Alexander Pope and a Ropey Elephant compete with a Wittering Host 🐘

Listener mail is warmly welcomed 🙋‍♀️ Dear Friend or New Listener, thank you for joining me today as I wander the streets of Bridport, and talk for England before settling down to read the most thoughtful and eloquent Alexander Pope. He reminds me of William Shakespeare in his thoughts on mankind and his observations: that we are riddled with faults, most of them foolish; and frailties, most of them self-inflicted. If only we could be humble too, then these defects might be forgiven and even be charming, but, no! We dress them in the clothes of virtue and reason. Tied to TS Eliot’s ‘ To do the right deed for the wrong reason’ , and ‘ Humankind cannot bear very much reality’ . Tell me your favourite lines, and give me your thoughts. What should the next piece of reading be that feels akin to this wonderful piece? A few of my favourite lines: Sole judge of truth, in endless error hurled: The glory, jest, and riddle of the world! ——- On life’s vast ocean diversely we sail, Reason the card, but passion is the gale —- Love, hope, and joy, fair pleasure’s smiling train, Hate, fear and grief, the family of pain; These mixed with art, and to due bounds confined, Make and maintain the balance of the mind: The lights and shades, whose well accorded strife Gives all the strength and colour of our life. Support the show Gretel le Maître likes to look for the beauty and curiosities in life, one day at a time. She shares with you snippets from books about history, art and literature and regularly takes you on adventures to new locations, to explore churches, cathedrals and architecture. We’ve reached over 90,000 downloads. I suggest you don’t try to listen in order, unless you’re very committed. Dip in and out, choosing an episode based on the title information. Whether you are interested in history, literature, poetry or one-to-one chatting, I try to give you something that will interest you. This is a podcast for the curious, the kind and - possibly - the suffering or lonely. Historian Tom Holland is the Honorary Patron of this podcast. Thank you Tom🙏 Gretel invites you to accompany her as she navigates the world a day at a time; the podcast is unscripted, it’s ad-free. Gretel loves the world and history, architecture, literature and people. And so is determined to walk this path with light footsteps and with humour and warmth. Let’s gather up the beautiful things and ponder them in our hearts. Top 10 in Global Rankings according to Listen Notes. I would be so grateful if you would spare the time to give me a kind review ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 😬☺️🥴 Previous guests include historian Tom Holland; Sir Richard Eyre; Actors Guy Henry and Enzo Cilenti; Art historian Philip Mould; Writer David Willem; Author Nicola Cornick; Historian (and ...