Poetry For All

Finding Our Way Into Great Poems

About the show

This podcast is for those who already love poetry and for those who know very little about it. In this podcast, we read a poem, discuss it, see what makes it tick, learn how it works, grow from it, and then read it one more time.

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Episodes

  • Episode 4: Shakespeare, Sonnet 18

    September 22nd, 2020  |  16 mins 12 secs
    shakespeare, sonnet, sonnet 18

    In this episode we introduce listeners to one of the most resilient forms in English-language poetry: the sonnet. And we do it with one of the most famous sonnets Shakespeare wrote.

  • Episode 3: Phillis Wheatley, On Being Brought from Africa to America

    September 15th, 2020  |  14 mins 9 secs
    african american literature, early american literature, on being brought from africa to america, phillis wheatley

    This episode examines a short, incredible, difficult and important poem by one of the founding figures of African American literary traditions, Phillis Wheatley.

  • Episode 2: Emily Dickinson, Tell all the truth

    September 10th, 2020  |  14 mins 13 secs
    analysis, ars poetica, emily dickinson, poetry, tell all the truth

    What does it mean to tell the truth "slant"? Is this a ballad, a hymn? What is "ars poetica" and is this an example? Join us for a discussion of this great, short, fun, rich poem by Dickinson.

  • Episode 1: Seamus Heaney, Digging

    August 31st, 2020  |  14 mins 44 secs
    ars poetica, digging, heaney, poetry

    We begin Poetry for All by teaching and talking about a great poem on poetry itself: Seamus Heaney's "Digging."