology, and an unlikely connexion to Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles.Continue reading