Poetry For All - Episodes Tagged with “Summer”

Episode 60: Li-Young Lee, From Blossoms

Joanne Diaz and Abram Van Engen — Tue, 02 May 2023 09:00:00 -0400

In this episode, we explore the poetry of joy in a world of shade and death, looking to sounds and repetitions while examining how "From Blossoms" speaks back to the poem that immediately precedes it in Lee's great book Rose.

For more on Li-Young Lee, see The Poetry Foundation here.

Thanks to BOA Editions for granting us permission to read Li-Young Lee's work on our podcast. "From Blossoms" and "The Weight of Sweetness" originally appeared in Rose (BOA Editions, 1986).

Episode 57: Edna St. Vincent Millay, She had forgotten how the August night

Joanne Diaz and Abram Van Engen — Tue, 14 Feb 2023 10:00:00 -0500

She called herself Vincent, she smoked cigarettes, and she wore shimmery golden evening gowns when she read her poetry to sold-out crowds. Edna St. Vincent Millay was the emblem of the "New Woman" and one of the most important American poets of the twentieth century...but in years after her death, her literary reputation suffered, and only recently have critics and historians revisited and properly celebrated her work.

In this episode, we focus on a sonnet that showcases the ways in which Millay approached desire and eros in her poetry.

To learn more about Edna St. Vincent Millay and her life and times, take a look Burning Candles: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay, an informative documentary available on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9ItdEiBR-o&t=2901s

Here is the poem:

She had forgotten how the August night
Was level as a lake beneath the moon,
In which she swam a little, losing sight
Of shore; and how the boy, who was at noon
Simple enough, not different from the rest,
Wore now a pleasant mystery as he went,
Which seemed to her an honest enough test
Whether she loved him, and she was content.
So loud, so loud the million crickets’ choir. . .
So sweet the night, so long-drawn-out and late. . .
And if the man were not her spirit’s mate,
Why was her body sluggish with desire?
Stark on the open field the moonlight fell,
But the oak tree’s shadow was deep and black and
secret as a well.

We so admire the podcast Poem Talk. In this episode, Al Filreis, Elisa New, Jane Malcolm, and Sophia DuRose offer a close reading of two more poems by Edna St. Vincent Millay: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/podcasts/155947/biologically-speaking-a-discussion-of-love-is-not-all-and-i-shall-forget-you-presently-by-edna-st-vincent-millay

photo by Carl Van Vechten

Episode 4: Shakespeare, Sonnet 18

Joanne Diaz and Abram Van Engen — Tue, 22 Sep 2020 09:00:00 -0400

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.

For the sonnet in full, see https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45087/sonnet-18-shall-i-compare-thee-to-a-summers-day

For helpful works on Shakespeare's sonnets, see:

Stephen Booth's edition of Shakespeare's Sonnets

and

Helen Vendler's edition of Shakespeare's Sonnets.