An experimental techno trance setting of Keats’s Ode to a Nightingale, reimagining the poem’s longing for ecstatic escape as hypnotic electronic music with striking visuals.
An analysis of how Chaucer’s satirical portrayal of the Prioress was lost for two centuries, tracing the story from the Reformation and Chaucer’s recasting as a proto-Protestant to the eighteenth-century translations that shaped how readers understood her. Part Two of two.
A close reading and historical analysis of Chaucer’s Prioress in the Canterbury Tales, exploring the reality of medieval convent life to reveal the satire hidden beneath her elegant surface. Part One of two.
A memory-matching game pairing stanzas of Coleridge’s poem with Gustave Doré’s engravings, part by part across all seven parts of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.
A study guide using Iron Maiden’s 1984 heavy metal adaptation of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner as a doorway into Coleridge’s poem, illustrated throughout with Gustave Doré’s engravings.
The full text of Coleridge’s poem paired part-by-part with Gustave Doré’s 1876 engravings — hover or tap the underlined passages to see the matching image, click through to a full-size lightbox view.
A comprehensive interactive guide to prosody and metre in English poetry, using examples drawn from The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Iron Maiden’s 1984 adaptation. Covers metrical feet, ballad metre, Coleridge’s variations, secondary stress, accentual-syllabic verse, free verse, and the interplay of metre with other poetic techniques. Includes interactive scansion exercises.
Iron Maiden’s 1984 epic has introduced Coleridge’s poem to millions. This video examines how Steve Harris weaves together Coleridge’s poem, his 1817 gloss, and his own words — and what is lost and gained in the process.
Introduces mixed conditionals ‚Äî constructions that combine elements from different time frames ‚Äî using the example “If I knew, I would have told you”. Distinguishes this from both the standard second and third conditionals, and connects the topic to backshift in reported speech.
Explains why the standard rule for “some” and “any” ‚Äî some for positive statements, any for questions and negatives ‚Äî breaks down about 20% of the time. Introduces a more accurate explanation based on what the words actually mean: “some” when the speaker has a particular thing in mind, “any” when it doesn’t matter which.