Critical Readings
Episodes
CR Episode 202: Dracula, Part IV
04 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The panel reads chapters 15–18 and discusses Stoker's use of cliffhangers and foreshadowing both as a textual convention and as a narrative device, ...
CR Episode 201: Dracula, Part III
27 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The panel discusses chapters 12-14, comprising a series of false endings both literal and metaphorical, with attention given to how Stoker's overall p...
CR Episode 200: Dracula, Part II
20 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The panel welcomes guest expert Dr. Madeline Potter to discuss chapters 5–11, comprising the letters and journals of Mina Murray, Lucy Westenra, and...
CR Episode 199: Dracula, Part I
06 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The panel discusses the first four chapters of Bram Stoker's Dracula, with attention given to the history of the author and the text, the epistolary a...
CR Episode 198: Byron’s Hebrew Melodies
30 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The panel reads five poems from Hebrew Melodies, a cycle of poems by Lord Byron originally set to music by Isaac Nathan, including one of Byron's most...
CR Episode 197: Hamlet, Act V
16 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The panel discusses the two scenes of the final act of Hamlet, with attention to the text's focus on death, the mirroring of Hamlet with Fortinbras an...
CR Episode 196: Hamlet, Act IV
09 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The panel discusses seven scenes, with attention to Ophelia's innocence and madness, Laertes' hot-blooded response to the death of his father, Claudiu...
CR Episode 195: Hamlet, Act III
02 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The panel reads Act III of Hamlet with attention to Hamlet's feigned (or semi-feigned) madness, his suicidal or existentially fatalistic attitude, and...
CR Episode 194: Hamlet, Act II
25 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The panel begins with a brief exercise in parsing Shakespearean prose, followed by a reading of Act II's scenes, with attention to Polonius' ambitious...
CR Episode 193: Hamlet, Act I
18 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The panel reads the first act of William Shakespeare's Hamlet, providing an overview of the action and the textual history, with selected readings fro...
CR Episode 192: Frankenstein, Part III
11 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The panel discusses the concluding volume of Frankenstein, beginning with Victor's narration of his series of personal tragedies and ending with Capta...
CR Episode 191: Frankenstein, Part II
04 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The panel discusses the second volume of Frankenstein (chapters 8–16) focusing on the moral qualities of Victor Frankenstein and of his creature, th...
CR Episode 190: Frankenstein, Part I
28 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Madeline Potter joins the panel to begin a three-week reading of Mary Shelley's gothic novel, Frankenstein, with this week's discussion attending to t...
CR Episode 189: Sonnets of Gerard Manley Hopkins
21 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The panel reads and discusses "God's Grandeur", "Thou art indeed just, Lord, if I contend", and "The Windhover", attending to their Romantic underpinn...
CR Episode 188: Moby Dick, Part XIV
14 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In the final episode on Moby Dick, the panel discusses the fulfilment of Fedallah's prophecy and his death, Starbuck's dilemma and despair, the destru...
CR Episode 187: Moby Dick, Part XIII
07 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In the penultimate Moby Dick episode, the panel discusses chapters 114–128, focusing on the ship's sails, quadrant, compass, and line; the refashion...
CR Episode 186: Moby Dick, Part XII
31 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The panel discusses the Ahab's representation as a wrathful, inhuman avatar of anti-nature, the hellish nature of the Pequod, the sorcerous conniving ...
CR Episode 185: Moby Dick, Part XI
24 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The panel discusses chapters 91–101, with attention given to the cross-ship conduct between the Pequod and the Samuel Enderby, and to the psychologi...
CR Episode 184: Moby Dick, Part X
17 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The panel discusses chapters 82–90, with attention given to humour as a potential coping mechanism for Ishmael, before considering again the evidenc...
CR Episode 183: Moby Dick, Part IX
10 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The panel discuss chapters 72–81 and focus particularly upon Ishmael's connexion (literal and figurative) to Queequeg, and the analogous, fated and ...
CR Episode 182: Moby Dick, Part VIII
03 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The panel reads some excellent listener questions, and then discusses chapters 60–71, with special attention to the studied ambiguity of the text, A...
CR Episode 181: Moby Dick, Part VII
26 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The panel discusses chapters 52-59, with special attention given to how the structure of the narrative both anticipates and surpasses post-structurali...
CR Episode 180: Moby Dick, Part VI
19 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The panel discusses chapters 43-51, examining the presence of Romanticism in the text and character of Ishmael, and highlighting how the text's rapid ...
CR Episode 179: Moby Dick, Part V
12 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The panel discusses chapters 35-42, exploring Melville's purpose in adopting a multigeneric style, and paying special attention to Ahab's motivations,...
CR Episode 178: Moby Dick, Part IV
05 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The panel discusses chapters 26-34, with a particular focus on the effect of genre considerations in framing the novel, its shift into Shakespearean t...
CR Episode 177: Moby Dick, Part III
29 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The panel discusses chapters 16-25, with a particular attention to characterisation beyond Ishmael and Queequeg--particularly that of Peleg, Bildad, E...
CR Episode 176: Moby Dick, Part II
22 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The panel reads chapters 5-15, with a special focus on the description and narrative use of religious symbolism and devotional practice, contrasting t...
CR Episode 175: Moby Dick, Part I
15 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The panel reads the prologues and first four chapters of Moby Dick, provides an overview of the publication history of the text, and discusses the cha...
CR Episode 174: Shakespeare’s Lucrece, Part III
08 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The panel concludes with an examination of Lucrece's central role as a Shakespearean protagonist, addressing her attitude towards the conflict between...
CR Episode 173: Shakespeare’s Lucrece, Part II
01 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The panel reads the second third of Shakespeare's Lucrece, with particular attention to the paradoxical presentation of light and darkness, and to the...
CR Episode 172: Shakespeare’s Lucrece, Part I
24 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In the first of a three-part series on Shakespeare's Lucrece, the panel explores the Roman history and sources for the poem, before reading and examin...
CR Episode 171: The Poetry of Sir Walter Raleigh
17 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The panel reads three poems by the courtier, soldier, privateer, and poet, Sir Walter Raleigh, examining their formal (and informal) qualities, and di...
CR Episode 170: Seamus Heaney’s Passion for the Past
10 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The panel reads and discusses the connexions between three poems by Seamus Heaney: "Blackberry Picking", "Three-Piece", and "Mycenae Nightwatch", with...
CR Episode 169: The Poetry of Edgar Guest
03 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The panel reviews the work of "The People's Poet", Edgar A. Guest, national best-seller, sole Poet Laureate of Michigan, host of the A Guest in Your H...
CR Episode 168: The Poetry of Rupert Brooke
27 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The panel reads three poems by Rupert Brooke, a poet of the Georgian movement of the early twentieth century, whose poetry of the early Great War peri...
CR Episode 167: The Poetry of Wilfred Owen
20 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The panel reads three poems by Wilfred Owen, perhaps the greatest poet of the Great War, including his "Dulce et Decorum Est", "Anthem for Doomed Yout...
CR Episode 166: H. P. Lovecraft’s Polaris
13 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The panel, joined by special guest Lane Haygood, reads H. P. Lovecraft's Polaris, and discusses its rich symbolism, use of metaphor, deliberately arch...
CR Episode 165: Pope’s Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot
06 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The panel reads Alexander Pope's "Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot" and discusses its moral and ethical instruction alongside its waspish skewering of eightee...
CR Episode 164: Tennyson’s Locksley Hall
27 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The panel reads Alfred, Lord Tennyson's "Locksley Hall" and discusses its connexion to the real Loxley Hall in Staffordshire, as well as the poem's fo...
CR Episode 163: Love and Death with Edna St. Vincent Millay
20 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The panel closely reads four poems by Edna St. Vincent Millay, focusing primarily on her sonnets, and evaluates their formal structure and potential m...
CR Episode 162: Thomas Babington Macaulay’s Horatius
13 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The panel reads the entirety of Thomas Babington Macaulay's "Horatius" from his collection Lays of Ancient Rome, and discusses the Horatian nature of ...
CR Episode 161: James Joyce’s Chamber Music
06 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The panel reviews selections from James Joyce's inaugural work, the poetry collection titled Chamber Music, the first-published of his substantial wor...
CR Episode 160: The Poetry of Lewis Carroll
30 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The panel reads four poems by Lewis Carroll and discusses the importance of poetic form in nonsense poetry, along with several potentially complicated...
CR Episode 159: The Sangraal of Robert Stephen Hawker
23 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The panel reads "The Quest of the Sangraal" by the nineteenth-century parson and poet, Robert Stephen Hawker, with special attention to the use of dif...
CR Episode 158: Introduction to Thomas Traherne
16 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The panel reads three poems by Thomas Traherne, a late seventeenth-century English poet of imaginative, reflective, and speculative verse, whose manus...
CR Episode 157: Washington Irving’s Christmas
09 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The panel reads Washington Irving's Christmas sequence from The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., and examines how its portrayal of an old-fashio...
CR Episode 156: The Lay of the Children of Hurin, Part III
02 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The panel concludes a three-week reading of The Lay of the Children of Hurin, examining the connexion between the history, geography, and cosmology of...
CR Episode 155: The Lay of the Children of Hurin, Part II
26 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The panel reads the second part of The Lay of the Children of Hurin, which relates the tale of Beleg Strongbow, and the doom of Turin Turambar, giving...
CR Episode 154: The Lay of the Children of Hurin, Part I
19 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The panel begins a three-week reading and analysis of the first version of J. R. R. Tolkien's "The Lay of the Children of Hurin", a poetic account of ...
CR Episode 153: Poetry of Delmore Schwartz
12 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The panel examines three poems by Delmore Schwartz, with a particular focus on his language and themes, including a poetic biography of Lincoln, a met...
CR Episode 152: Young Goodman Brown
28 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In Critical Reading's first episode dedicated to a work of prose, the panel reads Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story, Young Goodman Brown, and examines...
CR Episode 151: Whitman and the Civil War, Part II
21 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The panel concludes its series on American Civil War poetry with Whitman's Drum Taps and Sequel to Drum-Taps, focusing in particular upon the structur...
CR Episode 150: Whitman and the Civil War, Part I
14 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The panel reads a selection of the poems added to the 1860-61 edition of Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass, focusing on what the poetry suggests about hu...
CR Episode 149: Longfellow and the Civil War, Part II
07 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The panel reads two poems from Longfellow's Tales of a Wayside Inn (1863): 'Torquemada' and 'The Birds of Killingworth', examining the role of zeal, d...
CR Episode 148: Longfellow and the Civil War, Part I
31 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In the first of a two-part reading of selections from Longfellow's Tales of a Wayside Inn, the panel reads the beginning of the Prelude and then exami...
CR Episode 147: Melville and the Civil War, Part II
24 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The panel concludes a two-part survey of Melville's reading of the Civil War as viewed through his Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War (1866) by disc...
CR Episode 146: Melville and the Civil War, Part I
17 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this first episode of a two-part examination of Melville's poetic response to the Civil War, the panel reads two poems from his first poetry collec...
CR Episode 145: E.E. Cummings on Nonconformity
03 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The panel performs a thorough close readings of two well-anthologised poems by E.E. Cummings--'i sing of Olaf glad and big' and 'the Cambridge ladies ...
CR Episode 144: Poetry for King Charles
26 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In celebration of King Charles III, the panel reads two poems written to celebrate the reigns of his predecessors, King Charles I and King Charles II,...
CR Episode 143: Poetry In Memoriam Elizabeth II
19 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The panel reads poetry celebrating the life and reign of Queen Elizabeth II, including Philip Larkin and Ted Hughes for the Silver Jubilee, Hughes for...
CR Episode 142: The Poetry of James Weldon Johnson
12 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The panel reads three stirring poems by the American diplomat, activist, author, poet, and professor James Weldon Johnson, examining the theological s...
CR Episode 141: Wordsworth’s Prelude, Book I
29 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The panel reads the first book of William Wordsworth's "The Prelude", discussing the intention of the overall work, with special attention to the pres...
CR Episode 140: Ezra Pound’s Canto LXXIV
22 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The panel attempts to read Canto LXXIV from The Cantos of Ezra Pound, but finds even this one poem too dense to complete in a single episode, with its...
CR Episode 139: Idylls of the King, Part XII
15 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The panel concludes the series on Idylls of the King with a full reading of "The Passing of Arthur" and the epilogue "To the Queen", considering Gawai...
CR Episode 138: Idylls of the King, Part XI
08 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The panel reads the penultimate idyll, "Guinevere", last of the original 1859 collection, and focuses on the redemptive arc of the queen, passing from...
CR Episode 137: Idylls of the King, Part X
01 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The panel reads the second part of the story of Sir Pelleas, "The Last Tournament", with its contrast between white innocence and red blood, its manif...
CR Episode 136: Idylls of the King, Part IX
25 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The panel reads "Pelleas and Ettare" and questions whether Arthur overprotects Sir Pelleas, considering the implications for the court, whilst also ex...
CR Episode 135: Idylls of the King, Part VIII
18 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The panel discusses the dispersal of the Round Table in "The Holy Grail", the conflict between the Common Good of the realm and the individual knights...
CR Episode 134: Idylls of the King, Part VII
11 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Moving into the second half of the Idylls, the panel reads "Lancelot and Elaine", one of the most beloved poems in the cycle, contrasting Guinevere wi...
CR Episode 133: Idylls of the King, Part VI
04 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The panel reads the poem that serves as the hinge in the cycle of the Idylls, "Merlin and Vivien", looking at how Vivien uses manipulation, dissemblan...
CR Episode 132: Idylls of the King, Part V
27 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The panel reads the last-composed of the Idylls, "Balin and Balan", with attention to the tale's depiction of the conflict between the Old Order and t...
CR Episode 131: Idylls of the King, Part IV
20 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The panel reads "Enid and Geraint", the second part of the Enid tale and the fourth of the Idylls, with attention to the opposite perils of decadence ...
CR Episode 130: Idylls of the King, Part III
13 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this third part of the Idylls of the King, the panel reads "The Marriage of Geraint", originally the first half of "Enid", with attention to Tennys...
CR Episode 129: Idylls of the King, Part II
06 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In the second Idylls of the King episode, the panel reads "Gareth and Lynette", with special attention to Gareth's demonstration of chivalry through a...
CR Episode 128: Idylls of the King, Part I
30 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The panel begins a twelve-week series covering the entirety of Tennyson's Arthurian cycle, Idylls of the King, beginning with the cycle's publishing h...
CR Episode 127: The Waste Land, Part IV
23 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The Waste Land series concludes with readings and analysis of the final two parts--"Death by Water" and "What the Thunder Said"--with special attentio...
CR Episode 126: The Waste Land, Part III
16 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this third part of the four-part series on The Waste Land, by T. S. Eliot, the panel reads "The Fire Sermon" and discusses cities both real and unr...
CR Episode 125: The Waste Land, Part II
02 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The panel continues with the second of a four-part series on The Waste Land, by T. S. Eliot, reading "A Game of Chess", with special attention given t...
CR Episode 124: The Waste Land, Part I
25 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The panel embarks upon a four-week study of T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land, beginning with a discussion of the allusive connexions and the imagistic and...
CR Episode 123: Henry Vaughan
11 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The panel reads a selection of the poety of the seventeenth-century, Welsh, metaphysical poet, Henry Vaughan, with a particular attention to Vaughan's...
CR Episode 122: Owen Meredith
04 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The panel reads a selection of verses from Owen Meredith--Robert Bulwer-Lytton, Earl of Lytton--an eminent Victorian statesman and poet, including an ...
CR Episode 121: The Poetry of Robert Graves
28 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The panel reads the poetry of Robert Graves, from his early war poetry to the work of his later life, with special attention to his theory of The Whit...
CR Episode 120: The Poetry of D. H. Lawrence
14 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The panel reads four poems by D. H. Lawrence: "Whales Weep Not!", "Moonrise", "When I Read Shakespeare", and "Only Man", and discusses their frank but...
CR Episode 119: Pope and Wordsworth in Conversation
07 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The panel reads two Pope's 'An Essay on Man' and Wordsworth's 'Tintern Abbey' in conversation with one another--looking at the similarities of their ...
CR Episode 118: Introduction to Conrad Aiken
28 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The panel reads a selection of three poems by Conrad Aiken--"The Room", "Exile", and "Goya"--and discusses their dreamlike imagery, and the impact of ...
CR Episode 117: Milton’s Lycidas
21 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Following on the theme of love and death, the panel reads Milton's pastoral elegy, "Lycidas", dedicated to the memory of Edward King, with special att...
CR Episode 116: Venus and Adonis
14 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
For St. Valentine's Day, the panel reads what is likely to have been Shakespeare's first officially published work: his genre-defying Tragi-Comi-Ovidi...
CR Episode 115: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Part IV
07 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The panel concludes "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" with an examination of the poem's liminal spaces, an evaluation of Gawain's moral virtue, a disc...
CR Episode 114: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Part III
31 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The panel reads the third part of "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight", with particular attention to the juxtaposition of the forest hunting, killing, an...
CR Episode 113: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Part II
24 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The panel reads the second part of "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight", and examines the theological significance of the seasons, the detailed military ...
CR Episode 112: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Part I
17 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The panel reads the first part of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, providing an overview of the formal aspects of the poem, the history of the manuscr...
CR Episode 111: Light Verse of Ogden Nash
10 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The panels searches for a smile / And dwells with Ogden Nash a while. / Some lines are light and some are scary / But the formal aspects rather vary. ...
CR Episode 110: The Poetry of Langston Hughes
03 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In the first podcast of 2022, the panel reads five poems spanning the entire poetic arc of Langston Hughes, from the famous lines of "I, Too" to the s...
CR Episode 109: H.M.S. Pinafore
27 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In a special, Christmas episode, the panel reads selections from W. S. Gilbert's libretto to H.M.S. Pinafore, and discusses how they are representativ...
CR Episode 108: William Carlos Williams and Minimalism
20 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The panel reads "The Red Wheelbarrow", "This Is Just to Say", and "Gulls" by William Carlos Williams and discusses both their connexion to the Imagist...
CR Episode 107: The Poetic Satire of Jonathan Swift
13 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The panel reads three of Jonathan Swift's poems which satirise responses to the inescapable facts of human biology, and focuses on their depictions of...
CR Episode 106: Scott’s The Lady of the Lake
06 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The panel reads extended selections from each canto of Sir Walter Scott's narrative poem, "The Lady of the Lake", highlighting Scott's interest in rev...
CR Episode 105: The Poetic Arc of Ted Hughes
29 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The panel reads a selection of poems by Ted Hughes compassing the scope of his poetic oeuvre, from the early and animalistic imagery of "The Jaguar" t...
CR Episode 104: Form and Detail in the Poetry of Richard Wilbur
22 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The panel reads four poems by Richard Wilbur, "Love Calls Us to the Things of This World", "A Baroque Wall-Fountain in the Villa Sciarra", "Mind", and...
CR Episode 103: Robert Louis Stevenson’s Songs of Travel
15 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The panel traces themes of wanderlust, resignation, wistfulness, lonliness, and fatalism in six poems excerpted from Stevenson's Songs of Travel, incl...