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. 11 Reading: John Keats‘ First Poem: Imitation of Spenser
Ep. 10 Giovanni Keats: The Story of John Keats and Italy
Ep. 9 Winner of 2020‘s Young Romantics Poetry Prize: Senbazuru by Joyce Chen (read by Dinah Roe)
Ep. 8 Winner of 2020‘s Keats-Shelley Poetry Prize: Indian Paradise Flycatcher by Pascale Petit (read by Will Kemp)
Ep. 7 Is John Keats’ ’immortal bird’ soon-to-be extrinct? A conversation with Simon Barnes (Part 2)
Ep. 6 Why are Nightingales and Skylarks SO Poetic? A conversation with Simon Barnes (Part 1)
Ep. 5 Simon Barnes on John Keats and John Clare from The Meaning of Birds
Ep. 4 Simon Barnes on the joy of birdwatching
Ep. 3 At the Grave of John Keats: Part 2 (recorded in Rome’s Cimitero Acattolico)
Ep. 2 At the Grave of John Keats: Part 1 (recorded in Rome’s Cimitero Acattolico)
Ep. 1 Poetry Reading: John Keats’ To Autumn read by heart
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