Shows / The Daily Poem
The Daily Poem
The Daily Poem offers one essential poem each weekday morning. From Shakespeare and John Donne to Robert Frost and Emily Dickinson, The Daily Poem curates a broad and generous audio anthology of the best poetry ever written, read-aloud by David Kern and an assortment of various contributors. Some lite commentary is included and the shorter poems are often read twice, as time permits. The Daily Poem is presented by Goldberry Studios.
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Episodes
The Daily PoemPrince Hal's soliloquy from Henry IV, pt.1 ("herein will I imitate the sun")
In today’s poem, Shakespeare puts the theatre in political theater via a candid moment with the future King Henry V in Henry IV pt. 1, Act 1, Scene 2. Happy…
The Daily PoemPhineas Fletcher's "A Litany"
Today’s poem is a short meditation on grief made enduringly-famous after Orlando Gibbons set it to music. You can hear an arrangement of that piece here. Happy…
The Daily PoemRichard Wilbur's "The Writer"
Today’s poem goes out to 6-year-od girls and their dads. Happy reading! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get…
The Daily PoemAlfred Tennyson's "In Memoriam..." 1-3
In today’s poem, a young Tennyson begins the long wrestling with grief. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get…
The Daily PoemKenn Nesbitt's "Our Teacher's Not a Zombie"
Today’s poem may or may not be based on actual events. Happy reading! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get…
The Daily PoemDonald Hall's "An Old Life"
In the latter years of his career and life, Donald Hall became something of an expert on growing old (his essay collections Essays After Eighty and A Carnival…
The Daily PoemGwendolyn Brooks' "The Bean Eaters"
In today’s poem, better is a dinner of herbs where love and memory are, than great riches. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss…
The Daily PoemLucy Maud Montgomery's "A Request"
Today’s poem is channeling Anne Shirley in the autumn of her years. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other…
The Daily PoemLinda Pastan's "Something About the Trees"
Today’s poem takes full advantage of the pantoum form’s naturally-contemplative structure–the repeating lines carrying us back and forth between past, present…
The Daily PoemJane Kenyon's "Three Songs at the End of Summer"
In today’s poem, Kenyon wrestles with the Solomonic thesis that “the end of a thing is better than its beginning.” Happy reading. This is a public episode. If…
The Daily PoemOgden Nash's "The People Upstairs"
Noisy upstairs neighbors have been consternating mankind for as long as second-floors have existed. The all-too-familiar phenomenon has inspired novels…
The Daily PoemEmily Dickinson's "How soft a Caterpillar steps —"
Philosopher Thomas Nagel famously argued that it is impossible to know what it’s like to be a bat. Dickinson, on the other hand, claims to know what…
The Daily PoemRandall Jarrell's "The Lost World"
Today’s poem is the first half of Randall Jarrell’s reverie about his Los Angeles childhood–and one of the most effortless examples of terza rima in all of…
The Daily PoemRudyard Kipling’s “The Ballad of the Clampherdown”
Today’s poem is the satirical saga of an anachronistic naval battle. Heave ho and happy reading! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with…
The Daily PoemHenry Wadsworth Longfellow's "The Fire of Drift-wood"
Nothing feels better and hurts worse than nostalgia. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get…
The Daily PoemMiroslav Holub's "Napoleon"
Today’s brief poem goes out to teachers everywhere as they return to work. Good luck and happy reading. “Poet Seamus Heaney described Holub’s writing as ‘a…
The Daily PoemJohn Keats' "To Sleep"
“To die, to sleep.” Sometimes the space between the two seems as slight as that intervening comma. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to…
The Daily PoemWilliam Shakespeare's "Sonnet 94: They that have power to hurt..."
I might say today’s poem is all subtext–if it weren’t for all the text. Ambiguous praise, sincere romantic angst, just the right amount of bitter wit: this…
The Daily PoemLive: William Carlos Williams' "The Fool's Song"
This special, live edition of The Daily Poem was recorded at the Close Reads 10th Anniversary celebration last weekend in Concord, NC. Happy reading! This is a…
The Daily PoemMarjorie Kinnan Rawlings' "Prize Jelly"
Best known as the author of The Yearling and Cross Creek, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings enjoyed a long side-hustle as an occasional poet. Happy reading. This is a…
The Daily PoemMalcolm Guite's "Transfiguration"
Today’s poem comes from Guite’s excellent collection, Sounding the Seasons (now in a new edition with over 100 sonnets!). Blessed feast and happy reading. This…
The Daily PoemTerrence Hayes’ “The Same City”
Hayes has said he longs for a language that can circumvent idea and communicate pure emotion—in today’s poem that quest is dramatized in a powerful way. Happy…
The Daily PoemBilly Collins' "On Turning Ten"
Happy tenth birthday to the Close Reads podcast, and happy reading! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get…
The Daily PoemPhilip Appleman's "Anniversary"
Today’s poem is one of “promises kept, and / promises / still to keep.” Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other…
The Daily PoemJohn Donne's "The Anniversary"
Today’s poem looks forward to a long and prosperous “reign.” Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or…
The Daily PoemRhina P. Espaillat's "Gardening"
This week’s poems are arranged around the themes of retrospection and anniversaries in honor of the Close Reads Podcast celebrating its tenth year. Today, we…
The Daily PoemCarole Boston Weatherford's "Sidewalk Chalk"
Today’s poem is a little hopscotch down memory lane. Happy reading. Weatherford is author of over seventy books including fiction, non-fiction, and poetry…
The Daily PoemWendell Berry's "A Parting"
Today’s bittersweet poem glimpses the life of Arthur Rowanberry across time and beyond. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this…
The Daily PoemKarina Borowicz's "September Tomatoes"
Karina Borowicz was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts. She earned a BA in history and Russian from the University of Massachusetts and an MFA from the…
The Daily PoemRobert Graves' "Epitaph on an Unfortunate Artist"
Today’s poem is a cautionary tale about achieving popular successes. Happy reading. “Mark Ford summarized Graves’s ‘wholesale rejection of 20th-century…
The Daily PoemWilliam Wordsworth's "The Tables Turned"
Today’s poem is an invitation to an encounter with the Real. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or…
The Daily PoemVachel Lindsay's "Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight"
Today’s poem is neither the first nor last to mythologize America’s sixteenth president. What is it about Lincoln that makes him so attractive to artists of…
The Daily PoemRoger Woddis' "Ethics for Everyman"
Today’s poem–from British humorist Roger Woddis–is a witty-yet-withering sendup of double-morality. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to…
The Daily Poem"Old English Riddle no. 26" (trans. Roy M. Liuzza)
Today’s poem comes from the largest surviving trove of Anglo Saxon poetry–the Exeter Book. Happy riddling! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss…
The Daily PoemLouise Imogen Guiney's "John Brown: A Paradox"
Louise Imogen Guiney is known for her lyrical, Old English-style poems that often recall the literary conventions of seventeenth-century English poetry…
The Daily PoemRobert Lowell's "July in Washington"
Happy 4th of July 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…
The Daily PoemJuliana Horatia Ewing's "Garden Lore"
Juliana Horatia Ewing (August 3, 1841 – May 13, 1885) was an English writer of children's stories. Her writings display a sympathetic insight into children's…
The Daily PoemTracy K. Smith’s “The Good Life”
Today’s poem is one of those perfect distillations of a concrete emotion. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other…
The Daily PoemG. K. Chesterton’s “The Secret People”
Today’s poem is Chesterton’s ode to the silent majority. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get…
The Daily PoemJohn Donne’s “A Valediction Forbidding Mourning”
Today’s poem marks a very special day. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus…
The Daily PoemWilliam Blake’s Introduction to Songs of Experience
Today’s poem, introducing the counterpart to “Songs of Innocence,” is a dialogue that immediately deepens the mood of the more “mature” lyrics that will…
The Daily PoemJohn Keats’ “Happy is England”
Sweet is the home you leave. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes…
The Daily PoemSamuel Taylor Coleridge's "Frost at Midnight"
Today’s poem is a somber, paternal retrospective from the Ancient Mariner poet. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with…
The Daily PoemLord Byron's "She Walks in Beauty"
Today’s poem kicks off a short trek through English poetry. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or…
The Daily PoemSimon Curtis's "Satie, at the End of Term"
My friend Simon Curtis, who has died aged 70, was one of the small band of people who work tirelessly, for no pay and few thanks, to promote poetry. An…
The Daily PoemTheodore Roethke's "Cuttings"
Today’s poem grows on you. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit…
The Daily PoemDavid Wojahn's "Pentecost"
David Wojahn grew up in St. Paul, Minnesota. He studied at the University of Minnesota and the University of Arizona. Ever since his first collection, Icehouse…
The Daily PoemBert Leston Taylor's "Canopus"
A little light verse for anyone who wants to rise (far) above the noise for a moment. Happy reading. Bert Leston Taylor (November 13, 1866 – March 19, 1921)…
The Daily PoemEdna St. Vincent Millay's "Conscientious Objector"
Death has been personified and analogized in myriad ways, but none perhaps so withering as today’s imagining of death as a fascist bureaucrat. Happy reading…
The Daily PoemJeanne Murray Walker's "The Music Before the Music"
Jeanne Murray Walker was born in a village of 900 people in northern Minnesota. She was first published by The Atlantic Monthly at age 19. Today she’s the…
The Daily PoemHilaire Belloc's "Lord Finchley"
Today’s poem is a comical maxim that typifies the heavy lifting light verse is capable of. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss…
The Daily PoemTimothy Murphy's "Mentor"
Poet Timothy Murphy was born in Hibbing, Minnesota, and graduated from Yale University, where he participated in the Scholar of the House program. He was a…
The Daily PoemJohn McCrae's "In Flanders Fields"
Today’s poem has become one of the most famous 20th-century war poems–in part because of its ability to grant fallen soldiers a voice that is earnestly…
The Daily PoemSeamus Heaney's "Scaffolding"
Today’s poem is a Heaney favorite, and goes out to all of the couples tying the knot this summer. Happy reading! This is a public episode. If you'd like to…
The Daily PoemEmily Dickinson's "The saddest noise, the sweetest noise"
The uniting, in today’s poem, of Spring and sadness is not immediately intuitive. However, it makes more natural sense amidst the many partings and…
The Daily PoemBill Knott's "An Instructor's Dream"
Today’s poem shows us a teacher wrestling with the notion of “graduation.” Happy reading. Bill Knott was born on February 17, 1940, in Carson City, Michigan…
The Daily PoemAndrew Barton Paterson's "The Man From Ironbark"
Today’s poem explains why some Australians wear beards. Andrew Barton "Banjo" Paterson, CBE (17 February 1864 – 5 February 1941) was an Australian bush poet…
The Daily PoemFernando Valverde's "Edgar Allan Poe Is Reached at the Baltimore Harbor by the Shadows That Pursue Him"
Fernando Valverde (Granada, 1980) has been voted the most relevant Spanish-language poet born since 1970 by nearly two hundred critics and researchers from…
The Daily PoemMarya Zaturensky's "The Girl Takes Her Place Among the Mothers"
Today’s poem goes out to all the mothers–we wouldn’t be here without you! Happy reading. Marya Zaturensky, Russian-born American poet and Pulitzer Prize…
The Daily PoemHenry Sambrooke Leigh's "The Twins"
Today’s poem is one of the few enduring works of a poet and playwright who burned brightly during his heyday and then blinked out almost entirely. Happy…