Professing Literature
Why do great novels, poems and plays move us and excite us? How can they change the way we look at ourselves and the world? What do these authors have to teach us? Why do they matter? There are no better answers to these questions than those provided by the authors themselves. We want to let them speak. Professing Literature is not a broad summary of major works. Instead, it will zero in on one or two key passages, looking at them closely in order to figure out what is at stake. The goal will be to appreciate an author’s brilliance by seeing him or her in action. We will unpack key phrases, images and metaphors and we will consider the techniques the writer uses to make ideas come alive.
Professing Literature
EP21 - Twin Compasses | Donne, A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning
John Donne, A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning. John Donne came of age in a high culture whose notions of love were shaped by writers like Philip Sidney. Donne’s own love poetry, though, was very different. Scandalously frank, experimental, intellectually complex, Donne disdains the traditional conventions. Whether praising the beloved or excoriating her, whether writing to a nameless woman in the days of his bachelorhood or the wife to whom he became devoted, Donne strives for emotional realism and intimacy.
We love hearing from all of you. Please email us at ProfessingLiterature@protonmail.com.
------
Theme Music: "Nobility" by Wicked Cinema
Opening Segment Music: "A Love that Once Was" by Jakob Gavin Luke
You can also send comments and questions to Professing Literature via Text Message. Click here!