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It’s been a while but Rusty Sonnets sneaks in a final track for 2020. This episode looks at the angsty Dover honeymoon of the Victorian poet Matthew Arnold.

This week’s Rusty Sonnets marks the fourth episode of our monthly Paradise Lost Book Club. Always wanted to read Paradise Lost but felt the great tome was a little bit too daunting? Well, let’s all read it together. We’ll be looking at one book(chapter)every month until we finish with Book 12 in December. You can listen to the other parts here: soundcloud.com/rustysonnets/sets/paradise-lost-book-club If you enjoy the podcast you can buy me a coffee via my Ko-Fi page: ko-fi.com/niallosullivan

This week’s Rusty Sonnets marks the third episode of our monthly Paradise Lost Book Club. Always wanted to read Paradise Lost but felt the great tome was a little bit too daunting? Well, let’s all read it together. We’ll be looking at one book(chapter)every month until we finish with Book 12 in December. You can listen to the other parts here: https://soundcloud.com/rustysonnets/sets/paradise-lost-book-club If you enjoy the podcast you can buy me a coffee via my Ko-Fi page: ko-fi.com/niallosullivan

This week’s Rusty Sonnets marks the second episode of our monthly Paradise Lost Book Club. Always wanted to read Paradise Lost but felt the great tome was a little bit too daunting? Well, let’s all read it together. We’ll be looking at one book(chapter)every month until we finish with Book 12 in December. You can listen to part 1 here: https://soundcloud.com/rustysonnets/rusty-sonnets-paradise-lost-book-club-part-1 If you enjoy the podcast you can buy me a coffee via my Ko-Fi page: ko-fi.com/niallosullivan

On this week's Rusty Sonnets we look into George Eliot's musing of the selfless "bubble world" in her unpublished poem, I Give You Ample Leave. I then end the podcast by instructing the listener in how to experience Douglas Harding's Headless Way. Are you enjoying Rusty Sonnets? You can support my work by buying me a coffee via my Ko-Fi account: https://ko-fi.com/niallosullivan

This week’s Rusty Sonnets marks the first episode of our monthly Paradise Lost Book Club. Always wanted to read Paradise Lost but felt the great tome was a little bit too daunting? Well, let’s all read it together. We’ll be looking at one book(chapter)every month until we finish with Book 12 in December. If you enjoy the podcast you can buy me a coffee via my Ko-Fi page: https://ko-fi.com/niallosullivan

Welcome to our late Christmas episode of Rusty Sonnets! Today we look at the Jesuit martyr Robert Southwell and his nightmarish vision of the spirit of Christmas Day. Yes, I know that Christmas was an eternity ago but it’s not like I’m getting paid for this! Tune in next week for the first monthly instalment of the Paradise Lost Book Club. If you enjoy the podcast you can buy me a coffee via my Ko-Fi page: https://ko-fi.com/niallosullivan

In this week’s Rusty Sonnets we look for optimism from a seemingly unexpected source, the pessimistic poet and novelist, Thomas Hardy. 00.00 Intro and background 10.12 Song of Hope by Thomas Hardy 11.19 Analysis 32.04 W.O.O.O!!! If you enjoy the podcast you can buy me a coffee via my Ko-Fi page: https://ko-fi.com/niallosullivan

In today’s Rusty Sonnets we ask whether virtue can accompany poverty by visiting the witty, down to earth poetry of Oxford’s first postmistress, Mary Jones. 0.00 Intro and background 07.35 Soliloquy on an Empty Purse by Mary Jones 09.50 Analysis 37.23 W.O.O.O!!!

Today we look at Manley Hopkins’s sonnet on how wrestling with despair is actually a grapple with God. I then wander off on one about wrestling. 00.00 Intro and Background 20.35 Carrion Comfort by Gerard Manley Hopkins 22.10 Analysis 40.35 WOOOO!!! If you enjoy the podcast you can buy me a coffee via my Ko-Fi page: https://ko-fi.com/niallosullivan

In today’s Rusty Sonnets we look at a tender lament from a famed swashbuckler and explorer who was perhaps more of a wrongun, Sir Walter Raleigh. 00.00 Intro and background 09.53 To his Sonne by Sir Walter Raliegh 10.50 Analysis 21.39 WOOO!!! If you enjoy the podcast you can buy me a coffee via my Ko-Fi page: https://ko-fi.com/niallosullivan

This week we look at a lyrical description of a bustling Indian market and ask whether it’s a subtle work of propaganda from one of the central figures of Indian independence, Sarojini Naidu. Intro 00.00 In the Bazaars of Hyderabad by Sarojini Naidu 14.04 Analysis 15.37 W.O.O.O. 32.48

In this week’s Rusty Sonnets we muse on whether or not we really want more life with Algernon Charles Swinburne’s ode to Mrs Death (who is also little Mrs Springtime), The Garden of Proserpine. If you enjoy the podcast you can buy me a coffee via my Ko-Fi page: https://ko-fi.com/niallosullivan

After a little break we return with a dip into the multifaceted musings of poet, playwright, novelist, art collector and Modernist salon extraordinaire, Gertrude Stein. Intro and background 00.00 Tender Buttons by Gertrude Stein 21.31 Analysis 29.53 Niall Wanders Off On One....Woooo!!! 52.05

Today’s Rusty Sonnets looks at Ode to a Nightingale by John Keats, a poem about the unreachable beauties of nature and the failure or deception of the poet in recreating the song of a nightingale. If you enjoy the podcast you can buy me a coffee via my Ko-Fi page: https://ko-fi.com/niallosullivan

When a sonnet about your crush is also a potential act of treason, it’s always handy to present it as a translation of a poem about a deer. Today’s Rusty Sonnets explores the intrigues of Henry VIII’s court with a poem from the man that is often credited with bringing the sonnet to England, Sir Thomas Wyatt. 00.00 Intro and background 13.10 Whoso list to hunt, I know where is an hind... by Sir Thomas Wyatt 14.10 Analysis 35.58 Niall Wanders Off On One Wooo!!!

Today we return to the days of the Harlem Renaissance and look at a poem by the poet, teacher, journalist and activist Alice Dunbar Nelson. 00.00 Intro and background 11.27 I Sit and Sew by Alice Dunbar Nelson 12.55 Analysis 29.20 Niall Wanders Off On One ...Wooo!!! If you enjoy the podcast you can buy me a coffee via my Ko-Fi page: https://ko-fi.com/niallosullivan

Today we get back to my favourite author, Anonymous, and an early oral ballad that brings an unfamiliar slant to the story of the nativity. 00.00 Intro and background 06.21 The Cherry Tree Carol by Anonymous 08.00 Analysis 29.40 Niall Wanders Off On One... Wooo!!!

Today we look at a poem from a time when an abundance of fruit meant more than your 5-a-day, Goblin Market by Christina Rossetti. 00.00 Intro 12.25 Goblin Market by Christina Rossetti 31.38 Analysis 54.40 Niall Wanders Off On One ...Wooo!!! Poem: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44996/goblin-market

The summer hiatus is over and Rusty Sonnets is back with a salacious tale of envy, power and murder, My Last Duchess by Robert Browning. 00.00 Intro 09.35 My Last Duchess by Robert Browning 13.10 Analysis 40.00 Niall Wanders Off On One.... Wooo!!! If you enjoy the podcast you can buy me a coffee via my Ko-Fi page: https://ko-fi.com/niallosullivan