"La Corrida" by Robert Hayden

Topics discussed in this episode include:

-The excellent poetry podcast Sleerickets, by MBS -The four kinds of written poetry -Toward a definition of "free verse" -Loose patterns and motley patterns -The debate over Robert Hayden -Hayden puts the verse in universal -How poetry can (and can't) change the world -The structure of a bullfight, of a poem -The Garden of Earthly Delights -Catalectic lines -Enter the Minotaur -Are we human, or are we bull-dancer? -The aestheticization of violence -The story of Veronica -Action sequins -The Lord of the Flies and the sexiness of murder -Are we laughing at truth, with truth, or being laughed at? -La Corrida as the Trinity, or, another kind of papal bull -Jesus's jock cousin, Mithras -Wagner/Freud's Thanatos Drive -Masculine angst, featuring Belmonte and Hemingway -Meter is back, and it feels so good. -Bullfight as tragic religious ritual -Box office details -The (possible) meaning of Ole! -Spoiler: the bull is Jesus. Muy original. -Stevens, Hemingway, and Heinlein on the value of death -Beauty the end, cruelty the means

Text of poem:

La Corrida

El Toro From the blind kingdom where his horns are law,

gigantically plunging and charging, he enters the clockface labyrinth—

man-in-beast, creature whose guileless power is his doom.

El Matador In the heart of the maze whose ritual pathways goading lance, bloodflowering dart, veronica and sword define,

the fateful one, fate’s dazzler, gleams in suit of lights, prepares for sensual death his moment of mocking truth.

In the fiery heart of the maze the bullgod moves, transfiguring death and the wish to die.

Sol y Sombra From all we are yet cannot be deliver, oh redeem us now.

Of all we know and do not wish to know, purge oh purge us now.

Ole!

Upon the cross of horns be crucified for us.

Die for us that death may call us back to life.

Ole!

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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 (/ /)