Podcasts Other amimetobios 8. 17th century poetry: Donne's "To His Mistress Upon Going to Bed" and "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning."

8. 17th century poetry: Donne's "To His Mistress Upon Going to Bed" and "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning."

Published: Feb. 8, 2014, 6:57 p.m.

More on the different speakers in Donne's "Songs and Sonnets." \xa0The idea of the most capacious intelligence: the one who gets most others. \xa0How this plays out in kinds of narrative, especially fantasy fiction. \xa0Who gets whom better: Aslan or the White Witch? Voldemort or Dumbledore? Sauron or Gandalf? \xa0Yoda or Palpatine? \xa0The surprise when we're surprised that the good guys get the evil guys being a staple of narrative interest, because more generally being able to understand others' limitations is central to our assessment of literary characters. \xa0Then on to the two poems: "To his Mistress" and a beginning of "A Valediction: forbidding Mourning."