Poetry – Page 4 – Jacke Wilson

April 25, 2022

The History of Literature #397 – Plath, Hughes, and the “Other Woman” – Assia Wevill and Her Writings (with Julie Goodspeed-Chadwick and Peter Steinberg)

In 1961, poets Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath rented their flat to a Canadian poet and his wife, the beautiful, accomplished, and slightly mysterious Assia Wevill. Soon afterward, Ted and Assia began having an affair. Within a year, Assia was pregnant with Ted’s child and Sylvia, after years of suffering from depression, had committed suicide. Continue reading

Arts, Authors, books, Fiction, history of literature

Assia Wevill, Literature, love, Poetry, Sylvia plath, ted hughes

April 24, 2022

The History of Literature #396 – Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes (with Heather Clark)

Ultimately, the marital relationship of Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes was filled with pain and ended in tragedy. At the outset, however, things were very different. Within months of their first meeting at Cambridge, they had fallen in love, gotten married, and started having children – all while writing poetry and supporting one another’s art. Continue reading

Arts, Authors, books, history of literature

art, heather clark, Poetry, Sylvia plath, ted hughes

April 10, 2022

The History of Literature #381 – C Subramania Bharati (with Mira T Sundara Rajan)

C. Subramania Bharati (1882-1923) is one of the greatest poets of the twentieth century. Known to his fellow Tamils as the “Mahakavi” (“Supreme Poet”), his works modernized and rejuvenated Tamil literature. Bharati, who knew several languages, also wrote in English, and it is in these writings that one can see and appreciate his range of Continue reading

Arts, Authors, books, Fiction, history of literature

Bharati 100 Podcast, C. Subramania Bharati, Literature, Mahakavi, Poetry, Tamil literature

April 8, 2022

The History of Literature #379 – Gwendolyn Brooks | Bharati Preview 2 (with Mira Sundara Rajan)

When the poet Gwendolyn Brooks “writes out of her heart, out of her rich and living background, out of her very real talent,” said The New York Times, “she induces almost unbearable excitement.” From her “headquarters” in Chicago, Brooks spent her life writing poems about the joys and struggles of the Black Americans on the streets Continue reading

Arts, Authors, books, Fiction, history of literature

black women, Gwendolyn Brooks, Literature, Poetry, Pulitzer Prize winners

April 5, 2022

The History of Literature #376 – Why John Milton? (with Joe Moshenska)

Yes, John Milton was important, and yes, Paradise Lost has been part of the canon since the 17th century – but why should we read anything by John Milton today? Do we imbibe his poetry like medicine? Is it a slog through cerebral but sterile prose? Or is there something wilder, more compelling, more alive? Continue reading

Arts, Authors, books, Fiction, history of literature

books, Jo Moshenska, john milton, Literature, paradise lost, Poetry

March 12, 2022

The History of Literature #352 – Charles Baudelaire (with Aaron Poochigian)

The American poet Dana Gioia calls Charles Baudelaire “the first modern poet,” adding “In both style and content, his provocative, alluring, and shockingly original work shaped and enlarged the imagination of later poets, not only in his native France but across Europe and the Americas.” In this episode, acclaimed translator and poet Aaron Poochigian joins Continue reading

Arts, Authors, books, Fiction, history of literature, novelists

aaron poochigian, Charles Baudelaire, Literature, Poetry, The Flowers of Evil

August 14, 2021

The History of Literature #336 – Painting the Paintings in Literature (with Charlie Stein)

German artist Charlie Stein joins Jacke for a discussion of art in literature, including her series 100 Paintings Imagined by Authors, in which she and her partner Andy Best use textual clues and historical context to reimagine artworks that are described in great works of literature. You can see examples of their work at charliestein.com/100-paintings-imagined/ In Continue reading

Arts, Authors, history of literature, Podcast

Arts, Charlie Stein, German art, Literature, Poetry

August 3, 2021

The History of Literature #325 – Phillip Larkin

During his life, Philip Larkin (1922-1985) was a beloved national figure, a bald and bespectacled librarian by day who spent his evenings writing smart, accomplished, and hilariously self-deprecating poems. After his death, his reputation and legacy became more complicated, as revelations about his personal life threatened to darken a once-bright sky. In this episode, Jacke Continue reading

history of literature, Podcast

kingsley amis, philip larkin, Poetry, twentieth century

February 5, 2021

The History of Literature #274 Baudelaire and the Flowers of Evil

He was “the king of poets,” said Rimbaud, “a true God.” T. S. Eliot called him a deformed Dante and said, “I am an English poet of American origin who learnt his art under the aegis of Baudelaire and the Baudelairian lineage of poets.” In this episode, Jacke takes a look at Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867), Continue reading

history of literature, Podcast

baudelaire, Edgar Allan Poe, les fleurs du mal, Poetry

January 29, 2021

The History of Literature #268 Forgotten Women of Literature 4 – Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz

Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (1648-1695) was born in Mexico or, as it was known then, New Spain. She was a poet, a philosopher, a dramatist, a scholar, a poet, and a nun, known in her time as the “Tenth Muse” and to later generations as the “Mexican Phoenix,” as her powerful body of Continue reading

history of literature, Podcast

baroque, mexico, mexico city, new spain, Poetry