The Daily Poem
913 episodes — Page 2 of 19
Robert Graves' Proem to The Iliad
Today’s poem comes from Graves’ verse/prose rendering of Homer’s Iliad, The Anger of Achilles, and highlights the inglorious causes of the Trojan War’s glorious climax. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribe
Wilfred Owen's "Anthem for Doomed Youth"
Today’s poem is a sonnet for a war-torn world with a collapsing center. “…As the oldest of four children born in rapid succession, Wilfred developed a protective attitude toward the others and an especially close relationship with his mother. After he turned four, the family moved from the grandfather’s home to a modest house in Birkenhead, where Owen attended Birkenhead Institute from 1900 to 1907. The family then moved to another modest house, in Shrewsbury, where Owen attended Shrewsbury Technical School and graduated in 1911 at the age of 18. Having attempted unsuccessfully to win a scholarship to attend London University, he tried to measure his aptitude for a religious vocation by becoming an unpaid lay assistant to the Reverend Herbert Wigan, a vicar of evangelical inclinations in the Church of England, at Dunsden, Oxfordshire. In return for the tutorial instruction he was to receive, but which did not significantly materialize, Owen agreed to assist with the care of the poor and sick in the parish and to decide within two years whether he should commit himself to further training as a clergyman. At Dunsden he achieved a fuller understanding of social and economic issues and developed his humanitarian propensities, but as a consequence of this heightened sensitivity, he became disillusioned with the inadequate response of the Church of England to the sufferings of the underprivileged and the dispossessed. In his spare time, he read widely and began to write poetry. In his initial verses he wrote on the conventional subjects of the time, but his work also manifested some stylistic qualities that even then tended to set him apart, especially his keen ear for sound and his instinct for the modulating of rhythm, talents related perhaps to the musical ability that he shared with both of his parents.In 1913 he returned home, seriously ill with a respiratory infection that his living in a damp, unheated room at the vicarage had exacerbated. He talked of poetry, music, or graphic art as possible vocational choices, but his father urged him to seek employment that would result in a steady income. After eight months of convalescence at home, Owen taught for one year in Bordeaux at the Berlitz School of Languages, and he spent a second year in France with a Catholic family, tutoring their two boys. As a result of these experiences, he became a Francophile. Later these years undoubtedly heightened his sense of the degree to which the war disrupted the life of the French populace and caused widespread suffering among civilians as the Allies pursued the retreating Germans through French villages in the summer and fall of 1918.In September 1915, nearly a year after the United Kingdom and Germany had gone to war, Owen returned to England, uncertain as to whether he should enlist. By October he had enlisted and was at first in the Artists’ Rifles. In June 1916 he received a commission as lieutenant in the Manchester Regiment, and on December 29, 1916 he left for France with the Lancashire Fusiliers.”-via Poetry Foundation This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribe
Wendy Cope's "Men and Their Boring Arguments"
Today’s poem goes out to all of the women who have been stuck between two pugilistic men at a dinner party. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribe
Anna Kamienska's "On the Threshold of the Poem"
Today’s poem asks: “What happens inside a poem?” Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribe
Charles Lamb's "Cleanliness"
Today’s poem is a seemingly innocuous enjoinder to handwashing that nevertheless invites a deeper inspection. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribe
Friedrich von Schiller's "Light and Warmth"
Anyone with children can recognize the degree to which we enter this life “Warm with the noble vows of youth,/Hallowing [one’s] true arm to the truth.” Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribe
T. S. Eliot's "Ash Wednesday (III)"
Today’s poem is a selection from Eliot’s profound contemplation of conversion and repentance. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribe
Thomas Campion's "When to Her Lute Corinna Sings"
In today’s poem, the composer-poet identifies with an object he knows inside and out. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribe
Aileen Fisher's "I Like It When It’s Mizzly"
Today’s poem is pure language joy. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribe
Marianne Moore's "No Swan So Fine"
Today’s poem pits art against reality, with the French monarchy as the only clear loser. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribe
Robert Frost's "Not to Keep"
If Robert Frost were a musician, today’s poem might be a B-side to one of his better-known poems. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribe
Lucille Clifton’s “blessing the boats”
“may you kiss / the wind then turn from it” Today’s poem is a benediction for boats and, maybe, a lot of other things. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribe
Pablo Neruda's "Ode to My Socks"
Today’s poem is a contemplation of sometimes-essential footwear that blossoms unexpectedly into a proverb on utility and beauty. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribe
William Stafford's "A Message from the Wanderer"
“That’s the way everything in the world is waiting.” Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribe
F. S. Flint's "London, my beautiful"
Today’s poem falls somewhere in the middle of a Venn diagram of haiku and English ode. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribe
Scott Cairns' "Idiot Psalm 12"
Today’s poem is a song of (sometimes) hidden nearness. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribe
Matthew Arnold's "The Buried Life"
Today’s poem is a frank examination of words and their paradoxical power to create and destroy intimacy, bringing forth the deepest self or walling it off–and what is possible when we make the best use of them. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribe
Jane Taylor's "Twinkle, twinkle, little star"
Today’s poem has taken on a life of its own; we return, for a moment, to its humble beginnings. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribe
Dylan Thomas' "Prologue"
Today’s poem, unusual in its structure and rhyme, turned out to be more of an epilogue: Thomas composed it for inclusion in his Collected Poems, no more than a year before his death. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribe
Wendell Berry's "Sabbath IV, 1996"
I may be the only other man who has had some version of the cold-night-existential experience described in today’s poem, but I doubt it. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribe
Edna St. Vincent Millay’s “Feast”
Today’s poem is one in which “increase of appetite grows by what it feeds on” (or so she says). Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribe
William Wordsworth's "Character of the Happy Warrior"
“Who is the happy Warrior? Who is he/That every man in arms should wish to be?” In today’s poem, Wordsworth asks unfamiliar questions. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribe
William Blake's "The Ecchoing Green"
Today’s poem is a snapshot of a lost world. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribe
Alfred Noyes' "Daddy Fell Into the Pond"
Today’s poem reminds us of a father’s value. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribe
Paul J. Pastor's "The Oracle"
Today’s poem offers a new year’s resolution worth keeping. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribe
Philip Appleman’s “To the Garbage Collectors in Bloomington, Indiana, the First Pickup of the New Year”
It’s that time of (new) year again. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribe
A. A. Milne’s “King John’s Christmas”
As we say farewell to the Christmas season, today’s poem playfully reminds us that the feast is for the good and bad alike. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribe
Clare Bevan's "Just Doing My Job"
A poem of innocence and experience for the turning of the year. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribe
Cecil Day-Lewis' "The Christmas Tree"
A merry continuation of Christmas, and happy reading! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribe
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's "Christmas Bells"
Merry Christmas! The Daily Poem will return next week! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribe
Anna Kamienska's "Elijah Widow"
Today’s poem intimates that it may be better to receive than to give. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribe
Helen Maria Williams' "To Mrs K____, On Her Sending Me an English Christmas Plum-Cake at Paris"
Today’s poem is an ode to the power of holiday baked goods. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribe
W. H. Auden's "For the Time Being" pt. 5
Today’s episode brings us to the eternal aftermath of Christmas and the end of For the Time Being. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribe
W. H. Auden's "For the Time Being" pt. 4
In today’s installment, St. Simeon has finally seen the light and humanity struggles against itself. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribe
W. H. Auden's "For the Time Being" pt. 3
In today’s selections, the shepherds and wise men are the broken fragments of human life being drawn together around the manger. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribe
W. H. Auden's "For the Time Being" pt. 2
More from Auden’s poem–today the full cast of characters is summoned. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribe
W. H. Auden "For the Time Being" pt. 1
This week’s episodes will feature selections from Auden’s lengthy “Christmas Oratorio,” in which he claimed to treat of “a religious event which eternally recurs every time it is accepted.” Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribe
Ted Kooser's "Christmas Mail"
Today’s poem is for all of the mail carriers. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribe
John Robert Lee's "XIX: I often wonder whether the prodigal son"
Today’s poem–from Lee’s new book, After Poems, Psalms–offers memory and the psalter as parallel texts for Lectio Divina. Happy reading.Lee’s book is backordered at US outlets like Bookshop.org, but is in stock at Barnes & Noble and can be acquired directly from Peepal Tree Press (or in digital format from the behemoth-that-shall-not-be-named). This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribe
Robert Frost's "Dust of Snow"
Robert Frost is having one of those days. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribe
Mary Mapes Dodge's "A Song for St. Nicholas"
Today’s poem is an appeal to the jolly giver of gifts. Happy reading!For more St. Nick poems, head over to the St. Nicholas Center. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribe
Luci Shaw's "Holding On"
Today’s poem is a tribute to the kind and lovely Luci Shaw, who died earlier this week. The poem–a contemplation of mortality–is a representative sample of her contemplative verse, and takes on new meaning after her passing. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribe
John Keats' "In drear nighted December"
Today’s poem speaks of speaking the unspeakable, and feeling the un-feelable. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribe
Jane Kenyon's "Let Evening Come"
Whether your burgeoning inter-holiday malaise needs pruning or a little low-key encouragement, today’s poem (on a Monday, no less!) might be just the thing. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribe
Dorianne Laux's "A Short History of the Apple"
Today’s poem goes out as a palate-cleanser for everyone who may have lost their relish for eating after the Thanksgiving holiday. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribe
Ben Jonson's "Inviting a Friend to Supper"
Today’s poem is just the thing if you need to make any last-minute invitations to Thanksgiving dinner. Happy reading! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribe
William Matthews' "Onions"
Today’s poem is the perfect prelude to Thanksgiving–not only by whetting the appetite, but by uncovering the hidden glories of one of the most enduring and ubiquitous of nature’s gifts. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribe
George Herbert's "Anagram"
Today’s poem, though brief, is arguably “bigger on the inside,” just like its subject. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribe
Archibald MacLeish's "Ars Poetica"
It’s one thing to write a poem claiming poetry should show rather than tell; it is another thing entirely for that poem to follow its own advice. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribe
Robert Burns' "Epistle to a Young Friend"
In today’s poem (sometimes printed alternatively as “Letter to a Young Friend”), Scotland’s national poet gives life advice with his characteristic blend of sincerity and levity. Happy reading! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribe