306 Keats's Great Odes (with Anahid Nersessian)

The History of Literature

Jacke Wilson

History, Books, Arts

4.6 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 8 February 2021

⏱️ 70 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In 1819, John Keats quit his job as an assistant surgeon, abandoned an epic poem he was writing, and focused his poetic energies on shorter works. What followed was one of the most fertile periods in the history of poetry, as in a few months' time Keats completed six masterpieces, including such celebrated classics as "To Autumn," "Ode to a Nightingale," and "Ode on a Grecian Urn." Now, two hundred years later, an American scholar has written an exciting new book called Keats's Odes: A Lover's Discourse, in which she gathers and revisits the Great Odes, viewing them through a personal prism. Anahid Nersessian was born and grew up in New York City. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, and has taught at Columbia University and UCLA. Her first book, Utopia, Limited: Romanticism and Adjustment was published by Harvard University Press in 2015, and her second book, The Calamity Form: On Poetry and Social Life, by the University of Chicago in 2020. She lives in Los Angeles, CA. Help support the show at patreon.com/literature or historyofliterature.com/shop. (We appreciate it!) Find out more at historyofliterature.com, jackewilson.com, or by following Jacke and Mike on Twitter at @thejackewilson and @literatureSC. Or send an email to [email protected]. New!!! Looking for an easy to way to buy Jacke a coffee? Now you can at paypal.me/jackewilson. Your generosity is much appreciated! The History of Literature Podcast is a member of Lit Hub Radio and the Podglomerate Network. Learn more at www.thepodglomerate.com/historyofliterature. *** This show is a part of the Podglomerate network, a company that produces, distributes, and monetizes podcasts. We encourage you to visit the website and sign up for our newsletter for more information about our shows, launches, and events. For more information on how The Podglomerate treats data, please see our Privacy Policy. Since you're listening to The History of Literature, we'd like to suggest you also try other Podglomerate shows surrounding literature, history, and storytelling like Storybound, Micheaux Mission, and The History of Standup. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	The History of Literature podcast is a member of the Podglomerate Network and LitHub radio.
0:07.0	I have a student who came to me and said, you know, I think it's so wonderful that when
0:19.4	you teach this poem, you tell us it's your favorite poem and I thought, oh, yes, I do
0:22.9	do that.
0:23.9	And they said, I think it's so wonderful that when you read it out loud, you cry.
0:26.8	And I thought, I cry when I read this poem out loud, because I hadn't been aware of
0:32.5	that at all.
0:33.5	And so I realized that apparently when I've been reading this poem aloud to my students,
0:37.8	I've been choking up or tearing up slightly in a way that's visible to them, even though
0:41.8	it was not visible to me.
0:45.7	That's Professor Anna Hiedner-Sessian, talking about one of the poems that puts tears in
0:53.1	her eyes and a catch in her throat.
0:56.0	We'll hear what poem she's referring to, along with her long time love for the poetry
1:00.6	of John Keats, her background as a literature devotee and her new book, Keats' Odds, A
1:07.2	Lovers Discourse, which looks at Keats' six great Odds through a personal prism.
1:14.2	That's all coming up today on The History of Literature.
1:25.5	Okay, here we go.
1:41.9	Hello, everyone.
1:42.9	Welcome to the podcast.
1:43.9	I'm your host, Jack Wilson, so we have Mr. John Keats once again.
1:48.6	We did a double episode on him last year.
1:51.3	Was it, or last year, or the year before it's all kind of a blur now?
	...

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