Abram Van Engen
Co-Host of Poetry For All
Abram Van Engen is an English professor at Washington University in St. Louis.
Abram Van Engen has hosted 85 Episodes.
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Episode 67: Alex Dimitrov, Winter Solstice
December 18th, 2023 | Season 6 | 24 mins 27 secs
21st century, city, free verse, hope, intimacy, lgbtqia month, loneliness, night, winter
In this episode, we read and discuss a poem that provides a powerful meditation on the longest night of the year.
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Episode 66: Katy Didden, The Priest Questions the Lava
November 21st, 2023 | Season 6 | 26 mins 10 secs
21st century, christianity, climate change, erasure, grief and loss, guest on the show, nature poetry, spirituality, visual poetry, word and image
In our discussion of "The Priest Questions the Lava," Katy describes her interest in the sentience of the natural world, her erasure of documentary texts, her interest in visual poetry, and the importance of poems that examine ethical and spiritual questions in an era of climate change.
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Episode 65: Du Fu, Facing Snow
October 19th, 2023 | Season 6 | 23 mins 57 secs
8th century, grief and loss, guest on the show, poetry in translation, rhymed verse, world poetry
In this episode, Lucas Bender guides us through his translation of Du Fu's "Facing Snow," one of the most famous poems in the Chinese language.
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Episode 64: Shakespeare, Sonnet 29
September 22nd, 2023 | Season 6 | 19 mins 51 secs
17th century, friendship, hope, loneliness, love, rhymed verse, sonnet
Shakespeare's Sonnet 29 opens a world of comparison and despair, but also the deep joy of a dear friend that lifts one from disgrace. In our discussion, we consider present-day concerns about social media, the Surgeon General's warning about an epidemic of loneliness in this country, and a long-term Harvard study of happiness.
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Episode 63: Rumi, Colorless, Nameless, Free
August 29th, 2023 | Season 6 | 29 mins 56 secs
13th century, ghazal, guest on the show, islam, joy, poetry in translation, restlessness, rhymed verse, spirituality, surprise, wonder, world poetry
In this episode, poet and translator Haleh Liza Gafori joins us to closely read and discuss a poem by Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī (1207-1273 CE), one of the greatest of all Sufi poets. We discuss the poetic constraints of the ghazal form, Rumi's encounters with the divine, and the significance of his friendship with Shams, a man who transformed his life and poetic practice.
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Episode 62: Kobayashi Issa, Haiku
August 11th, 2023 | Season 6 | 17 mins 19 secs
18th century, haiku, joy, poet laureate, poetry in translation, spring, surprise, world poetry
What makes haiku "the perfect poetic form"? This episode reads three wonderful haiku by Kobayashi Issa and explores what makes them so moving and fun.
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Episode 61: Ada Limón, "The Raincoat"
May 11th, 2023 | Season 6 | 18 mins 34 secs
21st century, body in pain, children, free verse, gratitude, hispanic heritage month, love, mother's day, poet laureate, surprise, wonder
With her quality of attention and focus on vivid, specific images, Ada Limón brings us to a moment of surprising insight in "The Raincoat."
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Episode 60: Li-Young Lee, From Blossoms
May 2nd, 2023 | Season 5 | 19 mins 7 secs
20th century, asian american and pacific islander month, free verse, gratitude, joy, repetition or refrain, summer, wonder
In this episode, we explore the poetry of joy in a world of shade and death, looking to sounds and repetitions while examining how "From Blossoms" speaks back to the poem that immediately precedes it in Lee's great book "Rose."
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Episode 59: Tichborne's Elegy
April 7th, 2023 | Season 5 | 21 mins 25 secs
16th century, christianity, elegy, grief and loss, repetition or refrain, rhymed verse
In this episode, we read the elegy of Chidiock Tichborne, written the night before his execution, and contemplate the power of repetitions, the balanced precision of a man facing his end, and the drumbeat of monosyllables that takes his imagination beyond the moment of his death.
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Episode 58: Richie Hofmann, Things That Are Rare
February 27th, 2023 | Season 5 | 23 mins 57 secs
21st century, eros and desire, free verse, guest on the show, intimacy, lgbtqia month, night, sonnet
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Episode 57: Edna St. Vincent Millay, She had forgotten how the August night
February 14th, 2023 | Season 5 | 23 mins 46 secs
20th century, eros and desire, modernism, night, repetition or refrain, rhymed verse, sonnet, summer, women's history month
Edna St. Vincent Millay was the emblem of the "New Woman" and one of the most important American poets of the twentieth century. In this episode, we focus on a sonnet that showcases how Millay approached desire and eros in her poetry.
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Episode 56: Queen Elizabeth, On Monsieur's Departure
January 31st, 2023 | Season 5 | 18 mins 46 secs
16th century, eros and desire, love, rhymed verse, women's history month
Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603) was one of the longest-reigning monarchs in all of British history, but she was also a gifted poet. In this episode, we discuss "On Monsieur's Departure," a poem that is inspired by Petrarchan conventions and gives insight into the public and private selves of a powerful queen.
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Episode 55: Kay Ryan, Crib
December 19th, 2022 | Season 5 | 17 mins 17 secs
20th century, advent/christmas, free verse, lgbtqia month, poet laureate, rhymed verse, wonder
In this episode, we discuss Kay Ryan's "Crib," a brief poem that begins with an interest in the deep archaeology of language and shifts to a powerful meditation on theft, innocence, and guilt.
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Grant Writing Break
December 5th, 2022 | Season 5 | 2 mins 59 secs
This week, Joanne and Abram take a break to write a grant for the podcast. We very much hope you enjoy Poetry For All. And if you do, please leave us a review, share it with a friend, and let us know! Thank you all for listening.
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Episode 54: Carl Phillips, To Autumn
November 21st, 2022 | Season 5 | 24 mins 47 secs
21st century, autumn, black history month, city, free verse, guest on the show, intimacy, lgbtqia month, nature poetry, night, ode, restlessness, spirituality
In this episode, we talk with David Baker about "To Autumn" by Carl Phillips, exploring the way Phillips masterfully achieves a sense of intimacy and restlessness in a lyric ode that tosses between two parts while incorporating the sonnet tradition.
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Episode 53: Carter Revard, What the Eagle Fan Says
November 7th, 2022 | Season 5 | 25 mins 38 secs
20th century, alliterative verse, guest on the show, native american heritage month, nature poetry, spirituality
In this episode, we focus on the life and work of Carter Revard, an Osage poet whose medieval scholarship informs the structure of "What the Eagle Fan Says." Jessica Rosenfeld, a professor of medieval literature at Washington University in St. Louis, joins us for this discussion.