"Country Burial" by Janet Lewis

Topics discussed in this episode include:

-A sheepish apology -The excellence of Eratosphere -Rhythm vs. Meter, and respective variations -Metrical stress vs. speech stress -The charm and well-adjustedness of Janet Lewis -Organized religion vs. natural spirituality -Biblical ambience = anaphora and parallelism -Amphibrachs! -Versecraft feat. Migos and Lizzo -Spondees and Pyrrhics! -And Dactyls! Collect 'em all. -The symbology of the daisy, no Gatsby required. -The Legend of the Headless Iamb -Hemistichs! -Bodily decay is comforting, guys. No no hear me out... -Accurate diction, or noble fiction? -Automatic, supersonic, Miltonic anapests... -God as The Pale Man from Pan's Labyrinth -We are built for this world, not the next. -I agree, says Carl Dennis -The Earth is our bed, and we must lie in it.

Text of poem:

Country Burial After the words of the magnificence and doom, after the vision of the splendor and the fear, they go out slowly into the flowery meadow, carrying the casket and lay it on the earth by the grave’s edge. The daisies bend and straighten under the trailing skirts, and serious faces look with faint relief, and briefly smile. Into this earth the flesh and wood shall melt and under these familiar common flowers flow through the earth they both have understood by sight and touch and daily sustenance. And this is comforting: For heaven is a blinding radiance where leaves are no longer green, nor water wet, milk white, soot black, nor winter weather cold, and the eyeless vision of the Almighty Face brings numbness to the untranslatable heart.

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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 (/ /)