What I Carry With Me

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7 March 2025

Episode 5.06 - What I Carry With Me

What questions do we carry with us as we leave Marvell’s famous poem?

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Chapters

00:00 Packing for the Trip
02:14 Opening Theme
02:52 Trails and Tools and Mail
08:38 Six Lousy Questions
09:31 1 What should I do about mortality?
11:49 2. What should I do with the Now?
13:43 3, What is the relationship between rhetoric and reason?
15:57 4. Why the need to reproduce?
17:32 5. Can writers shed accountabilityAccountability is a claim on our actions, but it is external... More?
21:26 6. If I carry so much, how will I get anything read?
23:44 The Path Forward
25:08 Mailbag: Keeping it all straight
28:15 Closing Theme

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The Full Questions:

What should I do about my own mortality?
What should I do with the Now?
What is the relationship between rhetoric and Reason?
Why this impetus towards reproduction, anyway?
How much do writers shed accountabilityAccountability is a claim on our actions, but it is external... More for their ideas through this ironic narrative distanceWhere the author distances herself from the speaker or narra... More?
Finally, if I’m carrying so much from just one poem, how will I get anything read and understood?

Literary Tools Mentioned in the Episode:

IronyA "deflection of expectation," where words, situation, or pe... More - Especially dramatic ironyA "deflection of expectation," where words, situation, or pe... More, that of characters with a more limited perception than others have
Narrative distanceWhere the author distances herself from the speaker or narra... More - A specific kind of dramatic ironyA "deflection of expectation," where words, situation, or pe... More where we see our speaker or narrator as a separate (though connected) character from the author
Ambiguity - That parts of a work may not have clear “answers” to their meaning.
PolysemyWhen many simultaneous interpretations of a work of literatu... More - The idea that an image or work will, in fact, speak many ideas at one time.
Discomfiture - That literature like this makes us sometimes ill-at-ease with its ambiguities, and that this is, by itself, nothing to fear.
AccountabilityAccountability is a claim on our actions, but it is external... More - An ethic for readers to hold ourselves and others responsible for our choices and readings.
And also a few terms like sfumatoI refer to this metaphorically in a verbal context: an uncer... More, iambic meter, and fallacy that we’ve touched upon but not explored at any real length, yet.

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https://waywordsstudio.com

Complete Resources: https://waywordsstudio.com/project/marvell/

What are your thoughts on our discussion? Email me: Steve@waywordsstudio.com

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Transcript: https://waywordsstudio.com/podcasts/transcript-5-06-what-i-carry-with-me

Literary Nomads is the primary program of Waywords Studio (https://waywordsstudio.com). The podcast posts new material each week, with thought-provoking examinations of literature around selected questions or themes and several smaller supplemental episodes in between the larger programs: history, writing, and contemporary applications of ideas.

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CREDITS:

Original music by Randon Myles (https://randonmyles.com/)

Transitions by Natalie Harrison and Sarah Skaleski

USING THIS WORK:

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. It is open to be used and adapted for all not-for-profit uses with proper attribution.