Pentasyllabic Shi Poetry: Landscape Poetry - Landscapes of the Mind

This episode discusses the prehistory of Chinese landscape poetry. In the centuries before poets began to write consistently of their concrete, personal experiences out in nature, landscape appeared in poetry primarily as a foil for the city and the court, where most poets were writing. In this role, the natural landscape could be terrifyingly inhospitable or wondrous and pure. Either way, it was for the most part imagined rather than experienced, a site more often for mental roaming than for extended in-person exploration. Guest Host: Lucas Rambo Bender, Yale University English poem recital by Andrew Merritt @ Andrew Merritt (divacatrecords.com)