Poetry For All

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. Ann is the author of two collections of poetry: The Armillary Sphere, which was selected by Mary Kinzie as the winner of the Hollis Summers Poetry Prize and published by Ohio University Press; and Glow, published by Next Page Press. Her poems have appeared in many literary journals, including Crab Orchard Review, North American Review, Orion, Prairie Schooner, and The Seattle Review. Ann is senior editor for RHINO. To learn more about Ann's work, please visit her website.

In this episode, Margaret Noodin joins us to discuss her poem "What the Peepers Say." In our conversation, we talk about Margaret's writing in both Anishinaabemowin and English, her attention to sounds and rhythms, and what the peeper--a tiny springtime frog--can teach us about presence and listening. Margaret Noodin is the author of two bilingual collections of poetry in both Anishinaabemowin and English: Weweni and What the Chickadee Knows. She is a professor of English and American Indian Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, where she also serves as director of the Electa Quinney Institute for American Indian Education. To learn more about Ahishinaabemowin, visit ojibwe.net. To hear the sound of the spring peeper, click on this link. Photo of Margaret Noodin © Troye Fox.

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 very moving, as is the afterword by Arnold Rampersad. For a series of insightful observations about Hayden's sonnet, see Ross Gay, Aracelis Girmay, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Patrick Rosal, and Ira Sadoff, "Poets Respond: A Discussion of "Frederick Douglass" by Robert Hayden." American Poetry Review, 38.3 (2009): 25-28. For a helpful close reading of the poem, see Fred M. Fetrow, "Robert Hayden's 'Frederick Douglass': Form and Meaning in a Modern Sonnet." CLA Journal 17.1 (September 1973): 78-84.

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 to Read" foregrounds the ballad style in a narrative poem designed to keep alive the memories of fighting for both literacy and liberation. For the full text of the poem, see here: "Learning to Read" Janaka Bowman Lewis is an Associate Professor of English at the University of North Carolina--Charlotte, and she includes a chapter on Frances Ellen Watkins Harper in Freedom Narratives of African American Women: A Study of 19th Century Writings. For a good recent article about this poem by Madeline Zehnder, see Commonplace. For more on Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, see the Poetry Foundation. For good resources on F.E.W. Harper, especially materials related to the recovery and teaching of her first book of poems, Forest Leaves, see the Just Teach One archive at Commonplace. For the best collection of Harper's work, see Frances Smith Foster, A Brighter Coming Day: A Frances Ellen Watkins Harper Reader For further reading, see Harper's most famous novel, Iola Leroy.Links:Learning to Read by Frances Ellen Watkins Harper | Poetry FoundationFrances Ellen Watkins Harper | Poetry FoundationFrances Ellen Watkins Harper, Media Theorist - Commonplace - The Journal of early American LifeJust Teach One: Early African American Print » Frances Ellen Watkins (Harper)’s Forest Leaves (ca. 1846)A Brighter Coming Day — Feminist PressIola Leroy by Frances Ellen Watkins Harper: 9780143106043 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books

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. For the text of this poem, click here. Colin Burrow and Stephen Booth's editions of Shakespeare's sonnets are essential reading for anyone who wants to know more about this amazing sonnet sequence. During the pandemic, Sir Patrick Stewart has read one Shakespeare sonnet each day and share it on YouTube. To hear him read Sonnet 116 and so many others, click here.

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. We Wear the Mask BY PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR We wear the mask that grins and lies, It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,— This debt we pay to human guile; With torn and bleeding hearts we smile, And mouth with myriad subtleties. Why should the world be over-wise, In counting all our tears and sighs? Nay, let them only see us, while We wear the mask. We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries To thee from tortured souls arise. We sing, but oh the clay is vile Beneath our feet, and long the mile; But let the world dream otherwise, We wear the mask! For more on Paul Laurence Dunbar, visit The Poetry Foundation. For more on Rafia Zafar, see her personal website at Washington University in St. Louis. Youtube has a brief clip from the Library of America hosting Kevin Young's discussion of "We Wear the Mask." Elizabeth Alexander also discusses this poem for the Library of America. For more on the poetic form of the rondeau, see the Academy of American Poets.Links:Paul Laurence Dunbar | Poetry FoundationRafia Zafar | Arts & SciencesHome | Rafia Zafar | Washington University in St. LouisKevin Young Discusses "We Wear the Mask" by Paul Laurence Dunbar - YouTubeElizabeth Alexander Comments on "We Wear the Mask" by Paul Laurence Dunbar - YouTubeRondeau | Academy of American Poets

In this episode, our guest Laura Van Prooyen reads "Elegy for My Mother's Mind," a poem that navigates the complexities of memory, loss, and familial relationships. Laura's poem gives us an opportunity to think about the deep sources of poetic inspiration, the revision process, and the power of metaphor. To learn more about Laura's work, check her website. Click here to see the version of the poem that appeared in Prairie Schooner. Our two favorite books on elegy are Jahan Ramazani's Poetry of Mourning: The Modern Elegy from Hardy to Heaney and Peter Sacks's The English Elegy: Studies in the Genre from Spenser to Yeats.

Joanne and Abram launch the fourth season of Poetry For All with a short discussion about what this podcast is all about and how it relates to all the other great poetry podcasts in the world. This conversation is an excerpt from our virtual visit with the students in Grace Talusan's creative writing workshop at Brandeis University. Grace uses our podcast in her course, and her students have gone on to create their own podcasts that focus on close readings of poems. If you want more information on how to use our podcast in the classroom, please reach out to us via Facebook, Twitter, or our gmail account (poetryforall2020). For more on Grace Talusan and her excellent work, please see here.Links:Writer | Grace Talusan

In this episode, we discuss Denise Levertov's powerful meditation on the horrors of the twentieth century, and how the mystery of the incarnation might provide humanity with some hope. Our close reading of this poem is informed by Eavan Boland's Preface and Anne Dewey and Paul A. Lacey's Afterword in The Collected Poems of Denise Levertov (New Directions, 2013). To read "On the Mystery of the Incarnation," click here. To read Levertov's essay "Some Notes on Organic Form," click here. ''On the Mystery of the Incarnation'' by Denise Levertov comes from her book A DOOR IN THE HIVE, copyright ©1989 by Denise Levertov. Used by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp. Photo of Denise Levertov © David Geier. For more information see National Portrait Gallery at The Smithsonian Institution: https://npg.si.edu/object/npg_NPG.2011.103

In this episode, we discuss the way in which Matthew Zapruder attends to vivid, specific details to create a sense of wonder, connection, and surprise. To read "Poem for Wisconsin," click here. "Poem for Wisconsin" originally appeared in the collection Sun Bear. Thanks to Copper Canyon Press for granting us permission to read this poem on the podcast. For a glimpse of the "Bronze Fonz," click here. To see how the Milwaukee Art Museum opens its wings, watch this time-lapse video. For a sense of the "many moods" of Lake Michigan, see the photography of the wonderful Jin Lee.