WGBH Radio; The Callie Crossley Show

I'm Cally Crossley This is the Cali Crossley Show. Today we mark Valentine's Day with the language of love over the ages and poets have expressed and explored the thrills of love at first sight. The exuberance of romance realized and the sweet sorrow of unrequited love was harbored soon we were shocked as our literary guide will examine what poems have to say about the stages of love. From the first flush of desire to bitterness and betrayal We'll also look at coins that explore everything along the way. From the peculiar charms of a one night stand. To the confusion that comes with love found late in life as the Bard himself said the course of true love never did run smooth. From there we turn to our Wine Guy Johnson also for his suggestions on how to woo your valentine with wine. Up next showing the love from verse to be a no. First the news. From NPR News in Washington I'm Lakshmi saying President Obama is

hosting China's leader in waiting Xi Jinping at the White House where Mr. Obama says the U.S. welcomes the Asian nation's economic rise saying it benefits everyone they cooperate in relationship based on mutual interest and mutual respect is not only in the interests of the United States and China but is also in the interests of the region and in the interest of the United States in the interest of the world. Xi Jinping is on track to become the next Communist Party leader and President Hu Jintao successor next year. A U.S. aircraft carrier has passed through the Strait of Hormuz. NPR's Larry Abramson reports USS Abraham Lincoln. Was shadowed by Iranian patrol boats today in the first Navy passage through the strait since day one threaten to close it. Reporters on the USS Lincoln say Iranian patrol boats and aircraft were lurking nearby but that there were no incidents between U.S. and Iranian forces. The carrier was a scored by two warships as it passed through the 30 mile wide passage from the Persian

Gulf to the Arabian Sea. Iranian authorities have threatened to close the strait in response to tightening economic sanctions by the West. The strait is the transit route for about one fifth of the world's oil supply. The Pentagon says this is not a show of force just standard use of an international waterway. The Navy says the USS Lincoln is on its way to provide air support to troops in Afghanistan starting later this week. Larry Abramson NPR News. Britain security ministers in Jordan holding talks with officials about how to overcome a European ban on deporting a radical Islamist cleric from Britain to Jordan they'll gavel back in Amman says Jordan has offered guarantees that Abu Qatada who allegedly has close links to al Qaeda will receive a fair trial if deported. James Brokenshire is seeking new assurances in the case of Qatada who was released from a British jail on Monday night into a virtual house arrest. Jordan has contested a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights forbidding Britain to extradite Abu Qatada to Jordan to face terrorism charges. The court says the militant risks

evidence obtained through torture will be used against him if he stands trial in Jordan. But even Abu Qatada family says it wants him to return home. They say they want to special agreement ensuring he will not be harmed. For NPR News I'm Dale got black in Amman. More shelling reported out of Holmes Syria activists accuse snipers loyal to President Bashar al-Assad of firing on residents leaving their homes in search of food. The allegations could not be independently verified. Assad maintains the unrest is driven by gangs seeking to destabilize his country. The United Nations estimates thousands of people have been killed in the clashes since the uprising began 11 months ago. The Dow is down 54 points. This is NPR News. From the WGBH radio news room in Boston I'm Christina Quinn with the local stories we're following. The MTA says it's in major debt but it has hired nearly 900 new employees in the past two years. About 400 people last night protested the agency's proposed fare hikes and

service cuts that officials say are necessary to close a 161 million dollar budget gap. The Boston Herald reports that six hundred thirty one t employees made more than $100000 last year. Taunton Mayor Tom boy says he has had preliminary to put a limit Mary talks with the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe about opening a casino in Taunton hotels the Taunton Daily Gazette a local casino could create as many as 4000 jobs. A jury in Salem has started deliberating in a murder trial stemming from a dispute about a parking space. Police say Fernando Arris destruct Chad McDonald with a board in October 2010 outside a linen warehouse. The Daily Item reports that Misty is claiming self-defense. About 150 current and former employees of a Pittsfield hotel have reached a 1.3 million dollar agreement with management in a dispute over tips the workers claimed they were entitled to but never received. The Berkshire Eagle reports the Berkshire comen Corporation which owns the Crown Plaza has signed the settlement.

In sports the Rangers face the Bruins at the Garden tonight and the weather forecast for the afternoon remains to be cloudy high in the mid 40s tonight cloudy skies continue with temperatures dipping into the mid 30s. Wednesday mostly cloudy highs in the upper 40s. And Thursday the clouds continue with a chance of rain showers highs in the upper 40s. Right now it's 41 degrees in Boston 42 in Worcester and 40 in Providence. Support for NPR comes from the George Lucas Educational Foundation creator of edge of to Apia a source for what works in education. Learn more at Edu topia dot org. I'm Christina Cohen. You'll find more news at WGBH news dot org. The time is 1 0 6. You'll. Find that. Sleep you gave me a smile.

With. The comparable Ella Fitzgerald Good afternoon I'm Kelly Crossley and it's Valentine's Day. We're marking Valentine's Day with the language of love. And by that I mean poetry. Joining me to talk about the seductive powers of verse and how the many stages of love have been examined and explored by our poets is Sue Weaver Shoppe Sue Weaver Shoppe is associate dean for the Master of Liberal Arts Program at the Harvard Extension School. Welcome back. Thank you. Thank you so much for joining us today. Now you can join the conversation at 8 7 7 3 0 1 8 9 7 8 7 7 3 0 1 89 70. Tell us what your favorite Love point is be at the bloom of a new romance or a sour heart ache. 8 7 7 3 0 one eighty nine seventy eight 7 7 3 0 1 89 70. Those of you too shy to call send us a note to our Facebook page or a tweet. Soso Weaver shop. Poetry is absolutely the language of love.

It is it's the number one subject in the whole history of poetry for thousands of years. I wonder how you as an expert would characterize an excellent love poem. I went online and just asked the question what's a good poem and somebody wrote up the element of surprise a determined meter colorful imagery and universality but that's not a love poem that's just a good poem in general. That is a good point in general and of course the history of poetry is so long and so old and there have been so many metaphors tried by poets to try to refresh this expression because it is a universal emotion it's something that people virtually everyone feels in many of the same ways. So the poet's task is always to try to find some fresh way of expressing all of this. To me it is that freshness it's finding a metaphor that really opens up a window into the relationship that you never thought of before. Would you like one quick example. Would one really wonderful example is from the 17th century

poet John Donne his poem a valediction forbidding mourning. It's a point about leaving your beloved short term trip and not wanting her to be upset about it. And he likens them to what he calls stiff twin drawing compasses. He imagines that she is the fixed foote of the compas because she's staying home and he is the mole bile foote of the compas who moves around and yet because they are connected at the top they're not ever really completely separate. That's a brilliant metaphor. Who would have ever thought of twin drawing compasses as a metaphor for the unity between a man and a woman. I love it I love it. Well you've outlined some categories of love poems which I love and the ones that come to mind I think of people here just casually Love point are the traditional ones. Your group that includes Shakespeare and Spencer and Elizabeth Barrett Browning So for me Shakespeare in that category always stands out how do you feel about Shakespearean in that category.

I sometimes feel that Shakespeare said it all and that the problem for all poets after Shakespeare is trying to figure out some way to say something that he didn't say already because he's so magnificent in his hundred fifty four sonnets sort of tracking every single aspect of the emotions of love. But we do tend to think of some of his poems as being somewhat more traditional in the imagery that is used. One of my favorites is shall I compare thee to a summer's day because it is a it's a very seasonal metaphor and this is not a new metaphor people have always talked about the stages of human development and love and so forth and seasonal metaphors but Shakespeare does something fresh here. Shall I compare thee to a summer's day thou art more lovely and more temperate. Rough winds do shake The Darling Buds of May and Summer's Lease have all too short a date some time too hot the eye of heaven shift and shines and often is his gold complection damned and every

fair from fair some time declines by chance or Nature's changing course untrimmed but via eternal summer shall not fade nor lose possession of that fare thou goest nor shall death brag that wander ist in his shade when in eternal lines to time thou grow a sed so long as men can breathe or eyes can see so long lives this and this gives life to be. So it's a tribute to his beloved but also to his own poetry which is going to make it possible for her to live on forever. Now our people seem to embrace Shakespeare even though if you know the old language sometimes can be off putting to people who feel a little like well I get it. Yeah but I think you get that don't you think those yet shines through. Oh yes you definitely get it and it's because those lines that run on from one to the other they they make whole thoughts they make complete thoughts and their thoughts that are organized in a wonderful way

because he begins the point by asking a rhetorical question Shall I compare you to a summer day and you're supposed to say yes please do go on. And so he then goes on to show why ordinary summer though thought to be the best of all possible seasons does have its decline and then turn in the point as his saying. But here's why I'm going to tell you. You're better than summer even because you're not ever going to decline because of my verse. I love it. I happen to also like one of his sonnets 116 which is often used I think at at weddings. Let me not to the marriage of true minds admit impediments love is not love which alters when it alteration finds or bin's with the remover to remove. Oh no it isn't ever fixed mark that looks on Tempest and has never shaken it is a star to every wandering bark who's worse unknown although his height be taken love's not time's full though rosy lips and cheeks within his bending

circles compass come Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks but bears it out even to the edge of doom. If this be error and upon me proved I never writ nor no man ever loved I just think that it's fabulous. That's actually my favorite Shakespeare sonnet and I read it at my own son's wedding. There you go. It is the wedding boy now in the same category you have Elizabeth Barrett Browning as I think people may have heard that as well how do I love thee let me count the ways why is that special one that is always in the classic group of traditional love poems. Because she's one of the first women who actually wrote sonnets. She's one of the I mean it was typically a man's genre love poetry up until the 19th century and the 19th century opens up opportunities for women poets to write similar kinds of poems. And this is a perfectly crafted patro Arkansas knit it's got the perfect 14 lines the rhyme is exactly as it should be. And

so this lovely tribute written under the inspiration obviously of her great love for her husband Robert is probably the sort of epitomizes the 19th century feminine view of love. It's a little over the top. OK. It's a little overstated but it's a favorite of everybody. Shall I read it as yes please. How do I love thee. Let me count the ways I love thee to the depth and breadth and height my soul can reach when feeling out of sight for the ends of being an ideal grace. I love thee to the level of every day's most quiet need by sun and candle light. I love thee freely as men strive for right. I love Lee purely as they turn from praise. I love thee with the passion put to use in my old griefs and with my childhood's Faith I love thee with a love I seem to lose with my lost Saints. I love thee with the breath smiles tears of

all my life. And if God choose I shall but love thee better after death. She loves him a lot. Yeah I think so. He was worthy of love. You know one of the things that as you noted there women haven't written in this in this form but there are a lot of love poems as seemed directed toward women by men but not as many so she stands out in that way as well toward men. And is that is that just because when we think of a love poem it's a man writing to his beloved. Why is it I think it's because they got there first OK. OK. And they had to they had a couple of hundred years to get there at the starting gate into began writing poetry in this in this tradition of course much much older than the English tradition obviously. But poets were largely male poets. I don't know whether women. Well I think it's would be absurd to say that women are less. Inspired to write poetry about love and so forth but

a lot of their points are themed somewhat differently. I mean the Elizabeth Barrett Browning XPS wonderful over-the-top tribute point is is a point that you don't see all that often I think women often write more realistically shall we say about some of the pains and agonies of love about betrayal about bitterness and so on. But then they have their points of tribute and devotion is well it's just that that's the tradition that man own for quite a long time in the history of poetry. OK. Let's go to another one of your categories. You call the ironic reversal of the traditional love poem about expressing love nonetheless what do you mean by that. Well I love this category of poetry. You can absolutely see the poet thinking to himself OK we've already had women's eyes compared to sapphires her breasts to bowls of cream her hair to gold we've had all those metaphors already. How can I say something about the woman I love. But reversed these

traditions and maybe say something a little more realistic about her and yet make it a tribute point at the same time. There are two I'd like to share with you because they're both wonderful. The first one comes from Shakespeare who on top of his wonderful sonnets that are sometimes traditionally themed using traditional imagery. This one is wonderful because it completely reverses this tradition. It's called My mistress eyes are nothing like the sun. My mistress eyes are nothing like the sun. Coral is far more red than her lips red if snow be white Why then her breasts are done if hair is be wires black wires grow on her head. I've seen roses damask red and white but no such roses see I in her cheeks and in some perfumes is there more delight than in the breath that from my mistress reeks. I love to hear her speak. Yet well I know that music hath a far more pleasing sound I grant I never saw a goddess go.

My mistress when she walks treads on the ground. And yet by heaven I think my love as rare as any she belied with false compare. So there you are. You know she isn't a beauty but I can't think of a woman who I love more in the world. It is really wonderful. Now a modern version of it is by John Frederick Nims and I love this one also and it's just called Love point. And this woman is a walking disaster. And you don't think that you can make a love poem out of a woman who is a walking disaster. But he does it. My clumsy is dear whose hands shipwreck of aces and whose quick touch all glasses chip and ring whose palms are bulls in China burgers and linen and have no cunning with any soft thing except all ill at ease fidgeting people. The refugee uncertain at the door. You make it home deftly you steady the

drunk clambering on the Underland floor unpredictable dear the taxi driver's terror shrinking from far headlights pale as a dime yet leaping before red apoplectic street cars misfit in any space and never on time. A wrench and clocks in the solar system only with words and people and love you movies and traffic of wit expertly maneuver and keep us all devotion at your knees forgetting your coffee spreading on our flannel your lipstick grinning on our coat so gaily and love's unbreakable haven't our souls on glory of spilt bourbon float. Be with me darling. Early and late. Smashed glasses. I will study write music for your sake for should your hands drop white and empty all the toys of the world would break. That just let you know that love is in the heart of the beholder.

Absolutely absolutely there is no perfection. To do it and you don't have to be of beautiful idealised woman to inspire that kind of devotion. We love it. Well there's much more even for you shall we say who are a little soured on love. We're continuing our conversation with Sue Weaver shop were marking valentines day this hour with poetry the verse of seduction heartache and romance. And so we were shop is the associate dean for the Master of Liberal Arts Program at the Harvard Extension School. Join us at 8 7 7 3 0 1 89 70 8 7 7 3 0 1 8 9 7 8. What's a point that speaks to you. What poet do you turn to when it comes to the affairs of the heart. You're listening to WGBH Boston Public Radio. Each day to. WGBH programs exist because of you and the Harvard innovation lab a

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Welcome back to the Cali Crossley Show. If you're just joining us we're marking Valentine's Day with poetry and it's powers of seduction. It's ours to convey the pleasures and pain of love like no other art. My guest is Sue Weaver shop associate dean for the Master of Liberal Arts Program at the Harvard Extension School. We'd love to hear from you. Join the conversation at 8 7 7 3 0 1 89 70 8 7 7 3 0 1 89 70. Who's your Funny Valentine. We want to hear from the lonely hearts the hard hearted and the incurable romantics. 8 7 7 3 0 1 89 70 8 7 7 3 0 1 89 70. You can write to our Facebook page or send us a tweet. I heard from somebody on our Facebook page who said that her favorite sad love poem is W.H. Auden funeral blues. Are you familiar with that one.

I'm not sure that's not the point is it that begins Stop all the clocks cut off the telephone. Yep that's it. Oh my god that is one of the most beautiful heartbreaking tributes to a love who has died. It is truly heartbreaking. I read that yes sure. Stop all the clocks cut off the telephone. Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone. Silence the pianos and with muffled drum bring out the cough and let the mourners come. Let aero plane circle moaning overhead scribbling on the sky the message. He is dead. Put Craig both Israel in the white necks of the public. Let the traffic policeman wear black cotton gloves. He was my north my south my east and west my working week and my Sunday rest my noon my midnight my talk my song. I thought that love would last forever. I was wrong. The stars are not wanted

now put out everyone pack up the moon and dismantle the sun poor away the ocean and sweep up the wood for nothing now can ever come to any good. I can hardly read that without weeping. Oh it's beautiful oh beautiful rain that's an excellent choice thank you for it. You know writing to us on the Facebook page that is just gorgeous He is my north my south my. Wow. Obvious still a little bit of that if I ever get a boyfriend I can take. All right. And Mike you know tipping my hand to the sour hearted. All right let's talk about what love poetry is all about which is the seduction and the desire and the whole driver is emotion about that passion and that vulnerability of of being in love and you've got a couple that you have outlined for us. Pick your favorite in the category that you sent us and give us a taste. Oh gosh well I have to do two one really quick because it's only 43 words. The other was much longer and very naughty but I'll have to excerpt it please. OK. So

the short one of forty three words is by Emily Dickinson who as we know is the mistress of compressed expression. And so this is a point of forty three words called Wild Nights wild nights and it's a marvelous point because she uses the image of herself as a ship in rough waters coming into port. And of course Guess who the port is her lover. Wild Nights wild nights were I with the wild night should be our luxury few hold the winds to a heart in port. Done with the compass. Done with the chart rowing in Eden. The sea. Might I but more tonight in the. I love that. That's pretty good. Throw away the compass throw away that shark. Just give yourself over to it completely. Now this one is very funny This is from John seventeenth century poet who wrote wonderful often very naughty poetry. And

this is a call to his mistress going to bed and here we have the male speaker of the poem imagining that he's in bed and he's watching his lady undress by degrees but she's not doing it quite fast enough to suit him so here he is urging her on. And again very freshly he uses the metaphor of her. This is in the Age of Exploration of course. She's an unexplored land and gives the Explorer. Now coming to shall we say check out the land. OK. Come madam come all rest my powers defy until I labor and Labor Lie the foe off times having the foe in sight is tired with standing though they never fight and there are lots of naughty puns throughout the point here. Off with that girdle like Heaven's own glistering. But a far fairer world encompassing one pin that spangled breastplate which you wear that the eyes of busy fools may be stopped there unless yourself for that harmonious

chime tells me from you that now tis your bed time. Off with that happy busk whom I envy that still can be and still can stand so high your gowns going off such beauty a state reveals as when from flowery maids the hills shadow steals off with your wire a coronet and show the hairy diadem which on you doth grow. Off with those shoes and then shut safely tread in this love's hallowed temple this soft bed in such white robes Heaven's angels used to be received by men that angel brings with the heaven like Mahomet's paradise and though ill spirits walk in white we easily know by this these angels from an evil sprite they set our hairs. But these the flesh upright license My roving hands and let them go behind before above between below. That's the most clever use of the proposition I think I see.

OH MY America my new found land my kingdom safely asked when with one man manned my mind of precious stones my Emperor E How blessed am I in this discovering Z to enter in these bonds is to be free. Then where my hand is set my seal Shelby. That's not all of it but you get that yes you're welcome. You're not a John Donne. Talk about your seduction and desire that just says it does and most most clearly. Yeah exactly. Well we got a tweet from Dave who said his favorite love poem is Cummings. Somewhere I have never travelled gladly beyond I'm noticing that a lot of people like to tweet us and Facebook around this subject of love poems. They're not lighting up my my fault. Thank us we have some shot I love poem addict but the number is 8 7 7 3 0 1 89 70 for those of you who would like to speak your love poem 8 7 7 3 0 1

89 70 and we'd be happy to do that and you can tweet us at at Kalee Crosley and we'd love to hear more from you. So I am just you know tickled about these guys who are writing these beautiful using their language so beautifully to express not only just the seduction and desire but the really overwhelming love that they have for their sweeties. I mean that's it's very special today of all days. But any time I've had a few poems spoken to me by you know past loves and it's pretty special poetry is truly the language of love. It is it communicate such depth of feeling. And if a point is well crafted Of course it's the it's the music of the language that also communicates the sentiment. And so it's like a song I mean it's the same way that the song lyric as well as the melody conveys so much more than just one thing by itself and this is how poetry works you've got the wonderful idea contained in

a beautiful envelope as it were and the words are carefully chosen. They become part of the music that the lover communicates to you. We can to prairie poets poems that are you know especially wonderful love poems. In your opinion what would you suggest. Well my favorite one I have to say in this in this vein is by Marge Piercy. And it's a poem called to have without holding and the title is obviously a pun on the marriage vow to have and to hold. And it's a poem about the importance of loving freely and openly without jealousy without possessiveness letting the person you love be who he or she really is and loving them despite the desire perhaps to hold on a little too tightly. And I think she communicates that just beautifully in this point called to have without holding.

Learning to love differently is hard. Love with the hands wide open love with the doors banging on their hinges the cupboard unlocked the wind roaring and whimpering in the rooms rustling the sheets and snapping the blinds that whacked like rubber bands in an open palm. It hurts to love wide open stretching the muscles that feel as if they are made of wet plaster then of blunt knives then of sharp knives. It hurts to thwart the reflexes of grab of clutch to love and let go again and again. It pesters to remember the lover who is not in the bed to hold back what is owed to the work that gutters like a candle in a cave without air to live consciously conscientiously concretely constructively. I can't do it. You say it's killing me but you thrive you glow on the street like a neon raspberry you float and sail a helium

balloon bright Batchelor's button blue and bobbing on the cold and hot winds of our breath as we make and unmake in passionate daya stall and Sisto the rhythm of our unbound bonding to have and not to hold to love with minimized malice hunger and anger moment by moment balanced Wow that's what we're aiming for right. Yes yes not a guy overtaken but do enjoy and engage in exactly. All right well we have to speak to unrequited and sour heartache. Because today Valentine's Day you know grumpily many people are approach it because it's a reminder of love gone bad or for people who don't believe in it at all because they have not experienced it or what the heck are these poets talking about because it doesn't relate to me. But there's a lot of poetry as it turns out devoted to

just this realm of emotion. Oh yes. People have been rejected Forever in love relationships and poets have written about those moments as well. Here's one that's really very sad and it's about the staleness the loneliness that come once a marriage goes bad. This is by Philip Larkin and it's called talking in bed and he imagines again this scene of two people in bed who don't have anything to say to each other anymore unless it's something not very pleasant. Talking in bed ought to be easiest. Lying together there goes back so far an emblem of two people being honest yet more and more time passes silently outside the winds and complete rest. Bills and disperses clouds against the sky and dark towns heap up on the horizon. None of this cares for us nothing shows why at this unique distance from isolation it

becomes still more difficult to find words at once true and kind or not untrue and not unkind. Now Edna St. Vincent Millay has a charming one just for LA and about the disappointment of domestic life called grown up. Was it for this I uttered prayers and sobbed and cursed and kicked the stairs that now domestic as a plate. I should retire at half past eight. I'm with her on that. Well I've got one to add to that pile. I'm always looking at looking toward African-American poets to see if they're going to infuse some of their poetry with certain pieces of culture as well as experiences this one doesn't happen to though it is written by an African-American poet Mari Evans and this is contemporary. And also speaks to that rejection. Where have you gone. Where have you gone with your confident walk with your

crooked smile. Why did you leave me when you took your laughter and departed. Are you aware that with you when the sun all light and what few stars there were where have you gone with your confident walk your crooked smile the rich money in one pocket and my heart in the other. Oh that's beautiful heartbreaking Tell me about it. Definitely a sentiment that most people can relate to. Exactly which is why these points touch people so deeply because virtually everybody has had that experience of the euphoria and then the disappointment of love. But I always like to you know I like the sweetness the sweet points I have to say because you know they're there in lies eternal hope. So here's one of my favorites. So we were shoppin this is from Thomas and Beulah. It was written by Rita Dove who as you may know was the youngest poet laureate in the country and also just won the National Medal of Arts Award presented by President

Barack Obama and before that was won the National Medal of humanities from President Clinton. So this book of poetry called Thomas and Beulah won the Pulitzer Prize in 1907. And this particular point is called courtship and it's in honor of her grandparents so it's set at a time when you know a little bit. A couple generations ago fine evening may I have the pleasure. Up and down the block waiting for what. And Magnolia breeze someone to trot out the stars. But she won't set a foot in his turtle dove Nash. It wasn't proper her pleated skirt fanned softly a circlip of arrows. King of the crawfish and his yellow scarf mandolin belly pressed tight to his houndstooth vest his wrist flicks for the pleats all in a row. Sighing so he wraps the yellow silk still warm from his throat around her shoulders. He made good money he could buy another. Annette flies in his eye and she thinks he's crying. Then the parlor festoon like a ship and Thomas twirling his hat in his hands

wondering how did I get here. China plugs guarding our friend said t were father half Cherokee smokes and frowns. I'll give her a good life. What was he doing selling all for a song. His heart fluttering shut then slowly opening. That's from Thomas and Beulah. It's called a courtship by Rita Dove. That is beautiful isn't that wonderful. That is just beautiful. Full of nostalgia and remembrance. Some people will take to their bed today sue because love is a sickness. Yes it is. It is definitely that I remember. My love is a fever or symptoms of love give us one of those that you think really express the whole sickening sickness of love or how it can drag you there. Yeah there's a whole group of coins that actually describe love as a sickness and it's been very interesting through the years to discover how many illnesses and diseases love has been. Love has been used to express Shakespeare of course began with his sonnet my love is as a fever burning stale. But

here's one by Robert Graves called symptoms of love. Love is a universal migraine a bright stain on the vision blotting out reason. Symptoms of true love are leanness jealousy laggard dawns are omens a night mayors listening for a knock waiting for a sign. For a touch of her fingers in a darkened room for a searching look. Take courage lover Can you would do are such grief at any hand but hers. Well that does make you look forward to love does it. Again one can relate to the universal migraine part of it which often accompanies the experience. Well we can look for to the end of the migraine and to celebrating Valentine's Day with some of the other more uplifting points that you shared with us today. I think that's the way to go out. Thank you so much Sue weavers. I'm Kalak Crossley we've been observing Valentine's Day by way of poetry and I've been joined by Sue

Weaver shop associate dean for the Master of Liberal Arts Program at the Harvard Extension School. Up next we'll continue the love conversation with wine guy Jonathan also. He'll walk us through the Best Buy to get to your Valentine's heart from bubbly to Bordeaux. You're listening to a 9.7 WGBH Boston Public Radio. This program is made possible thanks to you. And Greenberg Traurig an international law firm with offices in Boston and more than 30 other cities worldwide addressing the complex legal needs

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about Valentine's Day with a look at how to best romance your sweetheart with wine. I'm joined by Johnson also founder of the Boston Wine School and author of the wine lovers devotional 365 days of knowledge advice and lore for the ardent aficionado Jonathan welcome back alley great to be back folks. Welcome welcome to Single Awareness Day. All right so you know end of the day. Yeah. I mean is it is it is it is just an absolute natural all this time of year people are trying to think of different ways to say I love you with wine and food and I mean you all know you almost can't go wrong. Really. Although although there is one thing that can cause your quest to go wrong and that is that is confusing intoxication with romance that's OK. OK. When people say when people say we know what's a great wine for Valentine's Day someone immediately says yes something with like

37 percent alcohol. And you know what. That is not romantic. OK. Don't do that. Don't do that even if any if anything if you're planning some kind of romantic Valentine's Day dinner. I mean my my approach is to have two lighter lower alcohol wines like start out with a Riesling like a kind of a semi sweet Riesling that might only have eight or nine percent alcohol and then have a light red then you have two wines which is automatically more automatically more romantic and both and both of them. Yes please open it but I'm going to be more romantic as you go. Now you know when I think of when you're opening up right now when I think of romantic wine Valentine's Day I think of rose it. Absolutely I mean it's it's you know luscious it's pink and it's not a lot of people think it's sweet it doesn't have to be sweet you can get sweet. Exactly what rosé has a little bit of an image problem because of white zinfandel which is a sweet version of rosé. There's also

Dr. rosé and I although stereotypically there's the sense that you know pink is this sort of feminizing color and you know every every woman turns into a little girl when she's in love. You know that sort of thing I reject that. I reject that as the as the basis for why we use rosé on Valentine's Day. I prefer sometimes Rosie is called blush. Sometimes it is called as a whine a blush wine. And I prefer to think of it as the kind of blush even though we live even though we live in an age where people don't blush anymore. Still I prefer to think of it that way that it is not necessarily feminine but it's that blush that flushed at that sign that you and your. You know Valentine have chemistry you know. You know what I'm saying. Yes I do know what you're saying. So this is a rosé from Spain. Very affordable Spanish was very Spanish wines in general are affordable This wine is called Top 10 yeah

2010 Pena rosé. It's very I mean in Cali you can radio such a fantastic visual medium as you can see as you can see it's a really dark. It's a really dark rosé right. It's not a light light pink color it's almost you know like red a little bit a little bit darker and it can be a light could be a light red wine. It's delicious. And give us the price point for peace something running out right now. Eight ninety nine yeah. Top 10 euro's Aser eight ninety nine tell us what it goes with for people planning their their dinner at the last minute. Well you know dinner this is what we're going to be tonight actually at the Wine School is our Valentine's Day wine and chocolate class plus dinner and we're going to be having this rosé with the pasta pasta cold pasta rose that day which is. Resign your noodle like a half height lasagna noodle that's rolled up and then baked standing up in the sauce so that it

looks like a rose from the top. So this is going to Nice little pink sauce it's got a very soft easygoing cheese sauce that goes with it. And this is it. And this is going to be perfect with that because because it's got a little more and you taste it you can't tell what's really just a little more than a white wine but still not as big and robust as a red one I perceive you are kind of red this is perfect. You know this and again this would be a great you know this would be a great sort of baby step wine from someone who was in love with white wine but maybe wanted to try also some red wine and food friendly as we've said. Now you've also brought with you a dark red and I put I brought the chocolates because this is the day for wine and talk you know what it absolutely is. A lot of people do not. A lot of people do not. Get the charm of wine and chocolate completely. That's because I've never put it together I guess. And you know the thing is you really you really you really

have to work hard. I feel Cali this box of chocolates. What you put in front of us here I feel like we need to taste it a little and we need to cut these up into scientific bite size components and we need to taste each and every one to see what to see what we've got. This is so this red wine we're tasting this from a. It's from a winery called 90 plus sellers. They are a Boston based company. They are an international. They're like an international personal wine shop or you know in in the European world they're called in and go see aren't they go to the wine makers they negotiate they bring the wine to you and this is 90 plus sellers. Gardner is the name of the Grape the French call it also from Spain. And you know this is 90 plus sellers so I think that if I found an opportunity to work this into the conversation like you know honey I couldn't find 100 plus sellers

because that's what I really wanted for you. But this is close as I could get you know going to work on that. I guess I'm just saying. I mean. I have a little time but I just think that we're you know I think my beau did the right thing to get me 11 Rosa said because honey you're 12. OK go work on your rap that's a good one might I do my thing get my thing generally is just you know knowing when to shut up is 99 percent of my All right let me get this wired together with the chocolate. OK. I'm a dark chocolate person so I really like dark chocolate with red wine and it's a it's a great great matches and then talk to us about why it's a great meal here. That looks like a dark chocolate. Hard to tell what's in here without the chocolate radar device. So the issue with chocolate is the way to understand chocolate is based on the cocoa content of cocoa powder. If it's got very little cocoa powder that leaves a lots of room for other tasty delicious goodness. If it's 30 percent cocoa then it's 70 percent sugar and butter and

milk and all kinds of other other things if it's 80 percent cocoa that only leaves 20 percent for any kind of other sweetener or any kind of other texture thing. This is why the higher the cocoa content goes the more bitter the drier the darker and the more intense. The chocolate becomes And what we generally do is we we we think about the range of chocolate from you know white chocolate like way over here. I never really think of it as linear way. Yeah OK I understand but you know it's a I think it's a tangential member of the chocolate family right way over here way over here on the other end is some sort of 90 percent cocoa. You know extra extra black chocolate. And we lined it up pretty much with with wines as well when we get to these really really extreme high cocoa content chocolates. That's when we start getting into extreme wines like a late harvest.

California Zinfandel you know something with some sweetness we're missing the sweetness there we've got the chocolate right flavor but what we do not have is the sweetness and the texture. So when we start getting out in the extremes we start going for like a late harvest Zinfandel or a port which is a sweet late harvest red wine. Also fortified with brandy. So those also have a slightly higher alcohol content so their texture is different. And they add a little bit of richness in viscosity to the chocolate. The real chat I mean the real challenge of the most challenging thing thing for me is pairing white wine and chocolate because I never think of that because chocolate becomes very strong and any and it exits the white wine realm pretty quickly. As soon as you get some I'll do it do it well as soon as you get out of the Milk Chocolate Rain yeah that's when you're in really into red wines. But we've had a lot of

luck with German and Swiss milk chocolate with German not too sweet Riesling. OK so that we are so that we are putting things of the same sweetness intensity sweetness intensity side by side. Tell me how much the Granato runs price point just so people know. You know I mean neither one of these I mean both of these are really cheap way of saying I love you I mean the tip in your resume is eight ninety nine nine ninety nine and the 90 plus Sellers is eleven ninety nine twelve ninety nine writing like that. Do's and Don'ts for buying wine for your sweetie do's and don'ts Well as always. As always knowing your audience is absolutely is is is absolutely critical. I mean God forgive me for even saying this but there's an Australian wine out there that's called it's called bitch is the name of the

wine. Now depending on the relationship and knowing your audience that's not that one I would have I would you know I would never do that. But it's out there and it's like being sold for Valentine's Day because it's a joke. You know you're you've got to know your audience. I mean more than anything else more than anything else what you're trying to do here whether you're cooking for someone or buying wine for them or selecting a gift for them romantically what you're trying to demonstrate to them is that you are competent to do all of these things. What you are saying is honey I can listen to you. I can understand what it is you lie in who you are and what makes you you especially. And look I when I heard you and I went out and I got this wine which is completely for you and more than anything else that is what you were trying to communicate with this sort of gift is your valentine someone who is super proud of there. Fill in the blank heritage

Italian heritage if they are find out from where in Italy where in Italy go you know go to the shop and find a bottle of wine as close to the town where their grandparents came from and say honey I know you know. Super proud and just. And here's a good one you won. And this is and I saw this and this I thought of you I mean that is that is really wide. That more than anything I think of that is what you are trying to accomplish. You mention this. There are some bottles that already have a sweet name St.. More and more desert heart. Yes that is nice saying to more you know it's kind of doing your job for you. Yeah you know that I know nothing I said I'm just saying this is you know this is one of those ones where you just have to say say no more. You know I love you all and you know again I know how to stop talking. Yeah. Let it go and let it work you know let it do its work.

MORRIS We know there are going to say 10 more is actually a type of Beaujolais. OK so we get a really good choice for people because it's a medium slash light bodied red wine. So people who are not I mean people are not necessarily hardcore big red wine lovers are going to like it nicely with milk chocolate both pairs nicely with milk chocolate. Here's nicely with kind of a light meal I mean after all it is a Tuesday night right. Yeah that's true. You got to get up the next day. Valentine's Day be like the second Saturday of February when I say like that. So how did that someone mess this up. Well I have to say that some of my favorites are sparkling sweets for Valentine's Day I like Rosa wriggly I can get enough ROSENBERG And yes it's so beautiful you know. King and tasting it is sweet. Yeah well yeah and a nice sweet wine and again hold that for dessert. Yes you know I have that instead of starting with the sparkling wine to hang on to that sweet sparkling wine. There's a great I know one we've talked about before from South

Africa is called Star tree yeah that works too. And I don't like I like champagne and sparkling wine and I disagree with those people who say that you know it doesn't go with chocolate forget you. It absolutely it is. If he goes with chocolate if you're very very careful. I mean I mean the ultimate wrote the ultimate romantic Valentine's Day dinner would be a different sparkling wine for every corner. I'm working on that next year. Thank you. Thank you Jonathan also. We've been talking about vino and Valentine's Day with Jonathan also founder of the Boston Wine School you can keep on top of the Calla Crossley Show at WGBH data like Slash Calla Crossley follow us on Twitter have become a fan of the Calla Crossley Show on Facebook today show interfered by Antonio only art produced by Chelsea Mertz will Rose left and at the museum where production of WGBH Boston Public Radio.