Episode 338: “The Vulture” by Samuel Johnson – Short Story Summer Remix

Welcome to the final episode of our summer series on short stories and essays! Today your hosts Angelina Stanford and Cindy Rollins are joined once again by Thomas Banks for their discussion of Samuel Johnson’s essay “The Vulture.” Before getting into the meat of the essay, Angelina talks about why she disagrees with her own commonplace quote on the purpose of poetry. In the process, she gives us a brief history of literary periods from the classical to the neoclassical and enlightenment.

Thomas shares some more biographical information on Samuel Johnson and his work. Cindy highlights both the important place and the danger of satire, which is a popular neoclassical form and the one used in Johnson’s essay. The discussion ends with thoughts on why Johnson’s essay was finally not included with the others in The Idler collection, as well as what his purpose may have been in writing “The Vulture.”

To check out the current offerings at The House of Humane Letters, as well as Thomas Banks’ poetry webinar mentioned in this episode, please visit HouseofHumaneLetters.com.

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Commonplace Quotes:

I am always suspicious of a novelist’s theories. I have never known them to be anything other than a justification of his own shortcomings.

W. Somerset Maugham, from A Writer’s Notebook

After we had our picnic, Mother read to us. She didn’t read like other people. She talked a book. I mean, if you were where you could hear her but couldn’t see her, you’d be sure she was telling the story from memory instead of reading. And another different thing about Mother’s reading was that she didn’t care if you watched the book over her shoulder. I used to watch her eyes by the hour as she read. They would swoop across the page like a barn swallow across a hayfield, then she would look up and recite for a full minute before she looked back at the book again. When Mother read, we children had to be quiet and pay attention. We could do most anything we pleased with our hands, like making whistles, stringing dried berries for beads, or playing with dolls, but if one of us whispered, Father would snap his fingers. If he ever got to the third snap, Mother would close the book and we would do something else for a while.

Ralph Moody, from Father and I Were Ranchers

Poetry is the art of uniting pleasure with truth by calling Imagination to the help of Reason.

Samuel Johnson, from The Lives of the Poets

A Farewell to Arms

by George Peele

His golden locks Time hath to silver turn’d;
O Time too swift, O swiftness never ceasing!
His youth ‘gainst time and age hath ever spurn’d,
But spurn’d in vain; youth waneth by increasing:
Beauty, strength, youth, are flowers but fading seen;
Duty, faith, love, are roots, and ever green.

His helmet now shall make a hive for bees;
And, lovers’ sonnets turn’d to holy psalms,
A man-at-arms must now serve on his knees,
And feed on prayers, which are Age his alms:
But though from court to cottage he depart,
His Saint is sure of his unspotted heart.

And when he saddest sits in homely cell,
He’ll teach his swains this carol for a song,–
‘Blest be the hearts that wish my sovereign well,
Curst be the souls that think her any wrong.’
Goddess, allow this aged man his right
To be your beadsman now that was your knight.

Book List:

A Writer’s Notebook by W. Somerset Maugham

Little Britches by Ralph Moody

The Lives of the Poets by Samuel Johnson

The History of Rasselas by Samuel Johnson

Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathon Swift

Bird Life in Wington by John Calvin Reid

The Life of Samuel Johnson by James Boswell

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Connect with Us:

You can find Angelina and Thomas at HouseofHumaneLetters.com, on Instagram @angelinastanford, and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ANGStanford/

You can find Cindy Rollins at MorningTimeforMoms.com, over on her podcast The New Mason Jar, and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/CindyRollinsWriter. You can also check out her Patreon for additional content.

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