Poetry For All

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.

Episode 86: Gwendolyn Bennett, I Build America

February 20th, 2025  |  Season 6  |  25 mins 19 secs

free verse, harlem renaissance, labor day, laborers, persona poem, social justice and advocacy, twentieth century, violence, women's history month

Gwendolyn Bennett was a poet, journalist, editor, and activist whose contributions helped to fuel the Harlem Renaissance. In this episode, we read "I Build America," a poem that exposes and critiques the exploitation and suffering of ordinary workers.

Episode 83: Emily Dickinson, "I went to thank Her–"

November 27th, 2024  |  Season 6  |  20 mins

elegy, grief and loss, nineteenth century, rhymed verse, women's history month

In this episode, we read and discuss Emily Dickinson's poem about the death of Elizabeth Barrett Browning. We discuss Dickinson's innovative syntax, her use of deep pauses, and her meditations on death and grief that create surprising effects in this short lyric.

Episode 82: Sidney, Translation of Psalm 52

November 14th, 2024  |  Season 6  |  26 mins 33 secs

16th century, anger, christianity, hope, poetry in translation, rhymed verse, social justice and advocacy, women's history month

Psalm 52 concerns a lying tyrant and God's impending judgment. Mary Sidney, who lived 1561-1621, was an extraordinary writer, editor, and literary patron. Like many talented writers of her time, she translated all the psalms. Here we talk about translation, early modern women's writing, religious engagements with politics, and the power of Psalm 52.

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

February 14th, 2023  |  Season 5  |  23 mins 46 secs

20th century, eros and desire, modernism, night, repetition or refrain, rhymed verse, sonnet, summer, women's history month

Edna St. Vincent Millay was the emblem of the "New Woman" and one of the most important American poets of the twentieth century. In this episode, we focus on a sonnet that showcases how Millay approached desire and eros in her poetry.

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.

Episode 44: Ann Hudson, Soap

March 16th, 2022  |  Season 4  |  23 mins 19 secs

21st century, body in pain, grief and loss, guest on the show, laborers, narrative, science and medicine, social justice and advocacy, women's history month

In this episode, Ann Hudson joins us to read her poem “Soap” and discuss how its narrative structure allows her to explore the history of science, technology, and our notions of progress and beauty, even when those notions do great harm to ordinary workers.

Episode 33: Adrienne Rich, Power

November 10th, 2021  |  Season 3  |  17 mins 21 secs

20th century, ars poetica, body in pain, free verse, guest on the show, lgbtqia month, science and medicine, social justice and advocacy, women's history month

This week, the poet and scholar Stephanie Burt joins us to discuss the extraordinary power of Adrienne Rich. We think through how the spacing and stanzas of a poem can draw out denials and divulgences, while also exploring the life and writing of Rich.

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 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).