Rhapsodize

Philosopher, poet, literary and cultural critic, George Santayana is a principal figure in Classical American Philosophy. Read more at the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Online

Kalevala, the Finnish national epicThe first edition of the Kalevala appeared in 1835, compiled and edited by Elias Lönnrot on the basis of the epic folk poems he had collected in Finland and Karelia. This poetic song tradition, sung in an unusual, archaic trochaic tetrametre, had been part of the oral tradition among speakers of Balto-Finnic languages for two thousand years. from the Finnish Literature Society website

Witter Bynner, an American poet who lived from 1881 to 1968, is best known for The Way of Life According to Laotzu, his poetic rendition of the ancient Chinese classic, Dao de Jing. The first two poems allude to the horrors of World War I and his vision of their remedies. The final poem echoes the delicacy of the T’ang Dynasty poems translated from the texts of Kian Kang-Hu he would later publish in 1929.

Welcome to Rhapsodize, a non-commercial cultural initiative dedicated to engaging in, encouraging, instructing, guiding, and facilitating rhapsodizing, that is, performing classic poetry dramatically. This podcast will feature the rhapsodes of Rhapsodize Audio performing from our catalog, informative features on rhapsodizing and rhapsodics, and news of further rhapsodizing activity. This first performance is a tribute to the rhapsodes of ancient Greece, whose work inspires this initiative.