Poetry For All
Finding Our Way Into Great Poems
Displaying Episode 21 - 29 of 29 in total of Poetry For All with the tag “rhymed verse”.
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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.
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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 14: George Herbert, The Collar
February 1st, 2021 | Season 2 | 18 mins 24 secs
17th century, anger, christianity, narrative, restlessness, rhymed verse, spirituality, surprise
In this episode, we look at "The Collar"--a famous single-stanza poem, playing with meter, rhythm, and rhyme by the seventeenth-century priest and poet, George Herbert.
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Episode 9: Anne Bradstreet, In Memory of My Dear Grandchild Elizabeth Bradstreet
October 27th, 2020 | Season 1 | 14 mins 52 secs
17th century, anger, children, christianity, elegy, grief and loss, repetition or refrain, rhymed verse, sonnet, surprise, women's history month
This week we read Anne Bradstreet's elegy for her grandchild Elizabeth and draw out the multiple voices (both faith and doubt, both grief and consolation) and the tensions and deep emotions in the work of this talented Puritan poet--the first woman from British North America to publish a book of poems.
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Episode 7: John Donne, Holy Sonnet 14
October 14th, 2020 | Season 1 | 15 mins 54 secs
17th century, christianity, intimacy, restlessness, rhymed verse, sonnet
This week we look at one of John Donne's Holy Sonnets from the seventeenth century. This famous poem (#14, "Batter my heart") turns a poetic tradition of love and longing to religious ends, earnestly seeking God and questioning whether union with God will ever be achieved.
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Episode 5: Claude McKay, "America"
September 29th, 2020 | Season 1 | 14 mins 40 secs
20th century, anger, black history month, harlem renaissance, modernism, rhymed verse, social justice and advocacy, sonnet
In this episode, we discuss Claude McKay, an influential poet of the Harlem Renaissance, taking a close look at his incredible sonnet "America."
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Episode 4: Shakespeare, Sonnet 18
September 22nd, 2020 | Season 1 | 16 mins 12 secs
17th century, eros and desire, love, rhymed verse, sonnet, summer
In this episode we introduce listeners to one of the most resilient forms in English-language poetry: the sonnet. And we do it with one of the most famous sonnets Shakespeare wrote.
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Episode 3: Phillis Wheatley, On Being Brought from Africa to America
September 15th, 2020 | Season 1 | 14 mins 9 secs
18th century, anger, black history month, christianity, hope, rhymed verse, social justice and advocacy, surprise
This episode examines a short, incredible, difficult and important poem by one of the founding figures of African American literary traditions, Phillis Wheatley.
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Episode 2: Emily Dickinson, Tell all the truth
September 10th, 2020 | Season 1 | 14 mins 13 secs
19th century, ars poetica, rhymed verse, spirituality, surprise, women's history month
What does it mean to tell the truth "slant"? Is this a ballad, a hymn? What is "ars poetica" and is this an example? Join us for a discussion of this great, short, fun, rich poem by Dickinson.