{"podcast":{"title":"Close Readings","slug":"close-readings-6008264","podcast_index_feed_id":6008264,"rss_url":"https://feeds.megaphone.fm/LRB7524563961","website_url":"https://lrb.me/closereadings","image_url":"https://megaphone.imgix.net/podcasts/8048b732-4c5a-11f0-b296-b352f3a58800/image/5fa291b4c093e3f1c80cfc2115b27a8a.jpeg?ixlib=rails-4.3.1&max-w=3000&max-h=3000&fit=crop&auto=format,compress","author":"London Review of Books","episode_count":221,"summary":"Close Readings is a multi-series podcast from the London Review of Books. Two contributors explore areas of literature through a selection of key works, providing an introductory grounding like no other. Listen to some episodes for free here, and extracts from our ongoing subscriber-only series. How To Subscribe In Apple Podcasts, click 'subscribe' at the top of this podcast feed to unlock the full episodes. Or for other podcast apps, sign up here: https://lrb.me/closereadings RUNNING IN 2026 'Who's afraid of realism?' with James Wood and guests 'Nature in Crisis' with Meehan Crist and Peter Godfrey-Smith 'Narrative Poems' with Seamus Perry and Mark Ford 'London Revisited' with Rosemary Hill and guests Bonus Series: 'The Man Behind the Curtain' with Tom McCarthy and Thomas Jones ALSO INCLUDED IN THE CLOSE READINGS SUBSCRIPTION: 'Conversations in Philosophy' with Jonathan Rée and James Wood 'Fiction and the Fantastic' with Marina Warner, Anna Della Subin, Adam Thirlwell and Chloe Aridjis 'Love and Death' with Seamus Perry and Mark Ford 'Novel Approaches' with Clare Bucknell, Thomas Jones and other guests 'Among the Ancients' with Emily Wilson and Thomas Jones 'Medieval Beginnings'…","last_synced_at":"2026-09-07T22:19:04.019785+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/close-readings-6008264"},"episode":{"title":"Narrative Poems: ‘Childe Roland’ and ‘The Pied Piper’ by Robert Browning","slug":"narrative-poems-childe-roland-and-the-pied-piper-by-robert-browning","published_at":"2026-08-31T10:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/close-readings-6008264/narrative-poems-childe-roland-and-the-pied-piper-by-robert-browning","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/close-readings-6008264","url":"https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.megaphone.fm/LRB4318602138.mp3","audio_url":"https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.megaphone.fm/LRB4318602138.mp3","summary":"‘Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came’ has baffled readers and critics ever since it was published in Men and Women in 1855. It baffled its author, too. It ‘came upon me as a kind of dream’, Browning recalled. ‘I had to write it then and there, and I finished it the same day.’ The result, inspired by a line spoken by Edgar (as Poor Tom) in Act III of King Lear, is a grim, hallucinatory quest poem that exemplifies Browning’s talent for what G.K. Chesterton called ‘the poetry of mean landscapes’. In this episode, Seamus and Mark read Browning’s mysterious poem as a rejection of the resources and consolations established by the Romantics. They then turn to an earlier narrative poem, ‘The Pied Piper of Hamelin’ (1843), in which Browning uses a comical, Byronic tone to tell the story of another prophetic figure. Non-subscribers will only hear an extract from this episode. To listen to the full episode, and to all our other Close Readings series, sign up: Apple Podcasts: ⁠https://lrb.me/applesignupnp⁠ Other podcast apps: ⁠https://lrb.me/scsignupnp Read more in the LRB: Barbara Everett: https://lrb.me/npep901 Matthew Reynolds: https://lrb.me/npep902 Donald Davie: https://lrb.me/npep903 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices","meta_description":"‘Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came’ has baffled readers and critics ever since it was published in Men and Women in 1855. It baffled its auth…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":1081,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/close-readings-6008264/episodes/narrative-poems-childe-roland-and-the-pied-piper-by-robert-browning/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/close-readings-6008264/narrative-poems-childe-roland-and-the-pied-piper-by-robert-browning.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}