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<rss xmlns:itunes="http://www.itunes.com/dtds/podcast-1.0.dtd" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xmlns:podcast="https://podcastindex.org/namespace/1.0" xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" version="2.0"><channel><title>Sonnets</title><link>https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/sonnets--7161650</link><description><![CDATA[Immerse yourself in the lyrical beauty and emotional depth of sonnets as you explore a rotating collection of timeless works that celebrate the nuances of love, nature, and the human experience. Each episode features a new complete audiobook, inviting listeners to delve into the rhythm and structure that define this cherished poetic form. From reflections on personal journeys to meditations on the passage of time, the sonnets presented here offer a rich tapestry of themes that resonate across cultures and generations. This is not a single story but a series of unique explorations that highlight the versatile power of language and expression. Join us as we uncover the elegance and intricacies of sonnet writing, allowing each episode to transport you to different emotional landscapes and inspire your own appreciation for poetry. Discover a new book with every episode and let the beauty of sonnets enrich your listening experience.]]></description><atom:link href="https://www.spreaker.com/show/7161650/episodes/feed" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"/><language>en</language><category>Books</category><copyright>Copyright Single Author Genre</copyright><image><url>https://d3wo5wojvuv7l.cloudfront.net/t_rss_itunes_square_1400/images.spreaker.com/original/0e65d85d1af6c1e2688777a4389c324b.jpg</url><title>Sonnets</title><link>https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/sonnets--7161650</link></image><lastBuildDate>Fri, 28 Aug 2026 09:18:25 +0000</lastBuildDate><itunes:author>Edna St. Vincent Millay</itunes:author><itunes:owner><itunes:name>Single Author Genre</itunes:name><itunes:email>spreaker85@podcastlibrary.org</itunes:email></itunes:owner><itunes:image href="https://d3wo5wojvuv7l.cloudfront.net/t_rss_itunes_square_1400/images.spreaker.com/original/0e65d85d1af6c1e2688777a4389c324b.jpg"/><itunes:subtitle>Immerse yourself in the lyrical beauty and emotional depth of sonnets as you explore a rotating collection of timeless works that celebrate the nuances of love, nature, and the human experience. Each episode features a new complete audiobook, inviting...</itunes:subtitle><itunes:summary><![CDATA[Immerse yourself in the lyrical beauty and emotional depth of sonnets as you explore a rotating collection of timeless works that celebrate the nuances of love, nature, and the human experience. Each episode features a new complete audiobook, inviting listeners to delve into the rhythm and structure that define this cherished poetic form. From reflections on personal journeys to meditations on the passage of time, the sonnets presented here offer a rich tapestry of themes that resonate across cultures and generations. This is not a single story but a series of unique explorations that highlight the versatile power of language and expression. Join us as we uncover the elegance and intricacies of sonnet writing, allowing each episode to transport you to different emotional landscapes and inspire your own appreciation for poetry. Discover a new book with every episode and let the beauty of sonnets enrich your listening experience.]]></itunes:summary><itunes:category text="Arts"><itunes:category text="Books"/></itunes:category><itunes:category text="Science"/><itunes:category text="Science"><itunes:category text="Astronomy"/></itunes:category><itunes:explicit>false</itunes:explicit><podcast:guid>623f937d-1484-5955-ae99-26efbcc1fbe4</podcast:guid><itunes:type>episodic</itunes:type><item><title>According to Promise, or The Lord’s Method of Dealing with His Chosen People-Charles H. Spurgeon</title><link>https://www.spreaker.com/episode/according-to-promise-or-the-lord-s-method-of-dealing-with-his-chosen-people-charles-h-spurgeon--74657472</link><description><![CDATA[It has been observed that within the narrow confines of a sonnet the mind can turn around but cannot take flight. Some of Millay’s sonnets, though, resemble the narrow confines of a loaded pistol (with a silencer), at the end of which the reader feels propelled to a higher emotional plane. Nevertheless, the predominant mood is melancholy, regret for the brevity of life and especially for the death of her husband. Today’s world can accept more readily than her own the feminism of her poetry and her casual but touching references to love outside of marriage. Millay’s syntax can become challenging, but her most profound utterances are simply phrased (“I do not think I would”) and often startlingly colloquial: “you may whistle for me.” Millay does not follow exclusively the Shakespearean or the Italian rhyme scheme in her sonnets but varies at will. Her iambic meter is (except as indicated below) as strict as Milton’s, with the same love of enjambment and inverted feet to obscure rhymes and to create bouncing rhythms and sudden turns. Her handling of the sonnet form departs rarely but sometimes radically from tradition, as when a heptameter line (of seven feet) replaces the pentameter at the end of a sonnet, a regular feature of the final lines of “Sonnets from an Ungrafted Tree”; e.g., “And some old catalogue, and a brown, shriveled apple core.” She also permits an extrametrical weak syllable at the caesura and occasional other weak, nearly negligible syllables elsewhere, usually justified as pronounceable elisions, like “risen” (ris’n), “blossoming” (bloss’ming), “enemy” (en’my); yet sometimes not, like “ne(ver),” “ult(i)mate,” “flat(tened).” (Summary by T. A. Copeland)]]></description><guid isPermaLink="false">https://api.spreaker.com/episode/74657472</guid><pubDate>Fri, 28 Aug 2026 09:02:31 +0000</pubDate><enclosure url="https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/74657472/according_to_promise_or_the_lord_s_method_of_dealing_with_his_chosen_people_charles_h_spurgeon.mp3" length="130349323" type="audio/mpeg"/><itunes:author>Edna St. Vincent Millay</itunes:author><itunes:subtitle>It has been observed that within the narrow confines of a sonnet the mind can turn around but cannot take flight. Some of Millay’s sonnets, though, resemble the narrow confines of a loaded pistol (with a silencer), at the end of which the reader feels...</itunes:subtitle><itunes:summary><![CDATA[It has been observed that within the narrow confines of a sonnet the mind can turn around but cannot take flight. Some of Millay’s sonnets, though, resemble the narrow confines of a loaded pistol (with a silencer), at the end of which the reader feels propelled to a higher emotional plane. Nevertheless, the predominant mood is melancholy, regret for the brevity of life and especially for the death of her husband. Today’s world can accept more readily than her own the feminism of her poetry and her casual but touching references to love outside of marriage. Millay’s syntax can become challenging, but her most profound utterances are simply phrased (“I do not think I would”) and often startlingly colloquial: “you may whistle for me.” Millay does not follow exclusively the Shakespearean or the Italian rhyme scheme in her sonnets but varies at will. Her iambic meter is (except as indicated below) as strict as Milton’s, with the same love of enjambment and inverted feet to obscure rhymes and to create bouncing rhythms and sudden turns. Her handling of the sonnet form departs rarely but sometimes radically from tradition, as when a heptameter line (of seven feet) replaces the pentameter at the end of a sonnet, a regular feature of the final lines of “Sonnets from an Ungrafted Tree”; e.g., “And some old catalogue, and a brown, shriveled apple core.” She also permits an extrametrical weak syllable at the caesura and occasional other weak, nearly negligible syllables elsewhere, usually justified as pronounceable elisions, like “risen” (ris’n), “blossoming” (bloss’ming), “enemy” (en’my); yet sometimes not, like “ne(ver),” “ult(i)mate,” “flat(tened).” (Summary by T. A. Copeland)]]></itunes:summary><itunes:duration>16277</itunes:duration><itunes:explicit>false</itunes:explicit><itunes:image href="https://d3wo5wojvuv7l.cloudfront.net/t_rss_itunes_square_1400/images.spreaker.com/original/0e65d85d1af6c1e2688777a4389c324b.jpg"/><itunes:episodeType>full</itunes:episodeType></item><item><title>Dream Tales and Prose Poems-Ivan Turgenev</title><link>https://www.spreaker.com/episode/dream-tales-and-prose-poems-ivan-turgenev--74620444</link><description><![CDATA[It has been observed that within the narrow confines of a sonnet the mind can turn around but cannot take flight. Some of Millay’s sonnets, though, resemble the narrow confines of a loaded pistol (with a silencer), at the end of which the reader feels propelled to a higher emotional plane. Nevertheless, the predominant mood is melancholy, regret for the brevity of life and especially for the death of her husband. Today’s world can accept more readily than her own the feminism of her poetry and her casual but touching references to love outside of marriage. Millay’s syntax can become challenging, but her most profound utterances are simply phrased (“I do not think I would”) and often startlingly colloquial: “you may whistle for me.” Millay does not follow exclusively the Shakespearean or the Italian rhyme scheme in her sonnets but varies at will. Her iambic meter is (except as indicated below) as strict as Milton’s, with the same love of enjambment and inverted feet to obscure rhymes and to create bouncing rhythms and sudden turns. Her handling of the sonnet form departs rarely but sometimes radically from tradition, as when a heptameter line (of seven feet) replaces the pentameter at the end of a sonnet, a regular feature of the final lines of “Sonnets from an Ungrafted Tree”; e.g., “And some old catalogue, and a brown, shriveled apple core.” She also permits an extrametrical weak syllable at the caesura and occasional other weak, nearly negligible syllables elsewhere, usually justified as pronounceable elisions, like “risen” (ris’n), “blossoming” (bloss’ming), “enemy” (en’my); yet sometimes not, like “ne(ver),” “ult(i)mate,” “flat(tened).” (Summary by T. A. Copeland)]]></description><guid isPermaLink="false">https://api.spreaker.com/episode/74620444</guid><pubDate>Thu, 27 Aug 2026 09:02:39 +0000</pubDate><enclosure url="https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/74620444/dream_tales_and_prose_poems_ivan_turgenev.mp3" length="183401363" type="audio/mpeg"/><itunes:author>Edna St. Vincent Millay</itunes:author><itunes:subtitle>It has been observed that within the narrow confines of a sonnet the mind can turn around but cannot take flight. Some of Millay’s sonnets, though, resemble the narrow confines of a loaded pistol (with a silencer), at the end of which the reader feels...</itunes:subtitle><itunes:summary><![CDATA[It has been observed that within the narrow confines of a sonnet the mind can turn around but cannot take flight. Some of Millay’s sonnets, though, resemble the narrow confines of a loaded pistol (with a silencer), at the end of which the reader feels propelled to a higher emotional plane. Nevertheless, the predominant mood is melancholy, regret for the brevity of life and especially for the death of her husband. Today’s world can accept more readily than her own the feminism of her poetry and her casual but touching references to love outside of marriage. Millay’s syntax can become challenging, but her most profound utterances are simply phrased (“I do not think I would”) and often startlingly colloquial: “you may whistle for me.” Millay does not follow exclusively the Shakespearean or the Italian rhyme scheme in her sonnets but varies at will. Her iambic meter is (except as indicated below) as strict as Milton’s, with the same love of enjambment and inverted feet to obscure rhymes and to create bouncing rhythms and sudden turns. Her handling of the sonnet form departs rarely but sometimes radically from tradition, as when a heptameter line (of seven feet) replaces the pentameter at the end of a sonnet, a regular feature of the final lines of “Sonnets from an Ungrafted Tree”; e.g., “And some old catalogue, and a brown, shriveled apple core.” She also permits an extrametrical weak syllable at the caesura and occasional other weak, nearly negligible syllables elsewhere, usually justified as pronounceable elisions, like “risen” (ris’n), “blossoming” (bloss’ming), “enemy” (en’my); yet sometimes not, like “ne(ver),” “ult(i)mate,” “flat(tened).” (Summary by T. A. Copeland)]]></itunes:summary><itunes:duration>22902</itunes:duration><itunes:explicit>false</itunes:explicit><itunes:image href="https://d3wo5wojvuv7l.cloudfront.net/t_rss_itunes_square_1400/images.spreaker.com/original/0e65d85d1af6c1e2688777a4389c324b.jpg"/><itunes:episodeType>full</itunes:episodeType></item><item><title>Lamia-John Keats</title><link>https://www.spreaker.com/episode/lamia-john-keats--74588435</link><description><![CDATA[It has been observed that within the narrow confines of a sonnet the mind can turn around but cannot take flight. Some of Millay’s sonnets, though, resemble the narrow confines of a loaded pistol (with a silencer), at the end of which the reader feels propelled to a higher emotional plane. Nevertheless, the predominant mood is melancholy, regret for the brevity of life and especially for the death of her husband. Today’s world can accept more readily than her own the feminism of her poetry and her casual but touching references to love outside of marriage. Millay’s syntax can become challenging, but her most profound utterances are simply phrased (“I do not think I would”) and often startlingly colloquial: “you may whistle for me.” Millay does not follow exclusively the Shakespearean or the Italian rhyme scheme in her sonnets but varies at will. Her iambic meter is (except as indicated below) as strict as Milton’s, with the same love of enjambment and inverted feet to obscure rhymes and to create bouncing rhythms and sudden turns. Her handling of the sonnet form departs rarely but sometimes radically from tradition, as when a heptameter line (of seven feet) replaces the pentameter at the end of a sonnet, a regular feature of the final lines of “Sonnets from an Ungrafted Tree”; e.g., “And some old catalogue, and a brown, shriveled apple core.” She also permits an extrametrical weak syllable at the caesura and occasional other weak, nearly negligible syllables elsewhere, usually justified as pronounceable elisions, like “risen” (ris’n), “blossoming” (bloss’ming), “enemy” (en’my); yet sometimes not, like “ne(ver),” “ult(i)mate,” “flat(tened).” (Summary by T. A. Copeland)]]></description><guid isPermaLink="false">https://api.spreaker.com/episode/74588435</guid><pubDate>Wed, 26 Aug 2026 09:02:56 +0000</pubDate><enclosure url="https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/74588435/lamia_john_keats.mp3" length="21404916" type="audio/mpeg"/><itunes:author>Edna St. Vincent Millay</itunes:author><itunes:subtitle>It has been observed that within the narrow confines of a sonnet the mind can turn around but cannot take flight. Some of Millay’s sonnets, though, resemble the narrow confines of a loaded pistol (with a silencer), at the end of which the reader feels...</itunes:subtitle><itunes:summary><![CDATA[It has been observed that within the narrow confines of a sonnet the mind can turn around but cannot take flight. Some of Millay’s sonnets, though, resemble the narrow confines of a loaded pistol (with a silencer), at the end of which the reader feels propelled to a higher emotional plane. Nevertheless, the predominant mood is melancholy, regret for the brevity of life and especially for the death of her husband. Today’s world can accept more readily than her own the feminism of her poetry and her casual but touching references to love outside of marriage. Millay’s syntax can become challenging, but her most profound utterances are simply phrased (“I do not think I would”) and often startlingly colloquial: “you may whistle for me.” Millay does not follow exclusively the Shakespearean or the Italian rhyme scheme in her sonnets but varies at will. Her iambic meter is (except as indicated below) as strict as Milton’s, with the same love of enjambment and inverted feet to obscure rhymes and to create bouncing rhythms and sudden turns. Her handling of the sonnet form departs rarely but sometimes radically from tradition, as when a heptameter line (of seven feet) replaces the pentameter at the end of a sonnet, a regular feature of the final lines of “Sonnets from an Ungrafted Tree”; e.g., “And some old catalogue, and a brown, shriveled apple core.” She also permits an extrametrical weak syllable at the caesura and occasional other weak, nearly negligible syllables elsewhere, usually justified as pronounceable elisions, like “risen” (ris’n), “blossoming” (bloss’ming), “enemy” (en’my); yet sometimes not, like “ne(ver),” “ult(i)mate,” “flat(tened).” (Summary by T. A. Copeland)]]></itunes:summary><itunes:duration>2673</itunes:duration><itunes:explicit>false</itunes:explicit><itunes:image href="https://d3wo5wojvuv7l.cloudfront.net/t_rss_itunes_square_1400/images.spreaker.com/original/0e65d85d1af6c1e2688777a4389c324b.jpg"/><itunes:episodeType>full</itunes:episodeType></item><item><title>Selection from the Lyrical Poems of Robert Herrick-Robert Herrick</title><link>https://www.spreaker.com/episode/selection-from-the-lyrical-poems-of-robert-herrick-robert-herrick--74557794</link><description><![CDATA[It has been observed that within the narrow confines of a sonnet the mind can turn around but cannot take flight. Some of Millay’s sonnets, though, resemble the narrow confines of a loaded pistol (with a silencer), at the end of which the reader feels propelled to a higher emotional plane. Nevertheless, the predominant mood is melancholy, regret for the brevity of life and especially for the death of her husband. Today’s world can accept more readily than her own the feminism of her poetry and her casual but touching references to love outside of marriage. Millay’s syntax can become challenging, but her most profound utterances are simply phrased (“I do not think I would”) and often startlingly colloquial: “you may whistle for me.” Millay does not follow exclusively the Shakespearean or the Italian rhyme scheme in her sonnets but varies at will. Her iambic meter is (except as indicated below) as strict as Milton’s, with the same love of enjambment and inverted feet to obscure rhymes and to create bouncing rhythms and sudden turns. Her handling of the sonnet form departs rarely but sometimes radically from tradition, as when a heptameter line (of seven feet) replaces the pentameter at the end of a sonnet, a regular feature of the final lines of “Sonnets from an Ungrafted Tree”; e.g., “And some old catalogue, and a brown, shriveled apple core.” She also permits an extrametrical weak syllable at the caesura and occasional other weak, nearly negligible syllables elsewhere, usually justified as pronounceable elisions, like “risen” (ris’n), “blossoming” (bloss’ming), “enemy” (en’my); yet sometimes not, like “ne(ver),” “ult(i)mate,” “flat(tened).” (Summary by T. A. Copeland)]]></description><guid isPermaLink="false">https://api.spreaker.com/episode/74557794</guid><pubDate>Tue, 25 Aug 2026 09:02:40 +0000</pubDate><enclosure url="https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/74557794/selection_from_the_lyrical_poems_of_robert_herrick_robert_herrick.mp3" length="120207100" type="audio/mpeg"/><itunes:author>Edna St. Vincent Millay</itunes:author><itunes:subtitle>It has been observed that within the narrow confines of a sonnet the mind can turn around but cannot take flight. Some of Millay’s sonnets, though, resemble the narrow confines of a loaded pistol (with a silencer), at the end of which the reader feels...</itunes:subtitle><itunes:summary><![CDATA[It has been observed that within the narrow confines of a sonnet the mind can turn around but cannot take flight. Some of Millay’s sonnets, though, resemble the narrow confines of a loaded pistol (with a silencer), at the end of which the reader feels propelled to a higher emotional plane. Nevertheless, the predominant mood is melancholy, regret for the brevity of life and especially for the death of her husband. Today’s world can accept more readily than her own the feminism of her poetry and her casual but touching references to love outside of marriage. Millay’s syntax can become challenging, but her most profound utterances are simply phrased (“I do not think I would”) and often startlingly colloquial: “you may whistle for me.” Millay does not follow exclusively the Shakespearean or the Italian rhyme scheme in her sonnets but varies at will. Her iambic meter is (except as indicated below) as strict as Milton’s, with the same love of enjambment and inverted feet to obscure rhymes and to create bouncing rhythms and sudden turns. Her handling of the sonnet form departs rarely but sometimes radically from tradition, as when a heptameter line (of seven feet) replaces the pentameter at the end of a sonnet, a regular feature of the final lines of “Sonnets from an Ungrafted Tree”; e.g., “And some old catalogue, and a brown, shriveled apple core.” She also permits an extrametrical weak syllable at the caesura and occasional other weak, nearly negligible syllables elsewhere, usually justified as pronounceable elisions, like “risen” (ris’n), “blossoming” (bloss’ming), “enemy” (en’my); yet sometimes not, like “ne(ver),” “ult(i)mate,” “flat(tened).” (Summary by T. A. Copeland)]]></itunes:summary><itunes:duration>15011</itunes:duration><itunes:explicit>false</itunes:explicit><itunes:image href="https://d3wo5wojvuv7l.cloudfront.net/t_rss_itunes_square_1400/images.spreaker.com/original/0e65d85d1af6c1e2688777a4389c324b.jpg"/><itunes:episodeType>full</itunes:episodeType></item><item><title>Poems-Duncan M. Matheson</title><link>https://www.spreaker.com/episode/poems-duncan-m-matheson--74526250</link><description><![CDATA[It has been observed that within the narrow confines of a sonnet the mind can turn around but cannot take flight. Some of Millay’s sonnets, though, resemble the narrow confines of a loaded pistol (with a silencer), at the end of which the reader feels propelled to a higher emotional plane. Nevertheless, the predominant mood is melancholy, regret for the brevity of life and especially for the death of her husband. Today’s world can accept more readily than her own the feminism of her poetry and her casual but touching references to love outside of marriage. Millay’s syntax can become challenging, but her most profound utterances are simply phrased (“I do not think I would”) and often startlingly colloquial: “you may whistle for me.” Millay does not follow exclusively the Shakespearean or the Italian rhyme scheme in her sonnets but varies at will. Her iambic meter is (except as indicated below) as strict as Milton’s, with the same love of enjambment and inverted feet to obscure rhymes and to create bouncing rhythms and sudden turns. Her handling of the sonnet form departs rarely but sometimes radically from tradition, as when a heptameter line (of seven feet) replaces the pentameter at the end of a sonnet, a regular feature of the final lines of “Sonnets from an Ungrafted Tree”; e.g., “And some old catalogue, and a brown, shriveled apple core.” She also permits an extrametrical weak syllable at the caesura and occasional other weak, nearly negligible syllables elsewhere, usually justified as pronounceable elisions, like “risen” (ris’n), “blossoming” (bloss’ming), “enemy” (en’my); yet sometimes not, like “ne(ver),” “ult(i)mate,” “flat(tened).” (Summary by T. A. Copeland)]]></description><guid isPermaLink="false">https://api.spreaker.com/episode/74526250</guid><pubDate>Mon, 24 Aug 2026 09:08:45 +0000</pubDate><enclosure url="https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/74526250/poems_duncan_m_matheson.mp3" length="23713521" type="audio/mpeg"/><itunes:author>Edna St. Vincent Millay</itunes:author><itunes:subtitle>It has been observed that within the narrow confines of a sonnet the mind can turn around but cannot take flight. Some of Millay’s sonnets, though, resemble the narrow confines of a loaded pistol (with a silencer), at the end of which the reader feels...</itunes:subtitle><itunes:summary><![CDATA[It has been observed that within the narrow confines of a sonnet the mind can turn around but cannot take flight. Some of Millay’s sonnets, though, resemble the narrow confines of a loaded pistol (with a silencer), at the end of which the reader feels propelled to a higher emotional plane. Nevertheless, the predominant mood is melancholy, regret for the brevity of life and especially for the death of her husband. Today’s world can accept more readily than her own the feminism of her poetry and her casual but touching references to love outside of marriage. Millay’s syntax can become challenging, but her most profound utterances are simply phrased (“I do not think I would”) and often startlingly colloquial: “you may whistle for me.” Millay does not follow exclusively the Shakespearean or the Italian rhyme scheme in her sonnets but varies at will. Her iambic meter is (except as indicated below) as strict as Milton’s, with the same love of enjambment and inverted feet to obscure rhymes and to create bouncing rhythms and sudden turns. Her handling of the sonnet form departs rarely but sometimes radically from tradition, as when a heptameter line (of seven feet) replaces the pentameter at the end of a sonnet, a regular feature of the final lines of “Sonnets from an Ungrafted Tree”; e.g., “And some old catalogue, and a brown, shriveled apple core.” She also permits an extrametrical weak syllable at the caesura and occasional other weak, nearly negligible syllables elsewhere, usually justified as pronounceable elisions, like “risen” (ris’n), “blossoming” (bloss’ming), “enemy” (en’my); yet sometimes not, like “ne(ver),” “ult(i)mate,” “flat(tened).” (Summary by T. A. Copeland)]]></itunes:summary><itunes:duration>2961</itunes:duration><itunes:explicit>false</itunes:explicit><itunes:image href="https://d3wo5wojvuv7l.cloudfront.net/t_rss_itunes_square_1400/images.spreaker.com/original/0e65d85d1af6c1e2688777a4389c324b.jpg"/><itunes:episodeType>full</itunes:episodeType></item><item><title>Milton's Minor Poems-John Milton</title><link>https://www.spreaker.com/episode/milton-s-minor-poems-john-milton--74496007</link><description><![CDATA[It has been observed that within the narrow confines of a sonnet the mind can turn around but cannot take flight. Some of Millay’s sonnets, though, resemble the narrow confines of a loaded pistol (with a silencer), at the end of which the reader feels propelled to a higher emotional plane. Nevertheless, the predominant mood is melancholy, regret for the brevity of life and especially for the death of her husband. Today’s world can accept more readily than her own the feminism of her poetry and her casual but touching references to love outside of marriage. Millay’s syntax can become challenging, but her most profound utterances are simply phrased (“I do not think I would”) and often startlingly colloquial: “you may whistle for me.” Millay does not follow exclusively the Shakespearean or the Italian rhyme scheme in her sonnets but varies at will. Her iambic meter is (except as indicated below) as strict as Milton’s, with the same love of enjambment and inverted feet to obscure rhymes and to create bouncing rhythms and sudden turns. Her handling of the sonnet form departs rarely but sometimes radically from tradition, as when a heptameter line (of seven feet) replaces the pentameter at the end of a sonnet, a regular feature of the final lines of “Sonnets from an Ungrafted Tree”; e.g., “And some old catalogue, and a brown, shriveled apple core.” She also permits an extrametrical weak syllable at the caesura and occasional other weak, nearly negligible syllables elsewhere, usually justified as pronounceable elisions, like “risen” (ris’n), “blossoming” (bloss’ming), “enemy” (en’my); yet sometimes not, like “ne(ver),” “ult(i)mate,” “flat(tened).” (Summary by T. A. Copeland)]]></description><guid isPermaLink="false">https://api.spreaker.com/episode/74496007</guid><pubDate>Sun, 23 Aug 2026 09:08:40 +0000</pubDate><enclosure url="https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/74496007/milton_s_minor_poems_john_milton.mp3" length="113621840" type="audio/mpeg"/><itunes:author>Edna St. Vincent Millay</itunes:author><itunes:subtitle>It has been observed that within the narrow confines of a sonnet the mind can turn around but cannot take flight. Some of Millay’s sonnets, though, resemble the narrow confines of a loaded pistol (with a silencer), at the end of which the reader feels...</itunes:subtitle><itunes:summary><![CDATA[It has been observed that within the narrow confines of a sonnet the mind can turn around but cannot take flight. Some of Millay’s sonnets, though, resemble the narrow confines of a loaded pistol (with a silencer), at the end of which the reader feels propelled to a higher emotional plane. Nevertheless, the predominant mood is melancholy, regret for the brevity of life and especially for the death of her husband. Today’s world can accept more readily than her own the feminism of her poetry and her casual but touching references to love outside of marriage. Millay’s syntax can become challenging, but her most profound utterances are simply phrased (“I do not think I would”) and often startlingly colloquial: “you may whistle for me.” Millay does not follow exclusively the Shakespearean or the Italian rhyme scheme in her sonnets but varies at will. Her iambic meter is (except as indicated below) as strict as Milton’s, with the same love of enjambment and inverted feet to obscure rhymes and to create bouncing rhythms and sudden turns. Her handling of the sonnet form departs rarely but sometimes radically from tradition, as when a heptameter line (of seven feet) replaces the pentameter at the end of a sonnet, a regular feature of the final lines of “Sonnets from an Ungrafted Tree”; e.g., “And some old catalogue, and a brown, shriveled apple core.” She also permits an extrametrical weak syllable at the caesura and occasional other weak, nearly negligible syllables elsewhere, usually justified as pronounceable elisions, like “risen” (ris’n), “blossoming” (bloss’ming), “enemy” (en’my); yet sometimes not, like “ne(ver),” “ult(i)mate,” “flat(tened).” (Summary by T. A. Copeland)]]></itunes:summary><itunes:duration>14188</itunes:duration><itunes:explicit>false</itunes:explicit><itunes:image href="https://d3wo5wojvuv7l.cloudfront.net/t_rss_itunes_square_1400/images.spreaker.com/original/0e65d85d1af6c1e2688777a4389c324b.jpg"/><itunes:episodeType>full</itunes:episodeType></item><item><title>Kobzar of the Ukraine-Taras Shevchenko</title><link>https://www.spreaker.com/episode/kobzar-of-the-ukraine-taras-shevchenko--74456559</link><description><![CDATA[It has been observed that within the narrow confines of a sonnet the mind can turn around but cannot take flight. Some of Millay’s sonnets, though, resemble the narrow confines of a loaded pistol (with a silencer), at the end of which the reader feels propelled to a higher emotional plane. Nevertheless, the predominant mood is melancholy, regret for the brevity of life and especially for the death of her husband. Today’s world can accept more readily than her own the feminism of her poetry and her casual but touching references to love outside of marriage. Millay’s syntax can become challenging, but her most profound utterances are simply phrased (“I do not think I would”) and often startlingly colloquial: “you may whistle for me.” Millay does not follow exclusively the Shakespearean or the Italian rhyme scheme in her sonnets but varies at will. Her iambic meter is (except as indicated below) as strict as Milton’s, with the same love of enjambment and inverted feet to obscure rhymes and to create bouncing rhythms and sudden turns. Her handling of the sonnet form departs rarely but sometimes radically from tradition, as when a heptameter line (of seven feet) replaces the pentameter at the end of a sonnet, a regular feature of the final lines of “Sonnets from an Ungrafted Tree”; e.g., “And some old catalogue, and a brown, shriveled apple core.” She also permits an extrametrical weak syllable at the caesura and occasional other weak, nearly negligible syllables elsewhere, usually justified as pronounceable elisions, like “risen” (ris’n), “blossoming” (bloss’ming), “enemy” (en’my); yet sometimes not, like “ne(ver),” “ult(i)mate,” “flat(tened).” (Summary by T. A. Copeland)]]></description><guid isPermaLink="false">https://api.spreaker.com/episode/74456559</guid><pubDate>Sat, 22 Aug 2026 09:07:42 +0000</pubDate><enclosure url="https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/74456559/kobzar_of_the_ukraine_taras_shevchenko.mp3" length="72788549" type="audio/mpeg"/><itunes:author>Edna St. Vincent Millay</itunes:author><itunes:subtitle>It has been observed that within the narrow confines of a sonnet the mind can turn around but cannot take flight. Some of Millay’s sonnets, though, resemble the narrow confines of a loaded pistol (with a silencer), at the end of which the reader feels...</itunes:subtitle><itunes:summary><![CDATA[It has been observed that within the narrow confines of a sonnet the mind can turn around but cannot take flight. Some of Millay’s sonnets, though, resemble the narrow confines of a loaded pistol (with a silencer), at the end of which the reader feels propelled to a higher emotional plane. Nevertheless, the predominant mood is melancholy, regret for the brevity of life and especially for the death of her husband. Today’s world can accept more readily than her own the feminism of her poetry and her casual but touching references to love outside of marriage. Millay’s syntax can become challenging, but her most profound utterances are simply phrased (“I do not think I would”) and often startlingly colloquial: “you may whistle for me.” Millay does not follow exclusively the Shakespearean or the Italian rhyme scheme in her sonnets but varies at will. Her iambic meter is (except as indicated below) as strict as Milton’s, with the same love of enjambment and inverted feet to obscure rhymes and to create bouncing rhythms and sudden turns. Her handling of the sonnet form departs rarely but sometimes radically from tradition, as when a heptameter line (of seven feet) replaces the pentameter at the end of a sonnet, a regular feature of the final lines of “Sonnets from an Ungrafted Tree”; e.g., “And some old catalogue, and a brown, shriveled apple core.” She also permits an extrametrical weak syllable at the caesura and occasional other weak, nearly negligible syllables elsewhere, usually justified as pronounceable elisions, like “risen” (ris’n), “blossoming” (bloss’ming), “enemy” (en’my); yet sometimes not, like “ne(ver),” “ult(i)mate,” “flat(tened).” (Summary by T. A. Copeland)]]></itunes:summary><itunes:duration>9090</itunes:duration><itunes:explicit>false</itunes:explicit><itunes:image href="https://d3wo5wojvuv7l.cloudfront.net/t_rss_itunes_square_1400/images.spreaker.com/original/0e65d85d1af6c1e2688777a4389c324b.jpg"/><itunes:episodeType>full</itunes:episodeType></item><item><title>Woman and the War-Frances Evelyn (Daisy) Greville</title><link>https://www.spreaker.com/episode/woman-and-the-war-frances-evelyn-daisy-greville--74425031</link><description><![CDATA[It has been observed that within the narrow confines of a sonnet the mind can turn around but cannot take flight. Some of Millay’s sonnets, though, resemble the narrow confines of a loaded pistol (with a silencer), at the end of which the reader feels propelled to a higher emotional plane. Nevertheless, the predominant mood is melancholy, regret for the brevity of life and especially for the death of her husband. Today’s world can accept more readily than her own the feminism of her poetry and her casual but touching references to love outside of marriage. Millay’s syntax can become challenging, but her most profound utterances are simply phrased (“I do not think I would”) and often startlingly colloquial: “you may whistle for me.” Millay does not follow exclusively the Shakespearean or the Italian rhyme scheme in her sonnets but varies at will. Her iambic meter is (except as indicated below) as strict as Milton’s, with the same love of enjambment and inverted feet to obscure rhymes and to create bouncing rhythms and sudden turns. Her handling of the sonnet form departs rarely but sometimes radically from tradition, as when a heptameter line (of seven feet) replaces the pentameter at the end of a sonnet, a regular feature of the final lines of “Sonnets from an Ungrafted Tree”; e.g., “And some old catalogue, and a brown, shriveled apple core.” She also permits an extrametrical weak syllable at the caesura and occasional other weak, nearly negligible syllables elsewhere, usually justified as pronounceable elisions, like “risen” (ris’n), “blossoming” (bloss’ming), “enemy” (en’my); yet sometimes not, like “ne(ver),” “ult(i)mate,” “flat(tened).” (Summary by T. A. Copeland)]]></description><guid isPermaLink="false">https://api.spreaker.com/episode/74425031</guid><pubDate>Fri, 21 Aug 2026 09:08:43 +0000</pubDate><enclosure url="https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/74425031/woman_and_the_war_frances_evelyn_daisy_greville.mp3" length="199118835" type="audio/mpeg"/><itunes:author>Edna St. Vincent Millay</itunes:author><itunes:subtitle>It has been observed that within the narrow confines of a sonnet the mind can turn around but cannot take flight. Some of Millay’s sonnets, though, resemble the narrow confines of a loaded pistol (with a silencer), at the end of which the reader feels...</itunes:subtitle><itunes:summary><![CDATA[It has been observed that within the narrow confines of a sonnet the mind can turn around but cannot take flight. Some of Millay’s sonnets, though, resemble the narrow confines of a loaded pistol (with a silencer), at the end of which the reader feels propelled to a higher emotional plane. Nevertheless, the predominant mood is melancholy, regret for the brevity of life and especially for the death of her husband. Today’s world can accept more readily than her own the feminism of her poetry and her casual but touching references to love outside of marriage. Millay’s syntax can become challenging, but her most profound utterances are simply phrased (“I do not think I would”) and often startlingly colloquial: “you may whistle for me.” Millay does not follow exclusively the Shakespearean or the Italian rhyme scheme in her sonnets but varies at will. Her iambic meter is (except as indicated below) as strict as Milton’s, with the same love of enjambment and inverted feet to obscure rhymes and to create bouncing rhythms and sudden turns. Her handling of the sonnet form departs rarely but sometimes radically from tradition, as when a heptameter line (of seven feet) replaces the pentameter at the end of a sonnet, a regular feature of the final lines of “Sonnets from an Ungrafted Tree”; e.g., “And some old catalogue, and a brown, shriveled apple core.” She also permits an extrametrical weak syllable at the caesura and occasional other weak, nearly negligible syllables elsewhere, usually justified as pronounceable elisions, like “risen” (ris’n), “blossoming” (bloss’ming), “enemy” (en’my); yet sometimes not, like “ne(ver),” “ult(i)mate,” “flat(tened).” (Summary by T. A. Copeland)]]></itunes:summary><itunes:duration>24864</itunes:duration><itunes:explicit>false</itunes:explicit><itunes:image href="https://d3wo5wojvuv7l.cloudfront.net/t_rss_itunes_square_1400/images.spreaker.com/original/0e65d85d1af6c1e2688777a4389c324b.jpg"/><itunes:episodeType>full</itunes:episodeType></item><item><title>My Actor-Husband-Anonymous</title><link>https://www.spreaker.com/episode/my-actor-husband-anonymous--74379847</link><description><![CDATA[It has been observed that within the narrow confines of a sonnet the mind can turn around but cannot take flight. Some of Millay’s sonnets, though, resemble the narrow confines of a loaded pistol (with a silencer), at the end of which the reader feels propelled to a higher emotional plane. Nevertheless, the predominant mood is melancholy, regret for the brevity of life and especially for the death of her husband. Today’s world can accept more readily than her own the feminism of her poetry and her casual but touching references to love outside of marriage. Millay’s syntax can become challenging, but her most profound utterances are simply phrased (“I do not think I would”) and often startlingly colloquial: “you may whistle for me.” Millay does not follow exclusively the Shakespearean or the Italian rhyme scheme in her sonnets but varies at will. Her iambic meter is (except as indicated below) as strict as Milton’s, with the same love of enjambment and inverted feet to obscure rhymes and to create bouncing rhythms and sudden turns. Her handling of the sonnet form departs rarely but sometimes radically from tradition, as when a heptameter line (of seven feet) replaces the pentameter at the end of a sonnet, a regular feature of the final lines of “Sonnets from an Ungrafted Tree”; e.g., “And some old catalogue, and a brown, shriveled apple core.” She also permits an extrametrical weak syllable at the caesura and occasional other weak, nearly negligible syllables elsewhere, usually justified as pronounceable elisions, like “risen” (ris’n), “blossoming” (bloss’ming), “enemy” (en’my); yet sometimes not, like “ne(ver),” “ult(i)mate,” “flat(tened).” (Summary by T. A. Copeland)]]></description><guid isPermaLink="false">https://api.spreaker.com/episode/74379847</guid><pubDate>Thu, 20 Aug 2026 10:34:04 +0000</pubDate><enclosure url="https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/74379847/my_actor_husband_anonymous.mp3" length="189480155" type="audio/mpeg"/><itunes:author>Edna St. Vincent Millay</itunes:author><itunes:subtitle>It has been observed that within the narrow confines of a sonnet the mind can turn around but cannot take flight. Some of Millay’s sonnets, though, resemble the narrow confines of a loaded pistol (with a silencer), at the end of which the reader feels...</itunes:subtitle><itunes:summary><![CDATA[It has been observed that within the narrow confines of a sonnet the mind can turn around but cannot take flight. Some of Millay’s sonnets, though, resemble the narrow confines of a loaded pistol (with a silencer), at the end of which the reader feels propelled to a higher emotional plane. Nevertheless, the predominant mood is melancholy, regret for the brevity of life and especially for the death of her husband. Today’s world can accept more readily than her own the feminism of her poetry and her casual but touching references to love outside of marriage. Millay’s syntax can become challenging, but her most profound utterances are simply phrased (“I do not think I would”) and often startlingly colloquial: “you may whistle for me.” Millay does not follow exclusively the Shakespearean or the Italian rhyme scheme in her sonnets but varies at will. Her iambic meter is (except as indicated below) as strict as Milton’s, with the same love of enjambment and inverted feet to obscure rhymes and to create bouncing rhythms and sudden turns. Her handling of the sonnet form departs rarely but sometimes radically from tradition, as when a heptameter line (of seven feet) replaces the pentameter at the end of a sonnet, a regular feature of the final lines of “Sonnets from an Ungrafted Tree”; e.g., “And some old catalogue, and a brown, shriveled apple core.” She also permits an extrametrical weak syllable at the caesura and occasional other weak, nearly negligible syllables elsewhere, usually justified as pronounceable elisions, like “risen” (ris’n), “blossoming” (bloss’ming), “enemy” (en’my); yet sometimes not, like “ne(ver),” “ult(i)mate,” “flat(tened).” (Summary by T. A. Copeland)]]></itunes:summary><itunes:duration>23661</itunes:duration><itunes:explicit>false</itunes:explicit><itunes:image href="https://d3wo5wojvuv7l.cloudfront.net/t_rss_itunes_square_1400/images.spreaker.com/original/0e65d85d1af6c1e2688777a4389c324b.jpg"/><itunes:episodeType>full</itunes:episodeType></item><item><title>Canadians of Old-Philippe Aubert de Gaspé</title><link>https://www.spreaker.com/episode/canadians-of-old-philippe-aubert-de-gaspe--74340565</link><description><![CDATA[It has been observed that within the narrow confines of a sonnet the mind can turn around but cannot take flight. Some of Millay’s sonnets, though, resemble the narrow confines of a loaded pistol (with a silencer), at the end of which the reader feels propelled to a higher emotional plane. Nevertheless, the predominant mood is melancholy, regret for the brevity of life and especially for the death of her husband. Today’s world can accept more readily than her own the feminism of her poetry and her casual but touching references to love outside of marriage. Millay’s syntax can become challenging, but her most profound utterances are simply phrased (“I do not think I would”) and often startlingly colloquial: “you may whistle for me.” Millay does not follow exclusively the Shakespearean or the Italian rhyme scheme in her sonnets but varies at will. Her iambic meter is (except as indicated below) as strict as Milton’s, with the same love of enjambment and inverted feet to obscure rhymes and to create bouncing rhythms and sudden turns. Her handling of the sonnet form departs rarely but sometimes radically from tradition, as when a heptameter line (of seven feet) replaces the pentameter at the end of a sonnet, a regular feature of the final lines of “Sonnets from an Ungrafted Tree”; e.g., “And some old catalogue, and a brown, shriveled apple core.” She also permits an extrametrical weak syllable at the caesura and occasional other weak, nearly negligible syllables elsewhere, usually justified as pronounceable elisions, like “risen” (ris’n), “blossoming” (bloss’ming), “enemy” (en’my); yet sometimes not, like “ne(ver),” “ult(i)mate,” “flat(tened).” (Summary by T. A. Copeland)]]></description><guid isPermaLink="false">https://api.spreaker.com/episode/74340565</guid><pubDate>Wed, 19 Aug 2026 21:19:41 +0000</pubDate><enclosure url="https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/74340565/canadians_of_old_philippe_aubert_de_gaspe.mp3" length="273885626" type="audio/mpeg"/><itunes:author>Edna St. Vincent Millay</itunes:author><itunes:subtitle>It has been observed that within the narrow confines of a sonnet the mind can turn around but cannot take flight. Some of Millay’s sonnets, though, resemble the narrow confines of a loaded pistol (with a silencer), at the end of which the reader feels...</itunes:subtitle><itunes:summary><![CDATA[It has been observed that within the narrow confines of a sonnet the mind can turn around but cannot take flight. Some of Millay’s sonnets, though, resemble the narrow confines of a loaded pistol (with a silencer), at the end of which the reader feels propelled to a higher emotional plane. Nevertheless, the predominant mood is melancholy, regret for the brevity of life and especially for the death of her husband. Today’s world can accept more readily than her own the feminism of her poetry and her casual but touching references to love outside of marriage. Millay’s syntax can become challenging, but her most profound utterances are simply phrased (“I do not think I would”) and often startlingly colloquial: “you may whistle for me.” Millay does not follow exclusively the Shakespearean or the Italian rhyme scheme in her sonnets but varies at will. Her iambic meter is (except as indicated below) as strict as Milton’s, with the same love of enjambment and inverted feet to obscure rhymes and to create bouncing rhythms and sudden turns. Her handling of the sonnet form departs rarely but sometimes radically from tradition, as when a heptameter line (of seven feet) replaces the pentameter at the end of a sonnet, a regular feature of the final lines of “Sonnets from an Ungrafted Tree”; e.g., “And some old catalogue, and a brown, shriveled apple core.” She also permits an extrametrical weak syllable at the caesura and occasional other weak, nearly negligible syllables elsewhere, usually justified as pronounceable elisions, like “risen” (ris’n), “blossoming” (bloss’ming), “enemy” (en’my); yet sometimes not, like “ne(ver),” “ult(i)mate,” “flat(tened).” (Summary by T. A. Copeland)]]></itunes:summary><itunes:duration>34201</itunes:duration><itunes:explicit>false</itunes:explicit><itunes:image href="https://d3wo5wojvuv7l.cloudfront.net/t_rss_itunes_square_1400/images.spreaker.com/original/0e65d85d1af6c1e2688777a4389c324b.jpg"/><itunes:episodeType>full</itunes:episodeType></item><item><title>Selections from Longfellow-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow</title><link>https://www.spreaker.com/episode/selections-from-longfellow-henry-wadsworth-longfellow--74198916</link><description><![CDATA[It has been observed that within the narrow confines of a sonnet the mind can turn around but cannot take flight. Some of Millay’s sonnets, though, resemble the narrow confines of a loaded pistol (with a silencer), at the end of which the reader feels propelled to a higher emotional plane. Nevertheless, the predominant mood is melancholy, regret for the brevity of life and especially for the death of her husband. Today’s world can accept more readily than her own the feminism of her poetry and her casual but touching references to love outside of marriage. Millay’s syntax can become challenging, but her most profound utterances are simply phrased (“I do not think I would”) and often startlingly colloquial: “you may whistle for me.” Millay does not follow exclusively the Shakespearean or the Italian rhyme scheme in her sonnets but varies at will. Her iambic meter is (except as indicated below) as strict as Milton’s, with the same love of enjambment and inverted feet to obscure rhymes and to create bouncing rhythms and sudden turns. Her handling of the sonnet form departs rarely but sometimes radically from tradition, as when a heptameter line (of seven feet) replaces the pentameter at the end of a sonnet, a regular feature of the final lines of “Sonnets from an Ungrafted Tree”; e.g., “And some old catalogue, and a brown, shriveled apple core.” She also permits an extrametrical weak syllable at the caesura and occasional other weak, nearly negligible syllables elsewhere, usually justified as pronounceable elisions, like “risen” (ris’n), “blossoming” (bloss’ming), “enemy” (en’my); yet sometimes not, like “ne(ver),” “ult(i)mate,” “flat(tened).” (Summary by T. A. Copeland)]]></description><guid isPermaLink="false">https://api.spreaker.com/episode/74198916</guid><pubDate>Tue, 18 Aug 2026 09:08:49 +0000</pubDate><enclosure url="https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/74198916/selections_from_longfellow_henry_wadsworth_longfellow.mp3" length="17150327" type="audio/mpeg"/><itunes:author>Edna St. Vincent Millay</itunes:author><itunes:subtitle>It has been observed that within the narrow confines of a sonnet the mind can turn around but cannot take flight. Some of Millay’s sonnets, though, resemble the narrow confines of a loaded pistol (with a silencer), at the end of which the reader feels...</itunes:subtitle><itunes:summary><![CDATA[It has been observed that within the narrow confines of a sonnet the mind can turn around but cannot take flight. Some of Millay’s sonnets, though, resemble the narrow confines of a loaded pistol (with a silencer), at the end of which the reader feels propelled to a higher emotional plane. Nevertheless, the predominant mood is melancholy, regret for the brevity of life and especially for the death of her husband. Today’s world can accept more readily than her own the feminism of her poetry and her casual but touching references to love outside of marriage. Millay’s syntax can become challenging, but her most profound utterances are simply phrased (“I do not think I would”) and often startlingly colloquial: “you may whistle for me.” Millay does not follow exclusively the Shakespearean or the Italian rhyme scheme in her sonnets but varies at will. Her iambic meter is (except as indicated below) as strict as Milton’s, with the same love of enjambment and inverted feet to obscure rhymes and to create bouncing rhythms and sudden turns. Her handling of the sonnet form departs rarely but sometimes radically from tradition, as when a heptameter line (of seven feet) replaces the pentameter at the end of a sonnet, a regular feature of the final lines of “Sonnets from an Ungrafted Tree”; e.g., “And some old catalogue, and a brown, shriveled apple core.” She also permits an extrametrical weak syllable at the caesura and occasional other weak, nearly negligible syllables elsewhere, usually justified as pronounceable elisions, like “risen” (ris’n), “blossoming” (bloss’ming), “enemy” (en’my); yet sometimes not, like “ne(ver),” “ult(i)mate,” “flat(tened).” (Summary by T. A. Copeland)]]></itunes:summary><itunes:duration>2142</itunes:duration><itunes:explicit>false</itunes:explicit><itunes:image href="https://d3wo5wojvuv7l.cloudfront.net/t_rss_itunes_square_1400/images.spreaker.com/original/0e65d85d1af6c1e2688777a4389c324b.jpg"/><itunes:episodeType>full</itunes:episodeType></item><item><title>Selection from the Sonnets of William Wordsworth-William Wordsworth</title><link>https://www.spreaker.com/episode/selection-from-the-sonnets-of-william-wordsworth-william-wordsworth--74152640</link><description><![CDATA[It has been observed that within the narrow confines of a sonnet the mind can turn around but cannot take flight. Some of Millay’s sonnets, though, resemble the narrow confines of a loaded pistol (with a silencer), at the end of which the reader feels propelled to a higher emotional plane. Nevertheless, the predominant mood is melancholy, regret for the brevity of life and especially for the death of her husband. Today’s world can accept more readily than her own the feminism of her poetry and her casual but touching references to love outside of marriage. Millay’s syntax can become challenging, but her most profound utterances are simply phrased (“I do not think I would”) and often startlingly colloquial: “you may whistle for me.” Millay does not follow exclusively the Shakespearean or the Italian rhyme scheme in her sonnets but varies at will. Her iambic meter is (except as indicated below) as strict as Milton’s, with the same love of enjambment and inverted feet to obscure rhymes and to create bouncing rhythms and sudden turns. Her handling of the sonnet form departs rarely but sometimes radically from tradition, as when a heptameter line (of seven feet) replaces the pentameter at the end of a sonnet, a regular feature of the final lines of “Sonnets from an Ungrafted Tree”; e.g., “And some old catalogue, and a brown, shriveled apple core.” She also permits an extrametrical weak syllable at the caesura and occasional other weak, nearly negligible syllables elsewhere, usually justified as pronounceable elisions, like “risen” (ris’n), “blossoming” (bloss’ming), “enemy” (en’my); yet sometimes not, like “ne(ver),” “ult(i)mate,” “flat(tened).” (Summary by T. A. Copeland)]]></description><guid isPermaLink="false">https://api.spreaker.com/episode/74152640</guid><pubDate>Mon, 17 Aug 2026 09:08:51 +0000</pubDate><enclosure url="https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/74152640/selection_from_the_sonnets_of_william_wordsworth_william_wordsworth.mp3" length="55730980" type="audio/mpeg"/><itunes:author>Edna St. Vincent Millay</itunes:author><itunes:subtitle>It has been observed that within the narrow confines of a sonnet the mind can turn around but cannot take flight. Some of Millay’s sonnets, though, resemble the narrow confines of a loaded pistol (with a silencer), at the end of which the reader feels...</itunes:subtitle><itunes:summary><![CDATA[It has been observed that within the narrow confines of a sonnet the mind can turn around but cannot take flight. Some of Millay’s sonnets, though, resemble the narrow confines of a loaded pistol (with a silencer), at the end of which the reader feels propelled to a higher emotional plane. Nevertheless, the predominant mood is melancholy, regret for the brevity of life and especially for the death of her husband. Today’s world can accept more readily than her own the feminism of her poetry and her casual but touching references to love outside of marriage. Millay’s syntax can become challenging, but her most profound utterances are simply phrased (“I do not think I would”) and often startlingly colloquial: “you may whistle for me.” Millay does not follow exclusively the Shakespearean or the Italian rhyme scheme in her sonnets but varies at will. Her iambic meter is (except as indicated below) as strict as Milton’s, with the same love of enjambment and inverted feet to obscure rhymes and to create bouncing rhythms and sudden turns. Her handling of the sonnet form departs rarely but sometimes radically from tradition, as when a heptameter line (of seven feet) replaces the pentameter at the end of a sonnet, a regular feature of the final lines of “Sonnets from an Ungrafted Tree”; e.g., “And some old catalogue, and a brown, shriveled apple core.” She also permits an extrametrical weak syllable at the caesura and occasional other weak, nearly negligible syllables elsewhere, usually justified as pronounceable elisions, like “risen” (ris’n), “blossoming” (bloss’ming), “enemy” (en’my); yet sometimes not, like “ne(ver),” “ult(i)mate,” “flat(tened).” (Summary by T. A. Copeland)]]></itunes:summary><itunes:duration>6959</itunes:duration><itunes:explicit>false</itunes:explicit><itunes:image href="https://d3wo5wojvuv7l.cloudfront.net/t_rss_itunes_square_1400/images.spreaker.com/original/0e65d85d1af6c1e2688777a4389c324b.jpg"/><itunes:episodeType>full</itunes:episodeType></item><item><title>Fiend's Delight-Ambrose Bierce</title><link>https://www.spreaker.com/episode/fiend-s-delight-ambrose-bierce--74111919</link><description><![CDATA[It has been observed that within the narrow confines of a sonnet the mind can turn around but cannot take flight. Some of Millay’s sonnets, though, resemble the narrow confines of a loaded pistol (with a silencer), at the end of which the reader feels propelled to a higher emotional plane. Nevertheless, the predominant mood is melancholy, regret for the brevity of life and especially for the death of her husband. Today’s world can accept more readily than her own the feminism of her poetry and her casual but touching references to love outside of marriage. Millay’s syntax can become challenging, but her most profound utterances are simply phrased (“I do not think I would”) and often startlingly colloquial: “you may whistle for me.” Millay does not follow exclusively the Shakespearean or the Italian rhyme scheme in her sonnets but varies at will. Her iambic meter is (except as indicated below) as strict as Milton’s, with the same love of enjambment and inverted feet to obscure rhymes and to create bouncing rhythms and sudden turns. Her handling of the sonnet form departs rarely but sometimes radically from tradition, as when a heptameter line (of seven feet) replaces the pentameter at the end of a sonnet, a regular feature of the final lines of “Sonnets from an Ungrafted Tree”; e.g., “And some old catalogue, and a brown, shriveled apple core.” She also permits an extrametrical weak syllable at the caesura and occasional other weak, nearly negligible syllables elsewhere, usually justified as pronounceable elisions, like “risen” (ris’n), “blossoming” (bloss’ming), “enemy” (en’my); yet sometimes not, like “ne(ver),” “ult(i)mate,” “flat(tened).” (Summary by T. A. Copeland)]]></description><guid isPermaLink="false">https://api.spreaker.com/episode/74111919</guid><pubDate>Sun, 16 Aug 2026 09:08:16 +0000</pubDate><enclosure url="https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/74111919/fiend_s_delight_ambrose_bierce.mp3" length="69950346" type="audio/mpeg"/><itunes:author>Edna St. Vincent Millay</itunes:author><itunes:subtitle>It has been observed that within the narrow confines of a sonnet the mind can turn around but cannot take flight. Some of Millay’s sonnets, though, resemble the narrow confines of a loaded pistol (with a silencer), at the end of which the reader feels...</itunes:subtitle><itunes:summary><![CDATA[It has been observed that within the narrow confines of a sonnet the mind can turn around but cannot take flight. Some of Millay’s sonnets, though, resemble the narrow confines of a loaded pistol (with a silencer), at the end of which the reader feels propelled to a higher emotional plane. Nevertheless, the predominant mood is melancholy, regret for the brevity of life and especially for the death of her husband. Today’s world can accept more readily than her own the feminism of her poetry and her casual but touching references to love outside of marriage. Millay’s syntax can become challenging, but her most profound utterances are simply phrased (“I do not think I would”) and often startlingly colloquial: “you may whistle for me.” Millay does not follow exclusively the Shakespearean or the Italian rhyme scheme in her sonnets but varies at will. Her iambic meter is (except as indicated below) as strict as Milton’s, with the same love of enjambment and inverted feet to obscure rhymes and to create bouncing rhythms and sudden turns. Her handling of the sonnet form departs rarely but sometimes radically from tradition, as when a heptameter line (of seven feet) replaces the pentameter at the end of a sonnet, a regular feature of the final lines of “Sonnets from an Ungrafted Tree”; e.g., “And some old catalogue, and a brown, shriveled apple core.” She also permits an extrametrical weak syllable at the caesura and occasional other weak, nearly negligible syllables elsewhere, usually justified as pronounceable elisions, like “risen” (ris’n), “blossoming” (bloss’ming), “enemy” (en’my); yet sometimes not, like “ne(ver),” “ult(i)mate,” “flat(tened).” (Summary by T. A. Copeland)]]></itunes:summary><itunes:duration>8735</itunes:duration><itunes:explicit>false</itunes:explicit><itunes:image href="https://d3wo5wojvuv7l.cloudfront.net/t_rss_itunes_square_1400/images.spreaker.com/original/0e65d85d1af6c1e2688777a4389c324b.jpg"/><itunes:episodeType>full</itunes:episodeType></item><item><title>Sonnets of John Keats-John Keats</title><link>https://www.spreaker.com/episode/sonnets-of-john-keats-john-keats--73419230</link><description><![CDATA["Sonnets of John Keats" showcases the exquisite poetic craftsmanship of one of the most celebrated Romantic poets. Keats's sonnets delve into themes of beauty, love, and the transient nature of life, capturing the essence of human emotion and experience. The lyrical quality of his work invites listeners to reflect on their own lives and the world around them, making it a timeless exploration of the human condition. As relevant today as it was in the 19th century, Keats's ability to articulate profound feelings with elegance and depth continues to resonate, reminding us of the enduring power of poetry to connect us across time and space.]]></description><guid isPermaLink="false">https://api.spreaker.com/episode/73419230</guid><pubDate>Tue, 04 Aug 2026 09:01:12 +0000</pubDate><enclosure url="https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/73419230/sonnets_of_john_keats_john_keats.mp3" length="33995969" type="audio/mpeg"/><itunes:author>Edna St. Vincent Millay</itunes:author><itunes:subtitle>"Sonnets of John Keats" showcases the exquisite poetic craftsmanship of one of the most celebrated Romantic poets. Keats's sonnets delve into themes of beauty, love, and the transient nature of life, capturing the essence of human emotion and...</itunes:subtitle><itunes:summary><![CDATA["Sonnets of John Keats" showcases the exquisite poetic craftsmanship of one of the most celebrated Romantic poets. Keats's sonnets delve into themes of beauty, love, and the transient nature of life, capturing the essence of human emotion and experience. The lyrical quality of his work invites listeners to reflect on their own lives and the world around them, making it a timeless exploration of the human condition. As relevant today as it was in the 19th century, Keats's ability to articulate profound feelings with elegance and depth continues to resonate, reminding us of the enduring power of poetry to connect us across time and space.]]></itunes:summary><itunes:duration>4245</itunes:duration><itunes:explicit>false</itunes:explicit><itunes:image href="https://d3wo5wojvuv7l.cloudfront.net/t_rss_itunes_square_1400/images.spreaker.com/original/0e65d85d1af6c1e2688777a4389c324b.jpg"/><itunes:episodeType>full</itunes:episodeType></item><item><title>Sonnets - Edna St Vincent Millay</title><link>https://www.spreaker.com/episode/sonnets-edna-st-vincent-millay--72869317</link><description><![CDATA[It has been observed that within the narrow confines of a sonnet the mind can turn around but cannot take flight. Some of Millay’s sonnets, though, resemble the narrow confines of a loaded pistol (with a silencer), at the end of which the reader feels propelled to a higher emotional plane. Nevertheless, the predominant mood is melancholy, regret for the brevity of life and especially for the death of her husband. Today’s world can accept more readily than her own the feminism of her poetry and her casual but touching references to love outside of marriage. Millay’s syntax can become challenging, but her most profound utterances are simply phrased (“I do not think I would”) and often startlingly colloquial: “you may whistle for me.” Millay does not follow exclusively the Shakespearean or the Italian rhyme scheme in her sonnets but varies at will. Her iambic meter is (except as indicated below) as strict as Milton’s, with the same love of enjambment and inverted feet to obscure rhymes and to create bouncing rhythms and sudden turns. Her handling of the sonnet form departs rarely but sometimes radically from tradition, as when a heptameter line (of seven feet) replaces the pentameter at the end of a sonnet, a regular feature of the final lines of “Sonnets from an Ungrafted Tree”; e.g., “And some old catalogue, and a brown, shriveled apple core.” She also permits an extrametrical weak syllable at the caesura and occasional other weak, nearly negligible syllables elsewhere, usually justified as pronounceable elisions, like “risen” (ris’n), “blossoming” (bloss’ming), “enemy” (en’my); yet sometimes not, like “ne(ver),” “ult(i)mate,” “flat(tened).” (Summary by T. A. Copeland)]]></description><guid isPermaLink="false">https://api.spreaker.com/episode/72869317</guid><pubDate>Wed, 08 Jul 2026 14:19:46 +0000</pubDate><enclosure url="https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/72869317/sonnets_edna_st_vincent_millay.mp3" length="26588097" type="audio/mpeg"/><podcast:transcript url="https://transcription.spreaker.com/starship/68f908da-f3d6-4910-9f81-23248e72d457/68f908da-f3d6-4910-9f81-23248e72d457.srt" type="application/x-subrip" language="en"/><podcast:transcript url="https://transcription.spreaker.com/starship/68f908da-f3d6-4910-9f81-23248e72d457/68f908da-f3d6-4910-9f81-23248e72d457.txt" type="text/plain" language="en"/><podcast:transcript url="https://transcription.spreaker.com/starship/68f908da-f3d6-4910-9f81-23248e72d457/68f908da-f3d6-4910-9f81-23248e72d457.vtt" type="text/vtt" language="en"/><itunes:author>Edna St. Vincent Millay</itunes:author><itunes:subtitle>It has been observed that within the narrow confines of a sonnet the mind can turn around but cannot take flight. Some of Millay’s sonnets, though, resemble the narrow confines of a loaded pistol (with a silencer), at the end of which the reader feels...</itunes:subtitle><itunes:summary><![CDATA[It has been observed that within the narrow confines of a sonnet the mind can turn around but cannot take flight. Some of Millay’s sonnets, though, resemble the narrow confines of a loaded pistol (with a silencer), at the end of which the reader feels propelled to a higher emotional plane. Nevertheless, the predominant mood is melancholy, regret for the brevity of life and especially for the death of her husband. Today’s world can accept more readily than her own the feminism of her poetry and her casual but touching references to love outside of marriage. Millay’s syntax can become challenging, but her most profound utterances are simply phrased (“I do not think I would”) and often startlingly colloquial: “you may whistle for me.” Millay does not follow exclusively the Shakespearean or the Italian rhyme scheme in her sonnets but varies at will. Her iambic meter is (except as indicated below) as strict as Milton’s, with the same love of enjambment and inverted feet to obscure rhymes and to create bouncing rhythms and sudden turns. Her handling of the sonnet form departs rarely but sometimes radically from tradition, as when a heptameter line (of seven feet) replaces the pentameter at the end of a sonnet, a regular feature of the final lines of “Sonnets from an Ungrafted Tree”; e.g., “And some old catalogue, and a brown, shriveled apple core.” She also permits an extrametrical weak syllable at the caesura and occasional other weak, nearly negligible syllables elsewhere, usually justified as pronounceable elisions, like “risen” (ris’n), “blossoming” (bloss’ming), “enemy” (en’my); yet sometimes not, like “ne(ver),” “ult(i)mate,” “flat(tened).” (Summary by T. A. Copeland)]]></itunes:summary><itunes:duration>3324</itunes:duration><itunes:keywords>confines,feet,millay,narrow,single,sonnet,sonnets,tened,ungrafted,weak</itunes:keywords><itunes:explicit>false</itunes:explicit><itunes:image href="https://d3wo5wojvuv7l.cloudfront.net/t_rss_itunes_square_1400/images.spreaker.com/original/0e65d85d1af6c1e2688777a4389c324b.jpg"/><itunes:episodeType>full</itunes:episodeType></item><item><title>Sonnets - Edna St Vincent Millay</title><link>https://www.spreaker.com/episode/sonnets-edna-st-vincent-millay--72869255</link><description><![CDATA[Naden's sonnets have topics as diverse as astronomy, classical mythology and Shakespeare's birthplace. This collection is taken from Naden's complete poems, and whether listeners enjoy French history or the natural world, there are subjects to appeal to all tastes.- Summary by Newgatenovelist]]></description><guid isPermaLink="false">https://api.spreaker.com/episode/72869255</guid><pubDate>Wed, 08 Jul 2026 14:18:05 +0000</pubDate><enclosure url="https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/72869255/sonnets_edna_st_vincent_millay.mp3" length="26588097" type="audio/mpeg"/><podcast:transcript url="https://transcription.spreaker.com/starship/0b115775-2a35-4b52-8fad-72395a2abc52/0b115775-2a35-4b52-8fad-72395a2abc52.srt" type="application/x-subrip" language="en"/><podcast:transcript url="https://transcription.spreaker.com/starship/0b115775-2a35-4b52-8fad-72395a2abc52/0b115775-2a35-4b52-8fad-72395a2abc52.txt" type="text/plain" language="en"/><podcast:transcript url="https://transcription.spreaker.com/starship/0b115775-2a35-4b52-8fad-72395a2abc52/0b115775-2a35-4b52-8fad-72395a2abc52.vtt" type="text/vtt" language="en"/><itunes:author>Edna St. Vincent Millay</itunes:author><itunes:subtitle>Naden's sonnets have topics as diverse as astronomy, classical mythology and Shakespeare's birthplace. This collection is taken from Naden's complete poems, and whether listeners enjoy French history or the natural world, there are subjects to appeal...</itunes:subtitle><itunes:summary><![CDATA[Naden's sonnets have topics as diverse as astronomy, classical mythology and Shakespeare's birthplace. This collection is taken from Naden's complete poems, and whether listeners enjoy French history or the natural world, there are subjects to appeal to all tastes.- Summary by Newgatenovelist]]></itunes:summary><itunes:duration>3324</itunes:duration><itunes:keywords>appeal,astronomy,birthplace,diverse,mythology,naden,newgatenovelist,single,sonnets,tastes</itunes:keywords><itunes:explicit>false</itunes:explicit><itunes:image href="https://d3wo5wojvuv7l.cloudfront.net/t_rss_itunes_square_1400/images.spreaker.com/original/0e65d85d1af6c1e2688777a4389c324b.jpg"/><itunes:episodeType>full</itunes:episodeType></item><item><title>Sonnets - Edna St Vincent Millay</title><link>https://www.spreaker.com/episode/sonnets-edna-st-vincent-millay--72869242</link><description><![CDATA[This is an excellent selection of introspective, inspirational and remarkably compelling sonnets from one of the greatest poets of the nineteenth century. Christina Rossetti, in writing of the frailties of mankind and the mysteries of existence, sheds a new light on the nature of love, life and the inevitable "silent land". The lattice of sentient awareness which like a web unites and unifies this collection is one of an indulgent perception of life and its diversity, of human emotion and its capriciousness and of a deep conception of death and its intangible illusion of finality. This illusion, indefinable as it is, becomes an enigma in the hands of Rossetti, often becoming an ambiguity, at times a fantasy and on occasion almost a dismal reality. These poems, these snapshots of life, these glimpses of the pathos of the here and the mystery of the hereafter are assured to fascinate, allure and indeed perplex, motivate and inspire. Hope and faith, to which the human condition is wont to aspire are ever present in Rossetti's poems, along with the assurance that, "death be strong, yet love is strong as death." Foremost components of Rossetti's concept of hope and faith are that love can prevail, love can promise and love can unite, "happy equals in the flowering land / Of love, that knows not a dividing sea." And if fate decrees a parting should take place between those who love, Rossetti has issued the memorable, inspiring, albeit arduous entreaty, "Better by far you should forget and smile / Than that you should remember and be sad." - Summary by Bruce Kachuk]]></description><guid isPermaLink="false">https://api.spreaker.com/episode/72869242</guid><pubDate>Wed, 08 Jul 2026 14:17:31 +0000</pubDate><enclosure url="https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/72869242/sonnets_edna_st_vincent_millay.mp3" length="26588097" type="audio/mpeg"/><podcast:transcript url="https://transcription.spreaker.com/starship/793043b3-79a8-4364-aaa3-c4af1829e43c/793043b3-79a8-4364-aaa3-c4af1829e43c.srt" type="application/x-subrip" language="en"/><podcast:transcript url="https://transcription.spreaker.com/starship/793043b3-79a8-4364-aaa3-c4af1829e43c/793043b3-79a8-4364-aaa3-c4af1829e43c.txt" type="text/plain" language="en"/><podcast:transcript url="https://transcription.spreaker.com/starship/793043b3-79a8-4364-aaa3-c4af1829e43c/793043b3-79a8-4364-aaa3-c4af1829e43c.vtt" type="text/vtt" language="en"/><itunes:author>Edna St. Vincent Millay</itunes:author><itunes:subtitle>This is an excellent selection of introspective, inspirational and remarkably compelling sonnets from one of the greatest poets of the nineteenth century. Christina Rossetti, in writing of the frailties of mankind and the mysteries of existence, sheds...</itunes:subtitle><itunes:summary><![CDATA[This is an excellent selection of introspective, inspirational and remarkably compelling sonnets from one of the greatest poets of the nineteenth century. Christina Rossetti, in writing of the frailties of mankind and the mysteries of existence, sheds a new light on the nature of love, life and the inevitable "silent land". The lattice of sentient awareness which like a web unites and unifies this collection is one of an indulgent perception of life and its diversity, of human emotion and its capriciousness and of a deep conception of death and its intangible illusion of finality. This illusion, indefinable as it is, becomes an enigma in the hands of Rossetti, often becoming an ambiguity, at times a fantasy and on occasion almost a dismal reality. These poems, these snapshots of life, these glimpses of the pathos of the here and the mystery of the hereafter are assured to fascinate, allure and indeed perplex, motivate and inspire. Hope and faith, to which the human condition is wont to aspire are ever present in Rossetti's poems, along with the assurance that, "death be strong, yet love is strong as death." Foremost components of Rossetti's concept of hope and faith are that love can prevail, love can promise and love can unite, "happy equals in the flowering land / Of love, that knows not a dividing sea." And if fate decrees a parting should take place between those who love, Rossetti has issued the memorable, inspiring, albeit arduous entreaty, "Better by far you should forget and smile / Than that you should remember and be sad." - Summary by Bruce Kachuk]]></itunes:summary><itunes:duration>3324</itunes:duration><itunes:keywords>illusion,indefinable,lattice,love,motivate,perplex,rossetti,should,single,sonnets</itunes:keywords><itunes:explicit>false</itunes:explicit><itunes:image href="https://d3wo5wojvuv7l.cloudfront.net/t_rss_itunes_square_1400/images.spreaker.com/original/0e65d85d1af6c1e2688777a4389c324b.jpg"/><itunes:episodeType>full</itunes:episodeType></item></channel></rss>
