Poetry For All
Finding Our Way Into Great Poems
Displaying items 1-10 of 11 in total of Poetry For All with the tag "19th century".
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Episode 112: Walt Whitman, When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer
August 13th, 2026 | Season 9 | 22 mins 35 secs
19th century, free verse, nature poetry, night, restlessness, spirituality, wonder
As we prepare for the new school year, we turn to Walt Whitman's poem "When I Heard the Learned Astronomer." We discuss Whitman's influence, the effects of war, the role of poetry as Whitman saw it, and the importance of experiencing the world both in and beyond the classroom.
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Episode 103: Dinah Maria Craik, Friendship
January 16th, 2026 | Season 8 | 14 mins 48 secs
19th century, free verse, friendship, gratitude, joy, love, thanksgiving, women's history month
In a short, simple, well-loved poem, Dinah Maria Craik names one aspect of friendship that many have found true. A great way to start the new year and launch the season. Find a friend and listen in.
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Episode 96: Gerard Manley Hopkins, God's Grandeur
September 3rd, 2025 | Season 7 | 24 mins 23 secs
19th century, alliterative verse, anger, christianity, climate change, grief and loss, hope, rhymed verse, sonnet, wonder
Today we look at a sonnet by Gerard Manley Hopkins that dwells equally in the grandeur of God and the wreck made of earth. Hopkins wonders how these two aspects of our world could possibly relate, and he holds out hope for the dearest freshness deep down things.
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Episode 80: Percy Bysshe Shelley, Ozymandias
October 17th, 2024 | Season 6 | 21 mins 11 secs
19th century, sonnet, word and image
In this episode, we closely read Shelley's "Ozymandias," a poem written in a time of revolution and social protest. We focus on the poem's sonnet structure, its engagement with--and critique of--empire, its meditation on the bust of Ramses II, and its afterlife in an episode of Breaking Bad.
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Episode 71: Hopkins, As Kingfishers Catch Fire
April 18th, 2024 | Season 6 | 23 mins 55 secs
19th century, christianity, nature poetry, rhymed verse, sonnet, wonder
This episode dives into the wonderful world of Gerard Manley Hopkins, the musicality of his language, and the vision he has of becoming what we already are.
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Episode 47: Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass
April 22nd, 2022 | Season 4 | 26 mins 39 secs
19th century, ars poetica, children, free verse, guest on the show, nature poetry, repetition or refrain, spirituality, wonder
In this episode, Christopher Hanlon joins us to discuss an excerpt from Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass. We discuss the poem's prophetic voice, its patterns of repetition, the connective tissue that binds his ideas and invites readers in, and the cultural context in which Whitman produced his work.
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Episode 41: F.E.W. Harper, Learning to Read
February 16th, 2022 | Season 4 | 23 mins 27 secs
19th century, anger, black history month, guest on the show, narrative, social justice and advocacy
Frances Ellen Watkins Harper was a prolific writer and activist of the nineteenth century. In this episode, Professor Janaka Bowman Lewis joins us to discuss her power, influence, voice, and work. "Learning to Read" foregrounds the ballad style in a narrative poem designed to keep alive the memories of fighting for both literacy and liberation.
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Episode 39: Paul Laurence Dunbar, We Wear The Mask
February 2nd, 2022 | Season 4 | 22 mins 9 secs
19th century, anger, black history month, grief and loss, guest on the show, repetition or refrain, rhymed verse, rondeau, social justice and advocacy
This week, Rafia Zafar joins us to discuss "We Wear the Mask" by the great poet and writer Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906). Rafia leads us in a discussion of Dunbar's fame and influence while opening up broader themes of African American history and literature.
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Episode 30: John Keats, To Autumn
October 20th, 2021 | Season 3 | 22 mins 18 secs
19th century, autumn, climate change, guest on the show, nature poetry, ode, rhymed verse
John Keats was one of the great British Romanticists. In this episode we talk with Michael Theune and Brian Rejack about one of his last odes, "To Autumn," which has inspired poets ever since it was first composed in 1821. We encourage you to read along with the text of the poem as we talk through its implications for the 21st century and our age of ecological disaster.
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Episode 17: Gerard Manley Hopkins, Pied Beauty
February 23rd, 2021 | Season 2 | 14 mins 35 secs
19th century, alliterative verse, gratitude, joy, nature poetry, rhymed verse, sonnet, thanksgiving, wonder
In this extraordinary curtal sonnet (a shortened sonnet, curtailed), Hopkins packs immense power. He uses the shortened form to heighten the emotion, drawing himself up short in the end with nothing else that can be said other than "Praise him." This week, we walk through these short lines and unfold some of the ways that Hopkins works.