poetry

Hugo, Rostand, Hernani and How to Be a Romantic by Lisa VanDamme

September 14, 2022 arilive_user Podcast 1:29:56 0 Comments

Victor Hugo’s Hernani was more than a play. It was “the rehearsal of a revolution,” a bold theatrical rebellion that defied Classical dogmas and made way for a new Romanticism. On the centenary of Hugo’s birth, writer Edmond Rostand would pay worshipful tribute to his hero with a poem called Un Soir à Hernani. In this lecture, I will tell the thrilling story of Hernani, share excerpts from Rostand’s never-translated tribute, and highlight all that Hugo and Rostand have to show us about how to be a Romantic.

Recorded live on July 6, 2022 as part of the Objectivist Summer Conference.

Falling In Love With Poetry (Part 2) by Lisa VanDamme

September 16, 2020 arilive_user Podcast 58:57 0 Comments

The goal of this talk is to help you fall in love – or more in love – both with poetry and with love itself. With a symphonic integration of all the resources of language, great love poets take the most elusive nuances, thrills, mysteries, and motifs of love and throw them into sharp relief. During this talk, you will see these facets illumined by such timeless poets as Tennyson, Donne, Millay, and Browning.

You will experience the power of poetry to sharpen our vision, intensify our feelings, deepen our souls, and expand our capacity to love.

Recorded live at OCON 2018.

Falling In Love With Poetry (Part 1) by Lisa VanDamme

September 9, 2020 arilive_user Podcast 57:41 0 Comments

The goal of this talk is to help you fall in love – or more in love – both with poetry and with love itself. With a symphonic integration of all the resources of language, great love poets take the most elusive nuances, thrills, mysteries, and motifs of love and throw them into sharp relief. During this talk, you will see these facets illumined by such timeless poets as Tennyson, Donne, Millay, and Browning.

You will experience the power of poetry to sharpen our vision, intensify our feelings, deepen our souls, and expand our capacity to love.

Recorded live at OCON 2018.

Sense of Life in Medieval Persia by Barry Wood

August 20, 2020 arilive_user Podcast 58:21 0 Comments

Art is a universal need of man qua man, yet most people’s awareness of art is limited to the Western tradition. This horizon-expanding lecture offers an introduction to the culture of medieval Persia. Dr. Wood analyzes, in Objectivist terms, the ways in which the poets, painters and architects of that era distilled their sense of life into concrete form. The reward is an increased appreciation of Ayn Rand’s insights into art, as well as of a lesser-known legacy of human creativity.

Recorded live at OCON 2019

Victor Hugo and You: The Art of Spiritual Splendor by Shoshana Milgram

July 15, 2020 arilive_user Podcast 1:26:17 0 Comments

Hugo was a giant. He created brilliantly Romantic novels, poetry and plays, and he did so with dedicated purpose: “Everything in a work of art is an act of will.” Learn about the life, works and impact of the man Ayn Rand considered “the greatest novelist in world literature.” His writing, he said, “knocks on the door and says, Open up, I have come for you.” Let’s accept his invitation.

This talk was recorded live on June 25th as part of OCON 2019.

Life, Poetry and Keats by Lisa VanDamme

June 17, 2020 Alex Wigger Podcast 01:25:57 0 Comments

John Keats lived a tragically short and miserably tragic life, and yet in his twenty-five years he wrote poetry that has brought insight, joy and beauty to readers for centuries. This talk weaves together the story of Keats’s life with some of his most beautiful works of poetry. Though what happiness Keats enjoyed was fleeting, he left an enduring legacy of art that can contribute powerfully to ours.

Recorded Wednesday June 26 in Cleveland as part of OCON 2019.

Literature and the Quest for Meaning by Lisa VanDamme

February 26, 2020 arilive_user Podcast 1:28:31 0 Comments

One essential condition of fulfillment and happiness is the philosophic conviction that your life belongs to you. But it is only a condition. A truly fulfilled and happy life requires a sense of meaning. How to achieve that meaning is a question for which we have few tried-and-true, culturally established answers. Thankfully, one resource we do have for answering that question, or even knowing how to go about considering it, is great art. This talk explores how classic literature can contribute to the vital quest for meaning.

Recorded live in Cleveland on June 26, 2019