Poetry For All

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.

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.

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.

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.

Episode 29: Elizabeth Bishop, One Art

October 6th, 2021  |  Season 3  |  25 mins 16 secs

20th century, grief and loss, lgbtqia month, love, rhymed verse, villanelle, women's history month

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.

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).

Episode 22: Two Poems of World War I

April 27th, 2021  |  Season 2  |  24 mins 43 secs

20th century, grief and loss, guest on the show, modernism, rhymed verse, sonnet, veteran's day

In this episode, we talk with Vince Sherry about two poems of WWI: Rupert Brooke's "The Soldier" and Ivor Gurney's "To His Love." The first poem, a stately beauty, imagines war almost peacefully; the second poem, scarred by combat, speaks back nervously and angrily. We talk through this remarkable set of poems and experiences and examine how a careful use of language conveys their effects.

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.

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.