Poetry For All
Finding Our Way Into Great Poems
Displaying Episode 1 - 10 of 14 in total of Poetry For All with the tag “love”.
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Episode 101: Emerald GoingSnake, Someday I'll Love--
November 19th, 2025 | Season 7 | 23 mins 53 secs
21st century, aging, elegy, free verse, gratitude, grief and loss, guest on the show, love, native american heritage month
This episode opens "Someday I'll Love" poems through the vivid imagery of a young poet's connection with their grandmother, remembering in love as memory begins to slip.
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Episode 92: Dorianne Laux, Singer
May 8th, 2025 | Season 6 | 25 mins 44 secs
21st century, elegy, free verse, gratitude, joy, love, mother's day, narrative, ode, women's history month
In this episode, we read and discuss "Singer," a narrative poem that creates a catalog of details that celebrates the poetic speaker's mother in all of her complexity.
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Episode 73: Sor Juana Inez de la Cruz, Sonnet 189
July 8th, 2024 | Season 6 | 24 mins 41 secs
17th century, eros and desire, hispanic heritage month, love, poetry in translation, sonnet, women’s history month, world poetry
In this episode, Professor Stephanie Kirk guides our reading of Sor Juana Inez de la Cruz’s “Sonnet 189.” Her scholarly insights help us to appreciate the nuances of Sor Juana’s poetry and her importance in her own lifetime and beyond.
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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 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 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 52: Shakespeare, Sonnet 73
October 24th, 2022 | Season 5 | 19 mins 18 secs
17th century, aging, autumn, intimacy, love, night, rhymed verse, sonnet
This sonnet reflects on the autumn of life and an intimate love, and it turns on that love growing stronger in and through its age, even as the body decays.
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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 40: William Shakespeare, Sonnet 116
February 9th, 2022 | Season 4 | 25 mins 58 secs
17th century, lgbtqia month, love, rhymed verse, sonnet
In this episode, we provide a close reading of William Shakespeare's Sonnet 116, which allows us to consider the poem's definition of a love that is enduring. In addition, though, we consider a reading of the poem which foregrounds a disappointed poetic speaker who can see the love's transience, too. We also pay special attention to rhythm and sound, and we even get to learn a bit about the Great Vowel Shift from Professor Kristin Van Engen, a linguist at Washington University in St. Louis.
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Episode 38: Laura Van Prooyen, Elegy for My Mother's Mind
January 26th, 2022 | Season 4 | 29 mins 16 secs
21st century, aging, children, elegy, free verse, gratitude, grief and loss, guest on the show, love, mother's day
In this episode, our guest Laura Van Prooyen reads "Elegy for My Mother's Mind," a poem that navigates the complexities of memory, loss, and familial relationships. Laura's poem gives us an opportunity to think about the deep sources of poetic inspiration, the revision process, and the power of metaphor.