Poetry For All
Finding Our Way Into Great Poems
We found 10 episodes of Poetry For All with the tag “hope”.
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Episode 68: W.S. Merwin, To the New Year
January 18th, 2024 | Season 6 | 22 mins 48 secs
21st century, free verse, hope, nature poetry, new year’s day, ode, poet laureate, spirituality, surprise, winter, wonder
In the first episode of 2024, we read one of the great poets of the past century, W.S. Merwin, and his address to the new year, considering his attentiveness, his style, and his wondrous mood and mode of contemplation and surprise.
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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 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 48: Joy Harjo, An American Sunrise
April 28th, 2022 | Season 4 | 21 mins 47 secs
21st century, anger, golden shovel, grief and loss, hope, joy, native american heritage month, poet laureate, social justice and advocacy, spirituality
In this episode, we examine The Golden Shovel form and discuss the idea of "survivance" through the work of Muscogee (Creek) poet Joy Harjo, the 23rd Poet Laureate of the United States.
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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 42: Robert Hayden, Frederick Douglass
February 23rd, 2022 | Season 4 | 17 mins 58 secs
20th century, anger, black history month, blank verse, gratitude, hope, repetition or refrain, restlessness, social justice and advocacy, sonnet
In this episode, we offer a close reading of "Frederick Douglass," a poem in which Hayden channels the prophetic energies of his subject in order to imagine what freedom might one day mean.
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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 19: Naomi Shihab Nye, Gate A-4
March 9th, 2021 | Season 2 | 18 mins 59 secs
21st century, hope, joy, narrative, social justice and advocacy, spirituality, surprise, wonder
Remember airports? In this wonderful, narrative poem, Nye speaks of the remarkable capacity for community in a world of strangers.
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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.
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Episode 13: Amanda Gorman, The Hill We Climb
January 25th, 2021 | Season 2 | 18 mins 48 secs
21st century, black history month, free verse, hope, social justice and advocacy
In this episode, we discuss Amanda Gorman's "The Hill We Climb," the poem that she recited at the inauguration of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. We discuss how well suited the poem is to its occasion, Gorman's powerful use of sound, and the conversation that she engages in--with John Winthrop, the Constitution, the Bible, George Washington, Maya Angelou, and Lin-Manuel Miranda. Like everyone else in America, we are in love with this poem and hope you enjoy the discussion.
For the full text of "The Hill We Climb," please see this page: https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/20/politics/amanda-gorman-inaugural-poem-transcript/index.html
For more on Amanda Gorman, please see personal website: https://www.theamandagorman.com/