Episode 173: By Heart: On Memory, Poetry, and Form

Weird Studies

In this computerized age, we tend to see memory as a purely cerebral faculty. To memorize is to store information away in the brain in such a way as to make it retrievable at a later time. But the old expression "knowing by heart" calls us to a stranger, more embodied and mysterious take on memory. In this episode, Phil and JF endeavour to recite two poems they've learned by heart, as a preamble to a discussion on poetry, form, and the magic of memory.

Details on Shannon Taggart's Symposium @ Lily Dale (July 25-28).

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REFERENCES

Samuel Taylor Coleridge, “Kubla Khan”
Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “A Musical Instrument”
Dave Hickey, “Formalism” from Pirates and Farmers
Weird Studies, Episode 109-110 on “The Glass Bead Game”
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Biographia Literaria
Weird Studies, Episode 42 with Kerry O Brien
Francis Yates, Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition