Our guest on this episode of the Keats-Shelley Podcast is the poet, biographer and critic Fiona Sampson - who is also Chair of 2022's Keats-Shelley and Young Romantics Prizes.
Our conversation begins with Fiona reading her favourite Shelley poem, Hymn to Intellectual Beauty - which inspired the title of Fiona's new book, Starlight Wood. This forms the basis of our discussion, which roams freely to ponder issues including: the importance of reading aloud; what is 'Intellectual Beauty'; and what does it mean for an atheist like Shelley to write a hymn? Fiona Sampson the poet unravels the sound patterns of Shelley's verse and compares the 'Hymn' to its sister-poem, Mont Blanc. Fiona Sampson the biographer tells the story of the poem's composition and the infamous summer without a summer of 1816, which also inspired Mary Shelley to begin Frankenstein.
Part 2 of the conversation will follow.
Read more about Fiona Sampson here.
Buy a copy of Starlight Wood here.
Ep. 31 Is this how John Keats would have sounded reading Bright Star?
Ep. 30 Why should we read Shelley, Keats or the Romantics in 2023? Fiona Sampson Part 2
Ep. 29 Winner of 2022’s Keats-Shelley Poetry Prize: ‘December Moth outside a care-home window’
Ep. 28 Fiona Sampson announces the Winners of 2022’s Keats-Shelley Prizes
Ep 26 Percy Bysshe Shelley’s Hymn to Intellectual Beauty read by Fiona Sampson
Ep. 25. Erica Jong talks about her life, career and why she loves John Keats
Ep. 24. Shelley’s Adonais read by Mick Jagger (Sheats-Kelly remix)
Ep. 23 Winner of 2021’s Keats-Shelley Poetry Prize: in the kelp forest by Katrina Naomi (read by Deryn Rees-Jones)
Ep. 22 Winner of 2021’s Young Romantics Poetry Prize: ‘A Craftsman‘s Tale‘ by Eustacia Feng (read by Will Kemp)
Ep. 21 How do you solve a problem like Maria Cotterell? The story of John Keats, the Maria Crowther and his Final Voyage
Ep. 20 Mark Wallinger: Why I Love John Keats - Art, Epitaphs and Magna Carta
Ep. 19 John Keats and Rome’s Protestant Cemetery. A conversation with Nicholas Stanley-Price
Ep. 18 How did John Keats influence Christina Rossetti and the Pre-Raphaelites? A Conversation with Dinah Roe
Ep. 17 Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s sonnet for John Keats read and discussed by Dinah Roe
Ep. 16 Readings: This Living Hand and Where be ye going, you Devon maid by John Keats
Ep. 15 Writ in water, lemon juice or invisible ink? Adam Smyth examines John Keats‘ epitaph as material text.
Ep. 14 Erica Jong’s top writing tips for Young Romantics
Ep. 13 John Keats’ Bright Star read by heart with analysis
Ep. 12 Reading: John Keats‘ ‘In drear nighted December‘
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Lit Society: Books and Drama
Ex Libris
Write The Book: Conversations on Craft
Great Expectations
The Turn of the Screw
Fresh Air
Myths and Legends