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.

Introducing our brand new Poetry For All website: https://poetryforallpod.com! Please visit the new website to learn more about our guests, search for thematic episodes (ranging from Black History Month to the season of autumn), and subscribe to our newsletter.

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Episodes

  • Episode 7: John Donne, Holy Sonnet 14

    October 14th, 2020  |  Season 1  |  15 mins 54 secs
    17th century, christianity, intimacy, restlessness, rhymed verse, sonnet

    This week we look at one of John Donne's Holy Sonnets from the seventeenth century. This famous poem (#14, "Batter my heart") turns a poetic tradition of love and longing to religious ends, earnestly seeking God and questioning whether union with God will ever be achieved.

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    Episode 6: Jen Bervin, Nets

    October 6th, 2020  |  Season 1  |  19 mins 13 secs
    21st century, erasure, eros and desire, grief and loss, intimacy, women's history month

    In this episode we learn about erasure poetry and poetic tradition by looking at Jen Bervin's incredible book NETS, created from the sonnets of Shakespeare.

  • Episode 5: Claude McKay, "America"

    September 29th, 2020  |  Season 1  |  14 mins 40 secs
    20th century, anger, black history month, harlem renaissance, modernism, rhymed verse, social justice and advocacy, sonnet

    In this episode, we discuss Claude McKay, an influential poet of the Harlem Renaissance, taking a close look at his incredible sonnet "America."

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    Episode 4: Shakespeare, Sonnet 18

    September 22nd, 2020  |  Season 1  |  16 mins 12 secs
    17th century, eros and desire, love, rhymed verse, sonnet, summer

    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.

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

    September 15th, 2020  |  Season 1  |  14 mins 9 secs
    18th century, anger, black history month, christianity, hope, rhymed verse, social justice and advocacy, surprise

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

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    Episode 2: Emily Dickinson, Tell all the truth

    September 10th, 2020  |  Season 1  |  14 mins 13 secs
    19th century, ars poetica, rhymed verse, spirituality, surprise, women's history month

    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.

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    Episode 1: Seamus Heaney, Digging

    August 31st, 2020  |  Season 1  |  14 mins 44 secs
    20th century, ars poetica, free verse, laborers, wonder

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