The Canon Ball

Don't call it a comeback: Claude and Dan return after a lengthy hiatus with... Lyrical Ballads! But THIS is Wordsworth's extensively revised, reordered, and largely de-Coleridged 1805 edition. We go deep teasing out Wordsworth's tangled erotic sentiment, discuss the place of the Americas in the Old World imagination, and arrive at some final thoughts on Wordsworth's poetics. In our typical fashion, we discover what all this has to do with Mayberry and William Faulkner.

And we come to the conclusion of our read of the first version of Lyrical Ballads.  Want to know what Claude has been on about for the past few years with the term ontological/epistemological crisis? Here’s your answer with a close exploration of Wordsworth’s “Tintern Abbey,” the poem that closes the volume. The Canon Ball is part of the Agora podcast network. If you’re online check us out at thecanonballpodcast.wordpress.com, on Twitter at Canonballpod, and on Facebook @TheCanonBallPodcast. And if you like our show but want to know more about film and what goes into the making of it check out Beyond the Big Screen, a podcast that goes into the intricate details (historical, philosophical, and otherwise) behind major motion pictures. And if you’re really hankering for more drama, friends of the show Andrew Pfannkuche and Ana Weinberg have put together a biographical discussion show about the life of Alexandre Dumas called “Two Musketeers.” If you like the show, they’ve entered it for competition in the Tongal creative community. Go vote for them at the link: https://tongal.com/welcome/ngp/

In this episode, Claude and Dan continue their journey into Lyrical Ballads and cover the varied sallies of William Wordsworth. Excerpts from uncompleted plays, touching ghost story poems, further streetside harangues from beaten down people, there’s something for everyone and always a lot more going on than it seems at first blush! Claude explores Wordsworth’s place among the Romantics and Dan is moved to wax poetic about the public recycling drop-off by the high school football stadium.The Canon Ball is part of the Agora podcast network. If you’re online check us out at thecanonballpodcast.wordpress.com, find us on Facebook @TheCanonBallPodcast, and on Twitter @Canonballpod.

We’re one poem in to Lyrical Ballads and by god is it a wild one! We’re reading through and contemplating Coleridge’s “Rime of the Ancyent Marinere” (1798 spelling), one of the weirder gothic poems in the English language and one hell of a way to start a poetic project. Why would a mariner shoot an albatross with a crossbow? Why would a mariner even have a crossbow? We try to get to the bottom of these mysteries as we begin dipping our toes into this watershed volume of Romantic poetry. The Canon Ball is part of the Agora podcast network. Check out some of the other shows on the network like Ben Jacobs’ From Wittenberg to Westphalia, a full exploration of the Protestant Reformation. Ben examines all of the nitty gritty details of the history, theology, politics, and even the civic planning that went into the transformation of Europe from Catholic dominance to, well, whatever it was that came after. If you’re online check us out at thecanonballpodcast.wordpress.com, find us on Facebook @TheCanonBallPodcast, and on Twitter @Canonballpod. And if you or a kid in your life need English tutoring, SAT tutoring, or college essay help drop us a line at claudemoinc@gmail.com. Claude could use the money…

It’s that time of year again. The Intelligent Speech Conference is just around the corner! The theme this year is “Escape,” and out of sheer perversion Daniel and Claude are going to discuss the works of Jorge Luis Borges, a writer mostly known for writing tales involving inescapable intellectual mazes. Can Borges find a way out? Can Claude and Daniel? Come see us at Intelligent Speech and find out!Intelligent Speech is Saturday April 24th beginning at 10 AM EST (3 PM GMT). Tickets are $30 each, $20 if you register before March 24th. Use promo code “canon” for a special discount and to support the show!https://www.intelligentspeechconference.com/product/intelligent-speech-spring-2021/

Dear Listeners: will you be our valentine? In this special romantic bonus episode, Claude and Dan take a look at the romantic poetry of John Donne. There is even more hidden meaning and beauty than just the superficial double entendres and suggestive verse. The Canon Ball mingles the erotic and the divine once again! Seems like a theme in the canon...The Canon Ball is a member of the Agora podcast network. If you’re online check us out at thecanonballpodcast.wordpress.com, find us on Facebook @TheCanonBallPodcast, and on Twitter @CanonBallPod. 

Claude takes Dan back to school for a crash course in poetics. We take a dive into the structure and rhythm of poetry, how people who study poetry talk about it, and what the seasoned poetry reader should keep an ear out for. Learn to tell your iambs from your dactyls!The Canon Ball is a member of the Agora podcast network. If you’re online check us out at thecanonballpodcast.wordpress.com, find us on Facebook @TheCanonBallPodcast, and on Twitter @CanonBallPod. 

We did it! Out of the Faustian Aristocratic Age fire and into pure, straight up, uncut romanticism by way of Lyrical Ballads, the joint production of William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Did Lyrical Ballads break new ground? … no. Did it shatter the poetic norms of British poetry all at once, brushing stuffy aristocratic heroic couplet satires into the dustbin of history? … no. Did it incite a literary revolution, breaking down the barriers for entry into the domain of poetry for the common British subject? … no. But it still was a major watershed production in the history of poetry in English, and though we deflate some expectations on this preliminary background episode on the historical context of the book, we do still recognize that Wordsworth and Coleridge made a major intervention on the function and purpose of poetry.The Canon Ball is a member of the Agora podcast network. We’ve added a couple of great new shows to the network, like Pontifacts, a light hearted, only slightly blasphemous, papal history podcast that ranks the popes from Peter to Francis. And launching this month is Revolution 1, a podcast examination of the Tunisian Uprising and the Arab Spring that followed.If you’re online check us out at thecanonballpodcast.wordpress.com, find us on Facebook @TheCanonBallPodcast, and on Twitter @CanonBallPod.