Television

30 Rock

In "Operation Righteous Cowboy Lightning," the twelfth episode of the fifth season of the sitcom 30 Rock, two charcters quote from John Keats's "On First Looking Into Chapman's Homer": Jack Donaghy (played by Alec Bladwin) mentions feeling like "stout Cortez," then later in the episode Tracy Jordan (played by Tracy Morgan) also mentions feeling like "stout Cortez," then immediately clarifies that Cortez is the name of his easily amazed gardener. 

Bridgerton

In the poilot episode of the Regency-set romance Bridgerton (Netflix, 2020, based on the novels of Julia Quinn), one character quips "Lord Byron he is not" in response to hearing an amatuerish sonnet. 

The Crown

In season 4, episode 4 of The Crown (2016-), Prince Charles (played by Josh O'Connor) tells his mother, Elizabeth II (Olivia Coleman) that his new home, Highgrove House, is his "own little Shangri-La, Xanadu" and quotes several lines from Coleridge's "Kubla Khan":

And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,
Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree;
And here were forests ancient as the hills,
Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

In season 3, episode 8 of the television show Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, "Kimmy Does a Puzzle!," the character Artie Goodman (played by Peter Riegert) says "drinking seawater makes people hallucinate. Haven't you ever read 'Rime of the Ancient Mariner?,'" to which Titus Andromedon (played by Tituss Burgess) replies "Sir, you should be able to tell that I have not."

The Orville

In season 1, episode 4 of the sci-fi comedy series The Orville (2017-), Dr. Claire Finn (played by Penny Johnson Jerald) quotes Ralph Waldo Emerson ("If the stars should appear..."), to which Captain Ed Mercer responds "Shakespeare?" When Finn corrects Mercer, he responds "Ralph Waldo Lord Ralph Waldo Keats David Thoreau, yes."

Supersizers Go...

The television show Supersizers Go... (2007-2009) features two episodes set in the Romantic period: season 1, episode 6, "The Supersizers Go...Regency," mentions Jane Austen and Lord Byron within an examination of typical Regency-era cuisine; season 2, episode 3, "The Supersizers Eat...The French Revolution" covers France from 1785-1795.

The Simpsons

In the Simpsons season 11, episode 2 (1999) episode entitled "Brother's Little Helper," Mrs. Krabappel asks Bart Simpson's fourth-grade class "who would like to read ''The Daffodils'' by Wordsworth?," and Sherri responds with ''I wandered lonely as a cloud that floats on high o'er vales and hills."

 

City on a Hill

Season 1 episode 3 of the Showtime series City on a Hill is named "If Only the Fool Would Persist in His Folly" after William Blake, and characters quote the poet several times.

 

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