Poetry For All
Finding Our Way Into Great Poems
We found 10 episodes of Poetry For All with the tag “christianity”.
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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 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 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 46: Lucille Clifton, spring song
April 13th, 2022 | Season 4 | 17 mins 35 secs
20th century, black history month, christianity, easter, free verse, hope, joy, love, repetition or refrain, spring, wonder
Lucille Clifton (1936-2010) was one of the most powerful poets of the twentieth century. This joyful poem caps a sequence of sixteen poems called "some jesus," which walks through biblical characters (beginning with Adam and Eve) and ends on four poems for Holy Week and Easter.
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Episode 45: Ben Jonson, On My First Son
March 23rd, 2022 | Season 4 | 21 mins 18 secs
17th century, children, christianity, elegy, grief and loss, loneliness, rhymed verse
In this episode, we look at Ben Jonson's elegy for his son who died of the plague at the age of 7. This poem is so brief, and yet, it manages to cross a lot of emotional terrain as Jonson struggles to understand the profundity of his loss.
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Episode 31: Jane Kenyon, Twilight: After Haying
October 27th, 2021 | Season 3 | 16 mins 48 secs
20th century, autumn, christianity, free verse, intimacy, nature poetry, night, spirituality
This week we take a closer look at another autumn poem, this one by Jane Kenyon from her wonderful book Otherwise: New and Selected Poems. Kenyon builds from and transforms the same tradition of the autumn ode we examined last week with John Keats.
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Episode 28: Countee Cullen, Yet Do I Marvel
September 29th, 2021 | Season 3 | 24 mins 48 secs
20th century, anger, black history month, christianity, guest on the show, harlem renaissance, rhymed verse, social justice and advocacy, sonnet, surprise
Countee Cullen was a major voice of the Harlem Renaissance. Joined by the renowned cultural critic Gerald Early, we here examine together story of Countee Cullen and the astounding sonnet that opens his main collection of poetry, My Soul's High Song.
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Episode 27: Marianne Moore, Poetry
September 22nd, 2021 | Season 3 | 21 mins 11 secs
20th century, ars poetica, christianity, modernism, rhymed verse, women's history month
In this episode, we read and discuss the influential modernist poet Marianne Moore and her witty, wonderful poem called "Poetry," a classic ars poetica (a poem about writing poetry).
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Episode 20: Hester Pulter, View But This Tulip
March 29th, 2021 | Season 2 | 25 mins 44 secs
17th century, christianity, guest on the show, hope, rhymed verse, science and medicine, spirituality
Wendy Wall joins us to discuss an extraordinary poet whose works went unknown for over three hundred years. Hester Pulter brought together science, religion, poetic traditions and so much more. Her 120 remarkable poems are now available at the award-winning Pulter Project website.
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Episode 16: John Milton, When I Consider How My Light is Spent
February 15th, 2021 | Season 2 | 15 mins 57 secs
17th century, aging, anger, body in pain, christianity, grief and loss, hope, rhymed verse, sonnet, surprise
The episode explores Milton's great sonnet spun from the difficulties of middle age and new disappointments. We consider how he pulls consolation from his sense of defeat and near despair. Faced with his coming blindness, he hears the voice of Patience giving him the strength to wait.