“A Ragged Patch of Glow”
By Wyoming Catholic College
“A Ragged Patch of Glow”May 11, 2020
“A Ragged Patch of Glow:” Episode Forty-Five
Today, Dr. Arbery recites Richard Wilbur’s “Advice to a Prophet.”
“A Ragged Patch of Glow:” Episode Forty-Four
In honor of Father’s Day, Dr. Arbery reflects on Robert Hayden’s “Those Winter Sundays.”
“A Ragged Patch of Glow:” Episode Forty-Three
In today’s episode, Dr. Arbery discusses a poem that has been much in the public consciousness of late, William Butler Yeats’s “The Second Coming.”
“A Ragged Patch of Glow:” Episode Forty-Two
After a brief hiatus to host a successful in-person graduation for the Wyoming Catholic College Class of 2020, Dr. Arbery returns to his beloved poetry with William Butler Yeats’s “Sailing to Byzantium.”
“A Ragged Patch of Glow:” Episode Forty-One
Dr. Arbery on Seamus Heaney’s “Blackberry-Picking.”
“A Ragged Patch of Glow:” Episode Forty
Today, Dr. Arbery recites and reflects upon Donald Hall’s “Amos.”
“A Ragged Patch of Glow:” Episode Thirty-Nine
Dr. Arbery reflects on Thomas Nashe’s eerily-relevant “Litany in Time of Plague.”
“A Ragged Patch of Glow:” Episode Thirty-Eight
Dr. Arbery with the second episode in his two-part series on Wallace Stevens’s “Of Modern Poetry.”
“A Ragged Patch of Glow:” Episode Thirty-Seven
Dr. Arbery with the first in a two-part reflection on Wallace Stevens’s “Of Modern Poetry.”
“A Ragged Patch of Glow:” Episode Thirty-Six
Dr. Arbery analyzes John Donne’s “Resurrection.”
“A Ragged Patch of Glow:” Episode Thirty-Five
Inspired by the “Virtual Poetry Hour” that poet Dana Gioia so generously hosted for the Wyoming Catholic College community, Dr. Arbery discusses Mr. Gioia’s “The Burning Ladder.”
“A Ragged Patch of Glow:” Episode Thirty-Four
Dr. Arbery continues his exploration of T. S. Eliot’s poetry with “Aunt Helen.”
“A Ragged Patch of Glow:” Episode Thirty-Three
Dr. Arbery discusses the importance of being less terrified of T. S. Eliot’s poetry, such as “The Boston Evening Transcript.”
“A Ragged Patch of Glow:” Episode Thirty-Two
In today's episode, Dr. Arbery recites and reflects upon a WCC favorite, W. B. Yeats’s “The Lake Isle of Innisfree.”
“A Ragged Patch of Glow:” Episode Thirty-One
Inspired by his grandchildren and their innate love of poetry, Dr. Arbery reflects on Lewis Carroll’s “Jabberwocky.” The podcast episode he references, in which he fleshes out a bit more of his thinking behind “A Ragged Patch of Glow,” can be found at www.wyomingcatholic.edu/podcast#current.
“A Ragged Patch of Glow:” Episode Thirty
In today’s episode, Dr. Arbery thinks about Richard Wilbur’s “Mind.”
“A Ragged Patch of Glow:” Episode Twenty-Nine
Inspired by a recent article from America Magazine's Ashley McKinless, Dr. Arbery examines A. E. Housman’s “To an Athlete Dying Young.” The article can be found at www.americamagazine.org/faith/2020/05/01/visit-rural-catholic-college-has-171-students-12-horses-and-zero-textbooks.
“A Ragged Patch of Glow:” Episode Twenty-Eight
Dr. Arbery examines Herman Melville’s “A Utilitarian View of the Monitor’s Fight.”
“A Ragged Patch of Glow:” Episode Twenty-Seven
Dr. Arbery reflects on Thomas Hardy’s “In Time of ‘The Breaking of Nations.’”
“A Ragged Patch of Glow:” Episode Twenty-Six
Dr. Arbery discusses heroism in the context of W. B. Yeats’s “An Irish Airman foresees his Death.”
“A Ragged Patch of Glow:” Episode Twenty-Five
Dr. Arbery sits in his backyard and reflects on A. E. Housman’s “Loveliest of trees, the cherry now.”
“A Ragged Patch of Glow:” Episode Twenty-Four
Dr. Arbery examines Edmund Waller’s “Go, Lovely Rose.”
“A Ragged Patch of Glow:” Episode Twenty-Three
Dr. Arbery discusses Emily Dickinson’s “A Bird, came down the Walk.”
“A Ragged Patch of Glow:” Episode Twenty-Two
Dr. Arbery recites three poems by Catharine Savage Brosman, “Broken Landscape,” “Aspen Grove,” and “White Water.”
“A Ragged Patch of Glow:” Episode Twenty-One
Dr. Arbery, reflecting on John Crowe Ransom’s “Bells for John Whiteside’s Daughter.”
“A Ragged Patch of Glow:” Episode Twenty
In today’s episode of “A Ragged Patch of Glow,” Dr. Arbery hopes that Gerard Manley Hopkins’s “Spring” will prove prophetic.
“A Ragged Patch of Glow:” Episode Nineteen
In honor of Shakespeare’s birthday, Dr. Arbery reflects on Claudius’s “O, my offense is rank” monologue from “Hamlet.”
“A Ragged Patch of Glow:” Episode Eighteen
Dr. Arbery on W. H. Auden’s “Musée des Beaux Arts” and Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s “Landscape with the Fall of Icarus.”
“A Ragged Patch of Glow:” Episode Seventeen
Dr. Arbery doubles up today, reciting Ben Jonson’s “Still to be neat, still to be dressed” and George Herbert’s “Jordan (I).”
“A Ragged Patch of Glow:” Episode Sixteen
Dr. Arbery reflects on Wendell Berry’s “The Peace of Wild Things.”
“A Ragged Patch of Glow:” Episode Fifteen
Dr. Arbery recites John Keats’s “On First Looking into Chapman's Homer.”
“A Ragged Patch of Glow:” Episode Fourteen
Stealing a tiny bit of Sir Patrick Stewart's thunder, Dr. Arbery takes a look at Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 65.”
“A Ragged Patch of Glow:” Episode Thirteen
Dr. Arbery recites “one of the best poems I know for anyone who has a bad temper,” Timothy Steele’s “Sapphics Against Anger.”
“A Ragged Patch of Glow:” Episode Twelve
Dr. Arbery discusses Frederick Turner‘s “The Distribution.”
“A Ragged Patch of Glow:” Episode Eleven
Dr. Arbery discusses Ezra Pound’s “The River-Merchant’s Wife.”
“A Ragged Patch of Glow:” Episode Ten
Dr. Arbery, thoroughly enjoying himself with William Carlos Williams’s “This Is Just To Say.”
“A Ragged Patch of Glow:” Episode Nine
Dr. Arbery recites a particularly fitting poem for Easter Monday, George Herbert‘s “Easter Wings.”
“A Ragged Patch of Glow:” Episode Eight
For Good Friday, Dr. Arbery reflects on Gerard Manley Hopkins‘s “No worst, there is none. Pitched past pitch of grief.”
“A Ragged Patch of Glow:” Episode Seven
Dr. Arbery on Gerard Manley Hopkins‘s “Binsey Poplars.”
“A Ragged Patch of Glow:” Episode Six
Dr. Arbery recites and analyzes a WCC favorite, Gerard Manley Hopkins‘s “God‘s Grandeur.”
“A Ragged Patch of Glow:” Episode Five
Dr. Arbery recites and reflects on Richard Wilbur’s “Two Voices in a Meadow.”
“A Ragged Patch of Glow:” Episode Four
Dr. Glenn Arbery reflects on William Wordsworth‘s “Surprised by Joy.”
“A Ragged Patch of Glow:” Episode Three
Dr. Glenn Arbery discusses Richard Wilbur‘s “Mayflies.”
“A Ragged Patch of Glow:” Episode Two
Dr. Glenn Arbery discusses Ezra Pound‘s “In a Station of the Metro.”
“A Ragged Patch of Glow:” Episode One
Dr. Glenn Arbery discusses William Wordsworth‘s “Nuns Fret Not at Their Convent's Narrow Room.”
“A Ragged Patch of Glow:” Introduction
“I have started a blog just to look at a lyric poem a day—insights, glimpses of emotion, intuitions of beauty. I don’t have a program of instruction in mind, just a way to draw on the heights and depths of the capacities of language. I hope that the poems bring a moment or two of clarity.” -- Dr. Glenn Arbery, President of Wyoming Catholic College