Cyrus Cassells — Jasmine - Poetry Unbound

Podcast Summary: Poetry Unbound

Episode: Cyrus Cassells — “Jasmine”
Host: Pádraig Ó Tuama
Release Date: January 19, 2026

Episode Overview

This episode of Poetry Unbound is a deeply immersive exploration of Cyrus Cassells’ poem “Jasmine.” Host Pádraig Ó Tuama unpacks the poem’s lush romanticism, sensory experience, and its resonance with memory and history. He guides listeners through the interplay of scent, story, and longing, connecting both the poem’s imagery and Cassells’ wider body of work.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

Evocative Power of Scent and Memory

Personal Reflection [00:02]:
- Pádraig opens by reminiscing about his time living in French-speaking Switzerland in his twenties. Memories are rekindled through tangible triggers—especially scents like pine, wild herbs, thyme, and wildflowers.
- Quote:
  - “Tangible things like that transport me back in a second, back 30 years.” [00:02]
He introduces “Jasmine” by Cyrus Cassells, immediately noting its sensory immediacy:
- “These are the days of jasmine in Rome, when headlong, emboldened April has dissolved…” [00:41]

Lush, Romantic Language and Form

The poem is structured in 23 lines—11 couplets and a final single line, capturing a reverie-like state.
Pádraig describes the overwhelming romance of the language, pointing to its “rose-tinted glasses reminiscence… adjectives everywhere, building up in luscious, giving words.” [02:38]
Example adjectives from the poem: “headlong,” “emboldened,” “joyous,” “sweet,” “steady,” “graffiti-laden,” “pallid,” “breeze-swept,” “enrapturing.”
- Memorable Analysis:
  - "It’s almost like an editor might have said, maybe you could make this a little bit less romantic. And Cyrus Cassells has said, I’m making it more romantic.” [03:54]

The Communal and Intimate Power of Jasmine

The scent of jasmine in the poem acts as a catalyst for connection and shared confidences among neighbors.
Notably, the poem leads to a neighbor’s story:
- “Even crone, glorious Daria, my terrace-loving neighbor, confides…” [06:18]
Jasmine binds people in shared sensory experience and allows deeper stories to be shared.

Rich Metaphorical Layers

Pádraig explores the poem’s striking metaphors:
- “Jasmine, the elating moment’s shibboleth, the cool, enrapturing knight’s cavalry…” [06:42]
- Shibboleth: a word whose pronunciation grants access—here, the scent “allows you into a heightened moment.”
- Cavalry: military metaphor signifying a “fragrance, an overpowering fragrance, delicious and sensual.” [07:29]
These metaphors elevate jasmine from mere scent to symbolic gatekeeper and transporter.

Narrative Shift and Generosity

The poem transitions from solitary reminiscence to the wartime love story of Daria and Galliano:
- “When Galliano came back from the front, his right hand was bandaged, but in his uninjured one… he held a fistful of jasmine he’d picked along the path to my door. How could I not become his wife?” [08:30]
Pádraig highlights the music and connection in this closing anecdote, noting the poem’s unashamed celebration of how “love can hold things together.” [09:21]

Contextualizing the Poem: Cassells' Oeuvre

The poem is from The Gospel According to Wild Indigo—a collection in two halves:
- First: Uplifting Gullah culture, resilience, and survival amid brutality.
- Second: Exploration of travel, transformation, and romance.
- The book’s structure itself forms a “couplet” of resilience and romance.
Notable companion quote from the collection:
- “Who better to define freedom than a slave?” [11:05]
Cassells is identified as an African-American poet, a translator, actor, and film critic.
- Pádraig remarks that his poems often “unfold like a film” with deep empathy and a rich “emotional geography.” [11:35]
- “He doesn’t deny… he just points to that which he knows will truly last.” [11:56]

Final Reading of the Poem

Pádraig offers a second, uninterrupted reading of “Jasmine” (full poem at [11:57]), allowing listeners to fully experience its imagery and rhythm.

Notable Quotes

On Sensory Memory:

“Tangible things like that transport me back in a second, back 30 years.”
— Pádraig Ó Tuama [00:12]
On Poetic Lushness:

“It’s almost like an editor might have said, maybe you could make this a little bit less romantic. And Cyrus Cassells has said, I’m making it more romantic.”
— Pádraig Ó Tuama [03:54]
On Jasmine as “Broadcast”:

“This rich, fruity, flowery, gorgeous hair smell of jasmine. And the poem is so powerful because it makes everything be wrapped into the sweet, steady broadcast, that’s how he describes it, of jasmine.”
— Pádraig Ó Tuama [05:08]
On Empathy and Lasting Meaning:

“He doesn’t deny… he just points to that which he knows will truly last.”
— Pádraig Ó Tuama [11:56]

Timestamps for Key Segments

[00:02] – Pádraig’s opening reflection on memory and scent
[00:40] – First reading of “Jasmine”
[02:05] – Analysis of form and romantic language
[06:18] – Introduction of Daria’s story
[07:29] – Military and sensory imagery discussion
[08:30] – Wartime love narrative: Daria and Galliano
[09:21] – The poem’s message about love’s connective power
[11:05] – Contextualizing Cassells’ work and themes
[11:57] – Poem re-read for immersive experience

Memorable Moments

The vivid description of how jasmine’s scent casts a “sweet steady broadcast”—a phrase that shifts “broadcast” from technology to nature, saturating the poem with atmosphere. [05:08]
The tender conclusion: Daria’s recounting of Galliano’s return from war, wounded, yet carrying jasmine—a gesture binding suffering and new beginnings into an act of love. [08:30]
The summing up of Cassells’ dual genius: “Romance and resilience and luscious sensuality with terrible brutality and humanity and inhumanity and memory and lived experience.” [11:26]

Summary Conclusion

Pádraig Ó Tuama’s gentle, insightful journey through Cyrus Cassells’ “Jasmine” reveals the poem’s power to evoke memory, fragrance, and romantic experience, while also connecting it to a broader context of survival, identity, and love. With both literary analysis and personal reminiscence, the episode invites listeners into an unapologetically lush and generous world—where poetry is both memory’s carrier and love’s witness.

Transcript

A (0:02)

My name is Padre Go Toma, and In my early 20s I lived in Switzerland for a little bit less than a year, the French speaking part. And somehow the memory of that time looms in my mind much more than I thought it would. It was only eight or nine or 10 months, I can't quite remember, but it comes back to me so often. Sometimes when I see a friend from that time, or in the sight of mountains, or if I hear a particular French phrase or accent or but especially over and over again, whenever I smell the strong scent of pine or wild herbs, especially thyme, or that really delicate scent of wildflowers, that's when I am absolutely transported back to Switzerland. Tangible things like that transport me back in a second, back 30 years. Jasmine By Cyrus Cassells these are the days of jasmine in Rome, when headlong, emboldened April has dissolved and the joyous braiding of sun and rain brings this sweet steady broadcast. When I step from the suppertime train, that's what greets me. Roman hedges and walkways, graffiti laden precincts graced with pallid fireworks, so even the most tumbled down niches seem breeze swept, festive now with fragrance. Jasmine, the elating moment's shibboleth, the cool, enrapturing knight's cavalry, even crone, glorious Daria, my terrace loving neighbor, confides, when Galliano came back from the front, his right hand was bandaged, but in his uninjured one, ah, poet. He held a fistful of jasmine he'd picked along the path to my door. How could I not become his wife? This is a glorious, gorgeous, generous poem from Cyrus Cassell's a romantic poem, 23 lines, 11 couplets, two lines, and a final single line, how could I not become his wife? And the whole poem functions kind of like a dreamscape or a reminiscence, starting especially with these are the days of jasmine in Rome. And whether you have a relationship with the scent of jasmine or with the city of Rome, you can be transported into the story just like that, transported into somebody's memory or somebody's experience. There's time markers given with headlong emboldened April has dissolved. So therefore we're later than April. And then more is sketched with sun and rain and the evening train and hedges and walkways and graffiti. And this is a totally unashamed rose tinted glasses reminiscence or Rome tinted glasses reminiscence. The adjectives are absolutely everywhere, building up in luscious, giving words that are tumbling over themselves in a certain sense to try to bring us into an experience. Headlong, emboldened, joyous, sweet, steady, supper time, Roman graffiti laden, pallid, tumbledown, bright, breeze swept, elating, cool, enrapturing, crone, glorious, terrace, loving. It's almost like an editor might have said, maybe you could make this a little bit less romantic. And Cyrus Cassells has said, I'm making it more romantic. And so we're brought into a poem of great memory and sensory experience that evokes a place and people and encounters with people and deep love. One of the other effects of Jasmine in this beautiful poem is that it seems to bring people into confidences or sharing or even secrets with each other. The introduction to the quote quotation from Daria at the end, even crone, glorious Daria, my terrorist, loving neighbor, confides, it feels like the scent of jasmine is bringing a neighbourly blanket between people, bringing them together in a shared sensual experience, so that they also then begin to share something of their life. I read somewhere that scent is one of the most evocative of the senses and can bring back memory. So the title, Jasmine brings the smell to mind. This rich, fruity, flowery, gorgeous hair smell of jasmine. And the poem is so powerful because it makes everything be wrapped into the sweet, steady broadcast, that's how he describes it, of jasmine. And I love what he does with the word broadcast here. Normally, I think of radio or TV or some kind of program, but here it's the jasmine that casts broadly, making a festival, as he says. And then jasmine is also an elating moment's shibboleth, the cool, enrapturing knight's cavalry. And what does that mean? Shibboleth is a word that, if you can pronounce something properly, it grants you entry or safety or access. A test in a certain sense. So jasmine seems to be the pathway through a protected door that allows you into a heightened moment. And then that magnificent use of the word cavalry. It's absolutely a military metaphor. But here he seems to imply that the military comes with a fragrance, an overpowering fragrance, delicious and sensual. The poem, after having described so much of what clearly feels like a personal experience, it moves into a narrative of Daria, who loves her terrace. And she tells the story of her courtship with Galliano, who picked Jasmine on the pathway to her door when he was returning from Moore. He picked it with his left hand because his right hand was injured. How could I not become his wife? She asks at the end. Or he repeats her voice in the end. There's such music in this last part, the music of their Love between each other and the way within which, even when Daria is telling the story to the poet, she calls him O poet. And all of these things again just continue to deepen and heighten and expand the romance in his poem. The poem looks all of us in the eye and is unashamed about the ways within which love can hold things together. It can be helpful sometimes to look at a single poem alongside the companions of the volume in which it was published. And this poem is from a collection of Cyrus Cassel's titled the Gospel According to Wild Indigo. And that book's kind of essentially in two halves. The first half is a celebration and a marking of Gullah culture amongst the descendants of formerly enslaved peoples in the coastal plains and sea islands of South Carolina and the Georgia low country and other regions as well. And that first part of the book uplifts stories that have been denied and erased and has a line that's really a very famous line and regularly quoted from this book. Who better to define freedom than a slave? And then the second half contains an exploration of travel, amongst other things. He had lived, Cyrus Cassel's had in Italy as a younger man. He speaks Italian and Spanish and other languages, too. He's a renowned translator as well as poetry. And the setting of Italy is where we encounter this poem about Jasmine. And so this poem, many of the poems in this book are in couplets, but I feel like the two halves of the book also is a certain form of a couplet putting things together. Romance and resilience and luscious sensuality with terrible brutality and humanity and inhumanity and memory and lived experience. And I think that this poem looks to the idea of memory and language and story. Cyrus Cassells is an African American poet. He's looking to the inhumanity of the treatment of enslaved people and then looking in this romantic poem at the neighbor in Rome who has lived through a war. And so he is uplifting and critiquing and moving time forward and saying, look at what people are capable of surviving, as well as pushing away the idea that that surviving was any necessary. There's an empathy of imagination the whole way throughout his work, especially in this poem, and a kind of a, I suppose an emotional geography in what he's doing. He doesn't deny he's not sickly, he's not saccharine, he's not overly sweet. He just points to that which he knows will truly last. And we finish with this terrorist loving neighbor. Cyrus Cassels is, as well as being a poet and a translator. He is an actor and a film critic as well, and I think you can see something like a film unfold in the 23 lines of this beautiful poem. It's an experience that consumes you and it uplifts you into ecstasy, of love remembered, of scent, of a period of time, of the end of a war and bringing us into reminiscence, bringing us into story. These are the days of Jasmine in Rome. Jasmine by Cyrus Cassells these are the days of jasmine in Rome when headlong, emboldened April has dissolved and the joyous braiding of sun and rain brings this sweet steady broadcast. When I step from the suppertime train, that's what greets me Roman hedges and walkways, graffiti laden precincts graced with pallid fireworks, so even the most tumbledown niches seem breeze swept, festive now with fragrance, jasmine, elating moments, shibboleth, the cool enrapturing knight's cavalry, even crone glorious Daria, my terrace loving neighbor, confides When Galliano came back from the front his right hand was bandaged, but in his uninjured one. Ah poet. He held a fistful of jasmine he'd picked along the path to my door. How could I not become his wife?