Versecraft

Elijah Perseus Blumov
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Exploring the art of poetry through the craft of some of the world's best but most underrated poems.

  1. 29 JAN

    The Numinous Pastorals of Robert Wells

    Read this episode in essay form here!  Topics discussed in this episode include: -The Cambridge Three: Dick Davis, Robert Wells, Clive Wilmer -My Interview with Dick Davis -The Stanford Poets: Thom Gunn, Edgar Bowers, Yvor Winters, etc. -Virgil's Georgics -The Idylls of Theocritus -Wells poems discussed: "A Caution," "Deus Loci," "The Unnamed Pool," "The Bathing Place," "The Last of Summer." -Episodes on the pathetic fallacy here and here -Apophasis -"Le Cimetiere Marin" by Paul Valery -"The Slow Pacific Swell" by Yvor Winters -Sensory deprivation tanks -Mysticism vs. Love Support the show VISIT MY WEBSITE HERE. BUY VERSECRAFT MERCH HERE. VISIT THE VERSECRAFT SUBSTACK HERE. Please subscribe, rate, and review! Thanks so much for listening. You can leave me a tip, support the podcast, or request a commission here! TikTok: @versecraft Send me a note at: versecraftpodcast@gmail.com My favorite poetry podcasts for: Sharp thoughts and cutting truths (Matthew): Sleerickets Lovely introspection and sensitive reflection (Alice): Poetry Says The landscape of Ohioan poetry (Jeremy): Poetry Spotlight Supported in part by The Ohio Poetry Association Art by David Anthony Klug List of the most common metrical feet: Iamb: weak-STRONG (u /) Trochee: STRONG-weak (/ u) Anapest: weak-weak-STRONG (u u /) Amphibrach: weak-STRONG-weak (u / u) Dactyl: STRONG-weak-weak (/ u u) Cretic: STRONG-weak-STRONG (/ u /) Pyrrhic: weak-weak (u u) Spondee: STRONG-STRONG (/ /)

    24 min

  2. 14 JAN

    "Horses on the Camargue" by Roy Campbell

    Read the poem here. Topics discussed in this episode include: -Transcending the smallness of one's time -The Flaming Terrapin -The Voorslag Affair -Campbell against the world, i.e. punching Steve Spender in the face -Ambivalent stanzas -The Waste Land" by T.S. Eliot -"Sunday Morning" by Wallace Stevens -"Kubla Khan" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge -"The Whiteness of the Whale" by Herman Melville -A Nietzschean response to apocalypse Support the show VISIT MY WEBSITE HERE. BUY VERSECRAFT MERCH HERE. VISIT THE VERSECRAFT SUBSTACK HERE. Please subscribe, rate, and review! Thanks so much for listening. You can leave me a tip, support the podcast, or request a commission here! TikTok: @versecraft Send me a note at: versecraftpodcast@gmail.com My favorite poetry podcasts for: Sharp thoughts and cutting truths (Matthew): Sleerickets Lovely introspection and sensitive reflection (Alice): Poetry Says The landscape of Ohioan poetry (Jeremy): Poetry Spotlight Supported in part by The Ohio Poetry Association Art by David Anthony Klug List of the most common metrical feet: Iamb: weak-STRONG (u /) Trochee: STRONG-weak (/ u) Anapest: weak-weak-STRONG (u u /) Amphibrach: weak-STRONG-weak (u / u) Dactyl: STRONG-weak-weak (/ u u) Cretic: STRONG-weak-STRONG (/ u /) Pyrrhic: weak-weak (u u) Spondee: STRONG-STRONG (/ /)

    30 min

  3. 1 JAN

    10 Poems I Like Part IV

    Read the episode on Substack here Poems discussed in this episode: "Shall Earth No More Inspire Thee" by Emily Bronte "Cargoes" by John Masefield "From Stone to Steel" by E.J. Pratt "The Hill" by Rupert Brooke "When the Ecstatic Body Grips" by E.R. Dodds "For My Daughter" by Weldon Kees "Poetry and Religion" by Les Murray "Soul" by Alan Shapiro "Where the River Meets the Sound" by Suzanne Doyle "Clear Water" by Catherine Tufariello Support the show VISIT MY WEBSITE HERE. BUY VERSECRAFT MERCH HERE. VISIT THE VERSECRAFT SUBSTACK HERE. Please subscribe, rate, and review! Thanks so much for listening. You can leave me a tip, support the podcast, or request a commission here! TikTok: @versecraft Send me a note at: versecraftpodcast@gmail.com My favorite poetry podcasts for: Sharp thoughts and cutting truths (Matthew): Sleerickets Lovely introspection and sensitive reflection (Alice): Poetry Says The landscape of Ohioan poetry (Jeremy): Poetry Spotlight Supported in part by The Ohio Poetry Association Art by David Anthony Klug List of the most common metrical feet: Iamb: weak-STRONG (u /) Trochee: STRONG-weak (/ u) Anapest: weak-weak-STRONG (u u /) Amphibrach: weak-STRONG-weak (u / u) Dactyl: STRONG-weak-weak (/ u u) Cretic: STRONG-weak-STRONG (/ u /) Pyrrhic: weak-weak (u u) Spondee: STRONG-STRONG (/ /)

    37 min

  4. 30/11/2025

    "Root Words" by Forester McClatchey

    -Read the poem... by pre-ordering Forester’s new collection here!  -Or here, on Substack!  -The Versecraft Substack -My annus mirabilis -Forester McClatchey!  -Frederick Goddard Tuckerman -Renovating the sonnet-house -Mycorrhizal intelligence -Is the pathos fallacious?  -A thinking cheese for the thinking man -The ents at the entmoot -My recent episode on Sleerickets with Alice -Cosmic double-consciousness -Dark circles of eternity and oblivion Support the show VISIT MY WEBSITE HERE. BUY VERSECRAFT MERCH HERE. VISIT THE VERSECRAFT SUBSTACK HERE. Please subscribe, rate, and review! Thanks so much for listening. You can leave me a tip, support the podcast, or request a commission here! TikTok: @versecraft Send me a note at: versecraftpodcast@gmail.com My favorite poetry podcasts for: Sharp thoughts and cutting truths (Matthew): Sleerickets Lovely introspection and sensitive reflection (Alice): Poetry Says The landscape of Ohioan poetry (Jeremy): Poetry Spotlight Supported in part by The Ohio Poetry Association Art by David Anthony Klug List of the most common metrical feet: Iamb: weak-STRONG (u /) Trochee: STRONG-weak (/ u) Anapest: weak-weak-STRONG (u u /) Amphibrach: weak-STRONG-weak (u / u) Dactyl: STRONG-weak-weak (/ u u) Cretic: STRONG-weak-STRONG (/ u /) Pyrrhic: weak-weak (u u) Spondee: STRONG-STRONG (/ /)

    19 min

  5. 14/11/2025

    "In Chandler Country" by Dana Gioia

    Text of the poem here. Read the transcript of this episode here! Topics discussed in this episode include: -My new website! -My Substack -The meaning and history of New Formalism -“Can Poetry Matter?” by Dana Gioia -The Big Read and Poetry Out Loud -“The Catholic Writer Today” by Dana Gioia -“Poetry as Enchantment” by Dana Gioia -Boris Dralyuk on Noir Poetry -The Noir hero -Christopher Marlowe and Charles Marlow -The Santa Ana winds -“Red Wind” by Raymond Chandler -“The Lady in the Lake” by Raymond Chandler -A net of coins -Plato FM Radio  -Of beauty and youth -Of coyotes, dogs, and men Support the show VISIT MY WEBSITE HERE. BUY VERSECRAFT MERCH HERE. VISIT THE VERSECRAFT SUBSTACK HERE. Please subscribe, rate, and review! Thanks so much for listening. You can leave me a tip, support the podcast, or request a commission here! TikTok: @versecraft Send me a note at: versecraftpodcast@gmail.com My favorite poetry podcasts for: Sharp thoughts and cutting truths (Matthew): Sleerickets Lovely introspection and sensitive reflection (Alice): Poetry Says The landscape of Ohioan poetry (Jeremy): Poetry Spotlight Supported in part by The Ohio Poetry Association Art by David Anthony Klug List of the most common metrical feet: Iamb: weak-STRONG (u /) Trochee: STRONG-weak (/ u) Anapest: weak-weak-STRONG (u u /) Amphibrach: weak-STRONG-weak (u / u) Dactyl: STRONG-weak-weak (/ u u) Cretic: STRONG-weak-STRONG (/ u /) Pyrrhic: weak-weak (u u) Spondee: STRONG-STRONG (/ /)

    32 min

  6. 02/11/2025

    On Translation: "Roman Elegy V" by J.W. von Goethe

    Topics discussed in this episode: -Read this show on substack!  -My new website!! -My conversation with David and Matthew on Age of Muses -My new post at Literary Matters -My French translation episode on Heredia -My Spanish translation episode on Lope -Metaphrase and paraphrase -Germany's view of Goethe -Magister Christopher Childers -From Sturm und Drang to Spit on that Thang (sorry) -Weimar (semi)Classicism -How to write a sex poem -Accentual-syllabic vs. Quantitative meter -The Education of Elijah Blumov by one Christopher Childers -The lowdown on elegiac couplets, feat. Coleridge -Goethe's technique, my technique -The classical, semi-salvific quality of good sex -My own embroiderings of the text -Various triumvirates -To All the Poets Who Loved Before Support the show VISIT MY WEBSITE HERE. BUY VERSECRAFT MERCH HERE. VISIT THE VERSECRAFT SUBSTACK HERE. Please subscribe, rate, and review! Thanks so much for listening. You can leave me a tip, support the podcast, or request a commission here! TikTok: @versecraft Send me a note at: versecraftpodcast@gmail.com My favorite poetry podcasts for: Sharp thoughts and cutting truths (Matthew): Sleerickets Lovely introspection and sensitive reflection (Alice): Poetry Says The landscape of Ohioan poetry (Jeremy): Poetry Spotlight Supported in part by The Ohio Poetry Association Art by David Anthony Klug List of the most common metrical feet: Iamb: weak-STRONG (u /) Trochee: STRONG-weak (/ u) Anapest: weak-weak-STRONG (u u /) Amphibrach: weak-STRONG-weak (u / u) Dactyl: STRONG-weak-weak (/ u u) Cretic: STRONG-weak-STRONG (/ u /) Pyrrhic: weak-weak (u u) Spondee: STRONG-STRONG (/ /)

    30 min

  7. 14/10/2025

    Schopenhauer Cocktail Hour, Part 2

    Topics discussed in this episode include: Read the polished transcript of this episode on Substack!  My lecture on The Grand Style in English My poem, "Spelunker," in New Verse Review The 2025 ALSCW Conference Cameron’s substack Ethan’s substack Poetry’s psychological effect and moral charge The burden of genius Poetry vs. Philosophy Maimonides and Augustine The decadence of the academy "Poetry as Enchantment" by Dana Gioia The function of meter and rhyme The heresy of paraphrase Bouts-rime and pleonasm Romanticism redux Leo Strauss The spiritual je ne sais quoi of tragedy The horror film “Martyrs” “Norma” by Vincenzo Bellini “Tristan und Isolde” by Richard Wagner Stoic vs. Christian resignation Bourgeois tragedy and the existential hero “Hedda Gabler” by Ibsen “Brand” by Ibsen “Death of a Salesman” by Arthur Miller “The Death of Tragedy” by George Steiner “The Clouds” by Aristophanes Tragedy vs. Comedy and the Absurd “It’s A Wonderful Life” by Frank Capra “Alcestis” by Euripides History as Self-consciousness The hazards of Protestantism The history of the night before “Swann’s Way” by Marcel Proust Monuments as time capsules The Egyptian legacy The Book of Job Friendship with the dead The musical chain of being Music as the Cosmic Will Discord and re Support the show VISIT MY WEBSITE HERE. BUY VERSECRAFT MERCH HERE. VISIT THE VERSECRAFT SUBSTACK HERE. Please subscribe, rate, and review! Thanks so much for listening. You can leave me a tip, support the podcast, or request a commission here! TikTok: @versecraft Send me a note at: versecraftpodcast@gmail.com My favorite poetry podcasts for: Sharp thoughts and cutting truths (Matthew): Sleerickets Lovely introspection and sensitive reflection (Alice): Poetry Says The landscape of Ohioan poetry (Jeremy): Poetry Spotlight Supported in part by The Ohio Poetry Association Art by David Anthony Klug List of the most common metrical feet: Iamb: weak-STRONG (u /) Trochee: STRONG-weak (/ u) Anapest: weak-weak-STRONG (u u /) Amphibrach: weak-STRONG-weak (u / u) Dactyl: STRONG-weak-weak (/ u u) Cretic: STRONG-weak-STRONG (/ u /) Pyrrhic: weak-weak (u u) Spondee: STRONG-STRONG (/ /)

    1h 37m

  8. 01/10/2025

    Schopenhauer Cocktail Hour, Part I (feat. Cameron and Ethan)

    Topics discussed in this episode include: Read the polished transcript of this episode here!  Cameron’s substack Ethan’s substack "The World as Will and Representation" by Arthur Schopenhauer Why you Kant do metaphysics anymore Matter, Phenomena, Representation, Maya vs. Form, Noumena, Will, Nirvana Terrains of flesh French vs. English gardens From Schopenhauer to Freud Perception vs Reflection Art vs. Philosophy Idea vs. Conception The Symbolist Movement Classical Architecture supremacy? My Case for Meter and Rhyme episodes (1 and 2) Shane McCrae We want stallions, not blobs!  Classical vs. Gothic Art Deco and Brutalism Sculpture vs. Painting Zeuxis David Lynch, Symboliste Support the show VISIT MY WEBSITE HERE. BUY VERSECRAFT MERCH HERE. VISIT THE VERSECRAFT SUBSTACK HERE. Please subscribe, rate, and review! Thanks so much for listening. You can leave me a tip, support the podcast, or request a commission here! TikTok: @versecraft Send me a note at: versecraftpodcast@gmail.com My favorite poetry podcasts for: Sharp thoughts and cutting truths (Matthew): Sleerickets Lovely introspection and sensitive reflection (Alice): Poetry Says The landscape of Ohioan poetry (Jeremy): Poetry Spotlight Supported in part by The Ohio Poetry Association Art by David Anthony Klug List of the most common metrical feet: Iamb: weak-STRONG (u /) Trochee: STRONG-weak (/ u) Anapest: weak-weak-STRONG (u u /) Amphibrach: weak-STRONG-weak (u / u) Dactyl: STRONG-weak-weak (/ u u) Cretic: STRONG-weak-STRONG (/ u /) Pyrrhic: weak-weak (u u) Spondee: STRONG-STRONG (/ /)

    1h 5m
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About

Exploring the art of poetry through the craft of some of the world's best but most underrated poems.

Information

  • Creator
    Elijah Perseus Blumov
  • Years Active
    2022 - 2026
  • Episodes
    113
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Versecraft
  • Show Website
    Versecraft

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