Poetry Podcast

The speaker discusses a poem by Jorge Luis Borges called "The Young Knight." They analyze the use of literary devices and the theme of a fall from grace. The poem's tone is described as lustful waters, symbolizing purification. The speaker relates to the longing for ancient norms mentioned in the poem, comparing it to the human desire for the past. The podcast episode concludes with a humorous suggestion to make a simple to-do list. A citation from Britannica is mentioned. And now the lustral waters of night absolve me. From the many colors and the many forms in the garden, birds and stars exalt the long for a return of the ancient norms of sleep and shadow. Darkness is sealing, the mirrors which copy the fiction of things. Goeth said it best, everything near becomes far. Those four words capture the entire twilight in the garden, roses cease to be roses, they wish to be the rose. Hello fellow listeners, welcome to the first episode of the 3P Podcast, the Phenomenal Poetry Podcast. I am your host, Kensington Charles, and today I will be discussing the work you just heard of one of the premier poets of all time, Jorge Luis Borges, The Young Knight. The poem is littered with numerous literary devices, it makes for an exuberating read beginning to end. When I initially read the title of the poem, I thought the author was referring to 7pm, since that is when night is the youngest. But after reading the poem, I believe Borges was talking about the beginning of darkness, which Borges uses to shift the poem, saying, Darkness is sealing, the mirrors which copy the fiction of things. I noticed the shift by Borges because he goes from talking about ancient norms in prior lines to sealing darkness the next. A connotation by the author I was very aware of in the beginning that made sense later was when Borges alluded to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, a famous poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theater director, critique, and amateur artist in the 1700s and 1800s. Borges states, Goethe said it best, everything near becomes far. Essentially Goethe is saying, when you are almost done with something and believe you are content with where you are, the goal becomes harder to achieve. This poem latched onto me, and I thought about it for weeks and weeks, and I wondered if I was in a similar place in my current situation. The tone that dictates this entire poem, which makes it so unbelievably remarkable, is the lustful waters that Borges alludes to. Lustful waters relates to the ceremonial purification often used in sacred rituals or before you enter a holy place like a church or a mosque. When Borges says he is absorbed by the holy water, he means he is cleaned by it, made anew. I resonated with this because when I, as a Christian, and I am baptized, I also become anew, and any other Christian, when they are baptized, they are also made anew once they have been hit with the holy water. The theme of this poem, to me, is the fall from grace, however. When he speaks about the roses ceasing to be roses, it talks about beauty, or something that was once beautiful, and ceases to have it any longer. There is a certain type of sadness and longing for what it once was, and to me, I have seen this countless times. Things which were once beautiful to me, or enjoyed, or pleasant, which are now unpleasant to me and disgraceful. Overall, this poem, to me, really stuck out to me when I was going through different types, and when I read this poem, each time, I feel like, on a personal level, I can relate to what Borges is speaking about. The numerous other types of lyric devices he uses, like the birds and stars exult from the longing for a return to the ancient norms. Even though the birds and stars cannot long for ancient norms of the sleep and shadow, they still miss it. And to me, I feel like the birds and the stars represent human beings, and how we long for ancient norms of sleep and shadow, similar to how you never know you're in the good times until they're gone, and you know when they're in them. This is episode one of the 3P Poetry Podcast, which stands for the Phenomenal Poetry Podcast. This has been your host, Kensington Charles, and I hope you enjoyed listening to this as much as I did making it. If you're making a to-do list today, make it easy on yourself. Just write down Reese's, then write down eat them, and then you're kind of done for the day. For my citation on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, the famous poet, I used Britannica to cite my source.