We wrap up 2020 with several pieces by Sir Philip Sidney and Christopher Marlowe. Episode Music: Be Chillin’ by Alexander Nakarada | www.serpentsoundstudios.com Music promoted by www.free-stock-music.com Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Pictures are in the public domain, from wikimedia.org.

Requisite Words Podcast

Episode 25 - I Love Sidney & Marlowe

After a very 2020 hiatus, we're back with two of Thomas Hardy's poems, God's Funeral and The Darkling Thrush. Episode Music: Be Chillin’ by Alexander Nakarada | www.serpentsoundstudios.com Music promoted by www.free-stock-music.com Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Photo is in the public domain, from wikimedia.org

Episode 24 - Taking Thomas Hardy on Faith

This episode we share the first of Shakespeare's Sonnets to the Dark Lady, Sonnet 127, alongside a brief contextual reading of the piece. This episode was inspired by Patrick Stewart's A Sonnet a Day initiative, which has been a source of much delight in recent months, but overlooked this one piece during a break. Episode Music: Be Chillin’ by Alexander Nakarada | www.serpentsoundstudios.com Music promoted by www.free-stock-music.com Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Photo is in the public domain, from wikimedia.org

Episode 23 - Shakespeare's Sonnet 127

We attempt to balance out the bawdy and bluest of the Bard with a few of his nicer Sonnets. Featuring Sonnets 17, 18, 19 and 29. Episode Music: Be Chillin’ by Alexander Nakarada | www.serpentsoundstudios.com Music promoted by www.free-stock-music.com Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Photo by Shamia Casiano from Pexels.com

Shakespeare's better foot - The Nice Sonnets

This episode is for anyone who's ever stared at a blank page, waiting for the words to come. We explore one possible solution, using a walkthrough of an untitled poem I published on Twitter, in a thread started by @scotianselkie. Episode Music: Be Chillin’ by Alexander Nakarada | www.serpentsoundstudios.com Music promoted by www.free-stock-music.com Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Photo is by Pixabay, courtesy of Pexels | https://www.pexels.com/photo/blank-bloom-blossom-business-356372/

Episode 21 - How to write

By popular request, a sequel to Episode Seven. Reeling from the hit success of Sonnet 135, Shakespeare penned Sonnet 136, which continued the argument for... well, a close reading of the Bard's breeches. Not safe for work, children, or anyone who thinks the world has heard enough dick jokes. Episode Music: Be Chillin’ by Alexander Nakarada | www.serpentsoundstudios.com Music promoted by www.free-stock-music.com Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Image: Public Domain portrait of William Shakespeare, sans junk.

Episode 20 - Shakespeare's Junk 2: Syphilitic Boogaloo

This episode is for anyone who wants to spend a little time getting creative while staying at home. It’s kid-safe, although it contains farts, and acknowledges the existence of adult themes. Kia kaha, whānau. Episode Music: Be Chillin’ by Alexander Nakarada | www.serpentsoundstudios.com Music promoted by www.free-stock-music.com Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Photo is by Sharon McCutcheon, courtesy of Pexels | https://www.pexels.com/photo/4k-wallpaper-adorable-blur-boy-1148998/

Episode 19 - The Limerick

Content note: A brief discussion of the novel coronavirus pandemic. Also contains a dog. Anxiety and similar conditions can be exacerbated in times of uncertainty, so future episodes during the pandemic will feature content warnings where relevant. While the poems shared may remain directly or tangentially relevant to the global situation, mention of Covid-19 will be avoided after this episode. Two of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's works feature in this episode, recorded from self-isolation. Episode Music: Be Chillin’ by Alexander Nakarada | www.serpentsoundstudios.com Music promoted by www.free-stock-music.com Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Photo is by Dominika Roseclay, courtesy of Pexels | https://www.pexels.com/photo/closeup-photo-of-red-dachshund-895259/

Episode 18 - "The face of all the world is changed, I think"

This episode discusses "Still I Rise," by Maya Angelou, in unpacking why you're hearing so much historical (if still relevant) poetry in these parts, and little from the diverse voices of the now. Read Still I Rise at https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46446/still-i-rise Watch and listen to Maya Angelou perform her work at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qviM_GnJbOM Episode Music: Be Chillin’ by Alexander Nakarada | www.serpentsoundstudios.com Music promoted by www.free-stock-music.com Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Image of Maya Angelou is in the public domain, sourced from Wikimedia.org

Episode 17 - You can't read that!

We celebrate a somewhat healthier love in this Valentine's Day episode, with Mary Shelley's "Oh, come to me in dreams, my love!" and provide some context for the Greek myth it draws on. For more on the mythology of Psyche and Eros, the following links are a good starting point: https://www.greeka.com/greece-myths/eros-psyche/ https://www.greekmythology.com/Myths/The_Myths/Eros_and_Psyche/eros_and_psyche.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cupid_and_Psyche Episode Music: Be Chillin’ by Alexander Nakarada | www.serpentsoundstudios.com Music promoted by www.free-stock-music.com Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Image or Eros and Psyche is in the public domain, sourced from Wikimedia.org

A Grecian love story

Exploring Robert Browning's "Porphyria's Lover" as a murder ballad that arguably... isn't. In this episode we consider another reading of the work, in which Browning's poem parodies and logically dismantles problematic tropes about love. Episode Music: Be Chillin’ by Alexander Nakarada | www.serpentsoundstudios.com Music promoted by www.free-stock-music.com Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Picture is by Herbert Rose Barraud, a Woodburytype portrait of Robert Browning, and is in the Public Domain. Sourced from Wikimedia.org

Episode 15 - Stop with the murdery love already

We haven't had the most auspicious start to the new decade. This episode we share two poems that might offer, respectively, a challenge to critical awareness and a gentle exercise in empathy. Featuring "Porphyria's Lover" by Robert Browning and "Dulce et Decorum Est" by Wilfred Owen. Episode Music: Be Chillin’ by Alexander Nakarada | www.serpentsoundstudios.com Music promoted by www.free-stock-music.com Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Image reproduced from "Poems by Wilfred Owen," 1920, sourced from wikimedia.org and in the public domain.

Welcome to 2020?

Poetry meets politics as we misappropriate Christina Rosetti's "Shut Out" in honour of the UK election (underway as this episode goes live). Episode Music: Be Chillin’ by Alexander Nakarada | www.serpentsoundstudios.com Music promoted by www.free-stock-music.com Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Photo: London, UK, by Sid Ali from Pexels.com

Episode 13 - Shut Out

A celebration of the sonnet form, featuring a catch-22 resolved in the first English sonnet sequence, by Anne Locke, two works by Charlotte Smith, and the sonnet that accompanies The Statue of Liberty - The New Colossus, by Emma Lazarus. Episode Music: Be Chillin’ by Alexander Nakarada | www.serpentsoundstudios.com Music promoted by www.free-stock-music.com Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Image by Matthis Volquardsen from Pexels (https://www.pexels.com/photo/statue-of-liberty-2179606/)

Episode 12 - Catch-22 and Colossus, too

There is a certain frurgle whose contempules I abhor but although my stronders gurgle by his whorkling am I zor This episode is brought to you with a light spattering of paint, a lungful of fumes, and two nonsense poems that I should have but didn't have memorised: Lewis Carroll's Jabberwocky and The Walrus and the Carpenter. Episode Music: Be Chillin’ by Alexander Nakarada | www.serpentsoundstudios.com Music promoted by www.free-stock-music.com Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Image: Public domain courtesy of Joel Garlich-Miller, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, sourced through Wikimedia.org

Episode 11 - The Walrus and the Jabberwock

A celebration of the words that shape the world.

hubhopper

Requisite Words Podcast

hubhopper