Episode 96: Gerard Manley Hopkins, God's Grandeur
Today we look at a sonnet by Gerard Manley Hopkins that dwells equally in the grandeur of God and the wreck made of earth. Hopkins wonders how these two aspects of our.
Episode 82: Sidney, Translation of Psalm 52
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.
Episode 69: Live with Marilyn Nelson!
Our first live performance of the podcast, featuring Marilyn Nelson and a discussion or her amazing poem "How I Discovered Poetry." On January 31, we met at Calvin University for its January.
Episode 51: Martín Espada, Jumping Off the Mystic Tobin Bridge
To learn more about Martín Espada, click here. To read the poem, click here. This is the first poem that appears in Floaters, the winner of the 2021 National Book Award. To.
Episode 48: Joy Harjo, An American Sunrise
In this episode, we examine The Golden Shovel form and discuss the idea of "survivance" through the work of Muscogee (Creek) poet Joy Harjo, the 23rd Poet Laureate of the United States..
Episode 42: Robert Hayden, Frederick Douglass
To read Hayden's poem, click here. Thanks to W.W. Norton & Company for granting us permission to read this poem. Reginald Dwayne Betts's introduction to the Collected Poems of Robert Hayden is.
Episode 41: F.E.W. Harper, Learning to Read
Frances Ellen Watkins Harper was a prolific writer and activist of the nineteenth century. In this episode, Professor Janaka Bowman Lewis joins us to discuss her power, influence, voice, and work. "Learning.
Episode 39: Paul Laurence Dunbar, We Wear The Mask
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.