265. The Poetry of Boxing: When Marianne Moore Met Muhammad Ali

Blood sport or poetry in motion? Amy relcutantly weighs in on the sport of boxing this week, reciting Mrs. Elwood Nickerson’s ballad about a historic prize fight in 19th-century England between the British boxer Tom Sayers and America’s “Benicia Boy,” John Heenan. You’ll also learn how a social introduction by Paris Review editor George Plimpton in 1966 led boxing great Muhammad Ali to collaborate on a poem with the esteemed American modernist poet Marianne Moore. This bonus episode is available to paid subscribers or for individual purchase.