In this episode of Words That Burn, the poetry podcast dedicated to literary analysis and poetic interpretation, I sit down with Belfast poet Matthew Rice to discuss his new collection Plastic: a book-length poem mapped across a single night shift in an invented plastics factory. It's published by Fitzcarraldo Editions.
Born from his PhD at the Seamus Heaney Centre, Queen's University Belfast, Plastic sits at a rare intersection in contemporary poetry: a deeply personal account of fifteen years working factory floors, fused with literary devices and techniques drawn from medieval romance, Gothic literature, and pop culture.
We discuss the historical context behind the collection, tracing Rice's place within a tradition of working-class and "factory poets" like Philip Levine and Larry Levis, and explore how Sir Gawain and the Green Knight becomes a recurring avatar for the speaker's own quest through the night.
This conversation doubles as a poetry education in itself, perfect whether you're new to contemporary poetry or already fluent in poetic analysis.
We chat about:
- How timestamps and form mirror the malleability of plastic itself
- The Gothic undercurrents running through a hyper-modern, industrial setting
- Literary allusion: from Wolverine comics to Kubrick's Gotham to Fassbender's Prometheus, and how pop culture deepens poetic meaning
- The poet biography behind the book: Rice's journey from factory worker to MA and PhD in poetry
- A live reading of two poems from the collection, including the recurring Gawain sequence
Whether you're after rigorous poem discussion, a beginner-friendly entry point into poetry interpretation, or simply want to hear from one of the most original voices in Irish poetry and Global poets writing today, this episode of this poetry podcast offers a rich, accessible deep-dive into a genuinely singular collection.
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Time Stamps:
00:00 Welcome and Guest Intro
00:40 Inside the Book Plastic
02:17 Factory Poetry Gap
03:40 Molds and Poetic Form
06:05 Long Poem in Sections
07:38 Poetry as Escape
11:23 Dream Time and Imagination
12:34 Mapping Time on Shift
16:19 Gawain on the Factory Floor
19:47 Reading a Gawain Poem
21:00 Reviews and New Meanings
22:55 Pop Culture Allusions
24:14 Fosse One Sentence Novel
25:05 Wolverine And Prometheus
27:37 Factory As Monster
29:31 Kubrick City Character
31:28 Flesh Meets Machine
36:01 Gothic Hauntings And Swift
38:12 Gotham Politics And Capital
42:12 Prologue Ritual And Verbing
45:54 Hidden Easter Egg Poem
47:44 Final Thoughts And Thanks
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