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Poetical Fragments

Courage Lowrance 93 Episodes Apr 13, 2025

Poetical Fragments is the podcast companion to a blog focused on poetry. It explores poets, poems, and the craft of verse. Episodes likely feature readings, commentary, and reflections on poetic works. The show is for readers and writers interested in poetry as both art and practice.

Episodes

'Sonnets 101-105,' by William Shakespeare (1609) Apr 13, 2025 316 This is a poetry reading from the month of April 2025.

'Sonnets 96-100,' by William Shakespeare Oct 19, 2024 349 This is a poetry reading from the month of October, 2024. If you enjoy what you hear, please go over to www.poeticalfragments.com to read more.

'Sonnets 91-95,' by William Shakespeare (1609) Aug 24, 2024 362 This is a poetry reading from the month of August 2024. If you enjoy what you hear, please go over to www.poeticalfragments.com to read more.

'Do Not Go Gentle,' Dylan Thomas (1951); 'If I Could Tell You,' W.H. Auden (1940); 'At Dawn,' Courage Lowrance (2022) Jul 6, 2024 337 This is a poetry reading from the month of July 2024. If you enjoy what you hear, please go over to www.poeticalfragments.com to read more. I am posting three villanelles here, the last of which is my own. Go this link for a description of the structure of a villanelle:https://classicalpoets.org/2016/10/19/how-to-write-a-villanelle-with-examples/

'Sonnets 86-90,' by William Shakespeare (1609) Jun 16, 2024 374 This is a poetry reading from the month of June 2024. If you enjoy what you hear, please go over to www.poeticalfragments.com to read more.

'Comus' by John Milton (1634) Apr 28, 2024 3492 This is a poetry reading from the month of April, 2024. If you enjoy what you hear, please go over to www.poeticalfragments.com to read more. Comus is a masque, written by John Milton, and performed in 1634. A masque is a kind of court play, a festive drama. So it was a little difficult to read out in this format, but hopefully it is still worth enjoying as an audio recording, since the original p

'Sonnets 81-85,' by William Shakespeare Apr 21, 2024 349 This is a poetry reading from the month of April, 2024. If you enjoy what you hear, please go over to www.poeticalfragments.com to read more.

'Sonnets 76-80,' by William Shakespeare Mar 31, 2024 384 This is a poetry reading from the month of March 2024. If you enjoy what you hear, please go over to www.poeticalfragments.com to read more.

'Sonnets 71-75,' by William Shakespeare Mar 3, 2024 352 This is a poetry reading from the month of March 2024. If you enjoy what you hear, please go over to www.poeticalfragments.com to read more.

'Sonnets 66-70,' by William Shakespeare Feb 25, 2024 363 This is a poetry reading from the month of February 2024. If you enjoy what you hear, please go over to www.poeticalfragments.com to read more.

'Annabel Lee,' 'The City in the Sea,' and 'The Raven' by Edgar Allan Poe Feb 11, 2024 963 This is a poetry reading from the month of February 2024. If you enjoy what you hear, please go over to www.poeticalfragments.com to read more. Three of my favorite poems by Poe :)P.S. Watch The Fall of the House of Usher on Netflix. These all show up in it, and it might be awesome.

'Sonnets 61-65,' by William Shakespeare Dec 10, 2023 383 This is a poetry reading from the month of December 2023. If you enjoy what you hear, please go over to www.poeticalfragments.com to read more.

'Sonnets 56-60,' by William Shakespeare Dec 3, 2023 388 This is a poetry reading from the month of December 2023. If you enjoy what you hear, please go over to www.poeticalfragments.com to read more.

'Sonnets 51-55,' by William Shakespeare Nov 4, 2023 391 This is a poetry reading from the month of November 2023. If you enjoy what you hear, please go over to www.poeticalfragments.com to read more. Sonnet 55 is one of my favorites.

'Sonnets 46-50,' by William Shakespeare Oct 22, 2023 359 This is a poetry reading from the month of October 2023. If you enjoy what you hear, please go over to www.poeticalfragments.com to read more.

'Sonnets 41-45,' by William Shakespeare Oct 7, 2023 365 This is a poetry reading from the month of October 2023. If you enjoy what you hear, please go over to www.poeticalfragments.com to read more.

'The Pearl,' 'Affliction,' and 'Time,' by George Herbert (17th century) Aug 20, 2023 391 This is a poetry reading from the month of August 2023. If you enjoy what you hear, please go over to www.poeticalfragments.com to read more.

'Sonnets 36-40,' by William Shakespeare Jul 29, 2023 353 This is a poetry reading from the month of July 2023. If you enjoy what you hear, please go over to www.poeticalfragments.com to read more. The fortieth is one my absolute favorites. More of those coming up...

'Sonnets 31-35,' by William Shakespeare Jul 15, 2023 355 This is a poetry reading from the month of July 2023. If you enjoy what you hear, please go over to www.poeticalfragments.com to read more.

'Natural Theology,' by Rudyard Kipling Jul 2, 2023 246 This is a poetry reading from the month of July 2023. If you enjoy what you hear, please go over to www.poeticalfragments.com to read more.

'The Negro Speaks of Rivers,' by Langston Hughes (1921); 'Laws for Creations' (1867), and 'Kosmos' (1860), by Walt Whitman Jun 17, 2023 302 This is a poetry reading from the month of June 2023. If you enjoy what you hear, please go over to www.poeticalfragments.com to read more.I've read Hughes' poem before on this feed, but I wanted to combine it with material from Whitman this time around. I'd like to focus more on reading American poets, if not now, then in the near future.

'Ode to a Nightingale,' by John Keats (1820) Jun 10, 2023 391 This is a poetry reading from the month of June 2023. If you enjoy what you hear, please go over to www.poeticalfragments.com to read more. By the poet Keats, a somber reflection on the beauty of a bird and its song.

'Landscapes,' by T.S. Eliot May 20, 2023 291 This is a poetry reading from the month of May 2023. If you enjoy what you hear, please go over to www.poeticalfragments.com to read more.

'To Nature,' (1836); 'On a Cataract,' (1844); 'Homesick,' (1800): by Samuel Taylor Coleridge May 13, 2023 255 This is a poetry reading from the month of May 2023. If you enjoy what you hear, please go over to www.poeticalfragments.com to read more.A selection of various poems by Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

'Unnamed Poem' by W.H. Auden (September 1939) May 8, 2023 247 This is a poetry reading from the month of May 2023. If you enjoy what you hear, please go over to www.poeticalfragments.com to read more. An unnamed poem by Auden from the month in which the Second World War began, though I can't see a connection within this coincidence.

'Sonnets 26-30' by William Shakespeare Apr 30, 2023 371 This is a poetry reading from the month of April 2023. If you enjoy what you hear, please go over to www.poeticalfragments.com to read more.

'Sonnets 21-25' by William Shakespeare Apr 16, 2023 352 This is a poetry reading from the month of April 2023. If you enjoy what you hear, please go over to www.poeticalfragments.com to read more.

'The Land of Beyond' by Robert Service, 'Out Where the West Begins' by Arthur Chapman, 'There is a Pleasure in the Pathless Woods' by Lord Byron Apr 9, 2023 271 This is a poetry reading from the month of April 2023. If you enjoy what you hear, please go over to www.poeticalfragments.com to read more. A selection of poems for this Spring, when everything begins to feel a bit more open and free.

'Sonnets 16-20' by William Shakespeare Apr 2, 2023 363 This is a poetry reading from the month of March 2023. If you enjoy what you hear, please go over to www.poeticalfragments.com to read more.

William Shakespeare, 'Sonnets 11-15' Mar 14, 2023 372 This is a poetry reading from the month of March 2023. If you enjoy what you hear, please go over to www.poeticalfragments.com to read more.

'Acquainted with the Night' by Robert Frost Feb 5, 2023 130 This is a poetry reading from the month of February 2023. If you enjoy what you hear, please go over to www.poeticalfragments.com to read more.

'Ode' by John Keats Dec 18, 2022 200 This is a poetry reading from the month of December 2022. If you enjoy what you hear, please go over to www.poeticalfragments.com to read more.

'Sonnets 6-10,' by William Shakespeare Dec 11, 2022 372 This is a poetry reading from the month of December 2022. If you enjoy what you hear, please go over to www.poeticalfragments.com to read more.

'The Bunch of Grapes,' by George Herbert Dec 7, 2022 186 This is a poetry reading from the month of December 2022. If you enjoy what you hear, please go over to www.poeticalfragments.com to read more. George Herbert was a priest and poet in England in the 17th century.

'All Day I Hear the Noise of Waters,' by James Joyce, and 'A Note on War Poetry,' by T.S. Eliot (1942) Nov 28, 2022 207 This is a poetry reading from the month of November 2022. If you enjoy what you hear, please go over to www.poeticalfragments.com to read more.

'You, Andrew Marvell,' by Archibald MacLeish Nov 13, 2022 186 This is a poetry reading from the month of November 2022. If you enjoy what you hear, please go over to www.poeticalfragments.com to read more. A wonderful, nearly mystical, apprehension of the passage of time.

'Mandalay' by Rudyard Kipling Nov 5, 2022 273 This is a poetry reading from the month of November 2022. If you enjoy what you hear, please go over to www.poeticalfragments.com to read more. Kipling manages in this poem to be both realistic and romantic at once about the nature of the overseas colonial soldier in the British Empire.

'Sonnets 1-5' by William Shakespeare (16th century) Oct 30, 2022 394 This is a poetry reading from the month of October 2022. If you enjoy what you hear, please go over to www.poeticalfragments.com to read more. The first five of 154 sonnets, written by Shakespeare. All concern themes surrounding love between lovers, appeals for marriage, etc... I hope to read all of them here on the podcast feed, hopefully not all in a row, but over time.

'Mutability' by Percy Bysshe Shelley (c. 1815) Oct 22, 2022 138 This is a poetry reading from the month of October 2022. If you enjoy what you hear, please go over to www.poeticalfragments.com to read more. An early poem by Shelley.

'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,' by Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1798) Oct 16, 2022 1793 This is a poetry reading from the month of October 2022. If you enjoy what you hear, please go over to www.poeticalfragments.com to read more. This poem by Coleridge is a landmark in Romantic poetry: hellish and beautiful, mysterious and tremendous.

'The Kraken' by Alfred Lord Tennyson (1830) Oct 9, 2022 142 This is a poetry reading from the month of October 2022. If you enjoy what you hear, please go over to www.poeticalfragments.com to read more. This poem captures, I think, the emotional essence of what we mean by a sea monster: something mythic, godlike, and untouchable, but always there.

'The Fall of Rome,' by W.H. Auden (January 1947) Oct 3, 2022 157 This is a poetry reading from the month of October 2022. If you enjoy what you hear, please go over to www.poeticalfragments.com to read more. A curious symbolic brew of the ancient and modern worlds.

'On Time,' by John Milton Sep 26, 2022 143 This is a poetry reading from the month of September 2022. If you enjoy what you hear, please go over to www.poeticalfragments.com to read more. A piece of miscellany from John Milton.

'The Sacred' by Stephen Dunn Sep 19, 2022 114 This is a poetry reading from the month of September 2022. If you enjoy what you hear, please go over to www.poeticalfragments.com to read more.

'The Negro Speaks of Rivers,' by Langston Hughes (1921) Sep 11, 2022 126 This is a poetry reading from the month of September 2022. If you enjoy what you hear, please go over to www.poeticalfragments.com to read more. From one of my favorite American poets.

2022 July-August Poems Sep 7, 2022 318 These are the poems for the months of July and August 2022. If you enjoy what you hear, please go over to www.poeticalfragments.com to read more.1. Boundless2. Escape3. What's Left4. Wafting On the Breeze

'Atlantis' by W.H. Auden (January 1941) Aug 23, 2022 268 This is a poetry reading from the month of August 2022. If you enjoy what you hear, please go over to www.poeticalfragments.com to read more. A journey of the Classical, the Christian, and the Modern.

'Ode to Apollo' by John Keats Jul 25, 2022 159 This is a poetry reading from the month of July 2022. If you enjoy what you hear, please go over to www.poeticalfragments.com to read more.

'She was a Phantom of Delight' by William Wordsworth (1807) Jul 18, 2022 163 This is a poetry reading from the month of July 2022. If you enjoy what you hear, please go over to www.poeticalfragments.com to read more. An image of the Ideal Feminine from Wordsworth.

2022 June Poems Jul 10, 2022 292 These are the poems for the month of June 2022. If you enjoy what you hear, please go over to www.poeticalfragments.com to read more.1. What Has Passed2. Little Images3. Cease4. Its Passing By

'Preludes' by T.S. Eliot from "Prufrock and Other Observations" (1917) Jul 4, 2022 227 This is a poetry reading from the month of July 2022. If you enjoy what you hear, please go over to www.poeticalfragments.com to read more.

'Rebirth' by Rudyard Kipling Jun 19, 2022 142 This is a poetry reading from the month of June 2022. If you enjoy what you hear, please go over to www.poeticalfragments.com to read more.

2022 May Poems Jun 12, 2022 225 These are the poems for the month of May 2022. If you enjoy what you hear, please go over to www.poeticalfragments.com to read more.1. Hardly2. Fade3. Rainy Wood

'The Raven' by Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1797) Jun 5, 2022 229 This is a poetry reading from the month of June 2022. If you enjoy what you hear, please go over to www.poeticalfragments.com to read more.

2022 April Poems May 29, 2022 287 These are the poems for the month of April 2022. If you enjoy what you hear, please go over to www.poeticalfragments.com to read more.1. Heritage2. Libation3. Rare Elixir

'Sonnet - To Science,' by Edgar Allan Poe May 22, 2022 130 This is a poetry reading from the month of May 2022. If you enjoy what you hear, please go over to www.poeticalfragments.com to read more. A poem of with a Romantic sensibility by the American poet Edgar Allan Poe.

2022 March Poems May 22, 2022 336 These are the poems for the month of March 2022. If you enjoy what you hear, please go over to www.poeticalfragments.com to read more.1. A Beautiful Place2. Rambling through Space3. 'Round the Table4. Already

2022 February Poems Mar 22, 2022 272 These are the poems for the month of February 2022. If you enjoy what you hear, please go over to www.poeticalfragments.com to read more.1. Musings on the Sky2. Lightly Held3. Forest's Breath4. Wispy Wild Way

2022 January Poems Mar 22, 2022 349 These are the poems for the month of January 2022. If you enjoy what you hear, please go over to www.poeticalfragments.com to read more.1. End of Days2. Passing Pebbles3. Concealed Fire4. Wiser Mind5. Evening's Breath

2021 December Poems Mar 22, 2022 300 These are the poems for the month of December 2021. If you enjoy what you hear, please go over to www.poeticalfragments.com to read more.1. Holocaust2. Songs3. Oceanic Meditation4. Bent

'On the Grasshopper and Cricket,' by John Keats (1817) Mar 22, 2022 125 This is a fortnightly poetic reading in November 2021. If you enjoy what you hear, please go over to www.poeticalfragments.com to read more. A meditation on the warmer seasons of the year.

2021 November Poems Mar 22, 2022 335 These are the poems for the month of November 2021. If you enjoy what you hear, please go over to www.poeticalfragments.com to read more.1. Time's Rush2. Dead Poets3. Lone Bodies4. Consolations

'Jordan' by George Herbert Feb 20, 2022 127 This is a fortnightly poetic reading in February 2022. If you enjoy what you hear, please go over to www.poeticalfragments.com to read more. A poem by George Herbert, one of the greatest poets of piety.

2021 October Poems Feb 20, 2022 254 These are the poems for the month of October 2021. If you enjoy what you hear, please go over to www.poeticalfragments.com to read more.1. 'The Course of Waters'2. 'Tragedy'3. 'Mourning Song'4. 'Desert's Death'

'Spirits in Bondage: Part 1 - The Prison House, "Night" through "In Prison" (1919) Nov 21, 2021 348 This is a fortnightly poetic reading in November 2021. If you enjoy what you hear, please go over to www.poeticalfragments.com to read more.

'Spirits in Bondage: Part 1 - The Prison House, "Irish Nocturne" through "Ode for New Year's Day"' Oct 10, 2021 497 This is a fortnightly poetic reading in October 2021. If you enjoy what you hear, please go over to www.poeticalfragments.com to read more. The second reading from C.S. Lewis' 'Spirits in Bondage.'

2021 September Poems Oct 3, 2021 274 These are the poems for the month of September 2021. If you enjoy what you hear, please go over to www.poeticalfragments.com to read more.1. The Nightmare's Voice2. Somber Eve3. Revere4. Mess

'Spirits in Bondage: Part 1 - The Prison House, "Satan Speaks" through "Victory"' by C.S. Lewis (1919) Sep 27, 2021 361 This is a fortnightly poetic reading in September 2021. If you enjoy what you hear, please go over to www.poeticalfragments.com to read more.

2021 September Essay - "Metaphorical Musings" Sep 27, 2021 342 This is a fortnightly essay reading from September 2021. If you enjoy what you hear, please go over to www.poeticalfragments.com to read more. An essay about the relationship between myth and theology.

'Spirits in Bondage: Prologue,' by C.S. Lewis (1919) Sep 13, 2021 173 This is a fortnightly poetic reading in September 2021. If you enjoy what you hear, please go over to www.poeticalfragments.com to read more. The first poem that makes up Spirits in Bondage, published in 1919 by C.S. Lewis. This poem cycle is rather rich to read through and is too unknown by those who might like much of Lewis's other work. I intend to read through the entirety of this work ov

2021 August Poems Sep 13, 2021 286 These are the poems for the month of August 2021. If you enjoy what you hear, please go over to www.poeticalfragments.com to read more.

2021 August Essay - 'Poetry and Pain' Sep 6, 2021 523 This is a fortnightly essay reading from August 2021. If you enjoy what you hear, please go over to www.poeticalfragments.com to read more. An essay about the relationship between poetry and pain.

2021 July Essay - 'American Poetics' Aug 22, 2021 382 This is a fortnightly essay reading from August 2021. If you enjoy what you hear, please go over to www.poeticalfragments.com to read more. A short essay on the nature of poetry in the American experience.

'O Captain! My Captain!" by Walt Whitman from 'Memories of Lincoln' in 'Leaves of Grass' Aug 15, 2021 169 This is a fortnightly poetic reading in July 2021. If you enjoy what you hear, please go over to www.poeticalfragments.com to read more. Walt Whitman's lament for the death of Abraham Lincoln.

July 2021 Poems Aug 15, 2021 238 These are the poems for the month of July 2021. If you enjoy what you hear, please go over to www.poeticalfragments.com to read more.

2021 July Essay - 'Evolutionary Aesthetics: Part II' Aug 9, 2021 1367 This is a fortnightly essay reading from July 2021. If you enjoy what you hear, please go over to www.poeticalfragments.com to read more. The second essay of a series on the evolutionary aspects of the origins and nature of poetry.

2021 May Poems Jul 26, 2021 312 These are the poems for the month of May 2021. If you enjoy what you hear, please go over to www.poeticalfragments.com to read more.

'Sonnet 64,' by William Shakespeare Jul 26, 2021 124 This is a fortnightly poetic reading in July 2021. If you enjoy what you hear, please go over to www.poeticalfragments.com to read more. One of my favorite sonnets by Shakespeare :)

2021 May Essay - Evolutionary Aesthetics May 24, 2021 1151 This is a fortnightly essay reading from May 2021. If you enjoy what you hear, please go over to www.poeticalfragments.com to read more. The first essay of a series that explores some potentially true ideas about the origins of poetry and humanity's perception of beauty from an evolutionary perspective.

2021 April Poems May 23, 2021 206 These are the poems for the month of April 2021. If you enjoy what you hear, please go over to www.poeticalfragments.com to read more.

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