"Error Pursued" by Helen Pinkerton

Topics mentioned in this episode include:

-My new page on the OPA website! -My delusions of TikTok stardom -The deliciously old school quality of Pinkerton's mind -Melville and Aquinas! -Stanzaic structures, stanzaic rhythm -Why iambic pentameter reigns supreme -Poetry: A marriage of sound and sense -Pride-induced dysmorphia -Pride as the supreme evil -Should I just include Milton on every episode? Yes. -The irony of transcendent ambition -Satan doesn't have time for your iambic line -Satan or Jesus: Who wore flesh better? -Ambiguity and multivalence -A definition of puns -Why puns are lit -Penitence, repentance, penance -The anatomy of despair, ala Kierkegaard -You are, in fact, your own worst enemy. -Bilingual pun!! Milton would be proud.

Text of poem:

Error Pursued

Satan in Eden “was constrain’d into a beast.” All of the proud, like him, are pained, and you not least, to wear the flesh of which we all are made.

It was a means for him and Christ. Shrewder than we, each knew for what he sacrificed. Carnality destroys when not accepted and allayed.

It is the gift of punishment that you refuse. You say you sin without consent and thus excuse self-pity and self-hate—and your despair.

For self is faithless to its end. Not wife or child will fail as badly, nor has friend as soon beguiled. It is your way, and you are most aware.

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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 (/ /)