The Poetry Fix

Join Erika Kyba to conclude reading William Knox's "Mortality." Today, Erika discusses the difficulty of preserving the memory of the dead.

Join Erika Kyba for an unflinching look at death as she reads William Knox's "Mortality." Our poet reminds us that all of our earthly triumphs are necessarily ephemeral—but what does that tell us about how we should choose to live our lives?

Join Erika Kyba to encounter "Old Ironsides," the famous elegy that saved the USS Constitution from being scrapped. She discusses how masterfully Holmes pits mercenary concerns against a respect for what is beautiful and noble, weaving in themes of national identity throughout the poem.

Join Erika Kyba for a celebration of Easter in the conclusion of The Dream of the Rood. She analyzes how the Passion, in the poet's vision, exceeds the boundaries of history and continues to move our lives.

Join Erika Kyba and continue your Lenten journey through the medieval Crucifixion poem, "The Dream of the Rood." In today's excerpt, the poet crafts a parallel between the Cross of Christ and Mary, His mother. Erika analyzes why the poet has chosen to link these two figures together, and what this poetic image says about suffering and glory.

Join Erika Kyba and continue your Lenten journey through the medieval Crucifixion poem, "The Dream of the Rood." In today's excerpt, the poet begins to pull in more and more anachronistic medieval imagery to describe the Crucifixion. What is the significance of this artistic choice? Get your weekly poetry fix and find out!

Today, we continue our Lenten reflections on The Dream of the Rood. Join Erika Kyba as she discusses how the poet imagines the Cross as Christ's shield partner in battle. The poet leads us away from identifying suffering as the villain of the Passion, showing us the bigger picture: the Passion was always a battle against sin. And the Cross is our ally in this battle, not our enemy.

Today, we enter into the Lenten season by reading The Dream of the Rood. Join Erika Kyba to meditate on the poet's reframing of the Crucifixion's tragedy.

Today, we continue our journey through Spencer's Faerie Queene . Join Erika Kyba to analyze the forest symbolism that Spencer uses to set up the themes that will pervade this canto, and strap in as the Knight of the Red Cross seeks his first battle in the Den of Error.

Today, we continue our journey through Spencer's Faerie Queene . Join Erika Kyba as she analyzes how Spencer draws a connection between the poem's female lead, Una, and the symbol of the Lamb of God. We talk about the importance of not judging Una as your typical damsel in distress too quickly; she's a character that might surprise you.

Today, we continue our journey through Spencer's Faerie Queene . Erika Kyba discusses some of Spencer's typical conventions, such as introducing characters by their appearances and actions, allowing the reader to judge their behavior before the poet names them.

Today, Erika Kyba introduces you to Spencer's Faerie Queene. In this episode, we read the Prologue to the Legend of the Knight of the Red Cross (narrated by the lovely Sophia Kyba), and discuss Spencer's intriguing choice of Greek gods to invoke as his muses.

Today, Erika Kyba reads La Fontaine's "The Milk-Maid and the Milk-Pail," a witty and practical French fable about the danger of getting carried away in a daydream.

Today, Erika Kyba reads Emily Dickinson's "We Should not Mind so Small a Flower," in which poet uses the flower of a mustard seed as a metaphor for God instantiating the Kingdom of Heaven through the smallest and most easily overlooked means.

Today, Erika Kyba reads Arthur Sze's "Architect's Watercolor." This is a poem that toes the line between potentiality and reality.

Today, Erika Kyba continues to analyze Milton's "Comus," and we learn what makes the wicked spirit, Comus so dangerous: he menaces the rational faculties of men, and tempts them, through inordinate pleasure, to animality and indignity. Alexandra Comus joins us once again to narrate the part of the Attendant Spirit.

Today, Erika Kyba introduces Milton's "Comus," a purported morality masque which is perhaps not what it seems to be. Alexandra Comus narrates the part of the Attendant Spirit.

Today, Erika Kyba reads through the end of "Sic Transit Gloria Mundi," by Emily Dickinson. We begin to tie together the themes of moral bankruptcy, surface versus substance, and modernity, served with a slice of devilry.

Today, Erika Kyba reads "Sic Transit Gloria Mundi," by Emily Dickinson, a witty societal critique dashed with a commentary how certain astronomical discoveries have altered the way we understand and behave towards the universe around us.

Today, Erika Kyba reads "The Abyss," by Baudelaire, and attempts to explore the poet's terror of the infinite.

Today, Erika Kyba reads "The Benefactors" by Rudyard Kipling. Kipling mediates on how all innovation springs from the "pinch of pain and fear" that drives man.

Today, Erika Kyba reads "Adam's Curse" by William Butler Yeats. Yeats muses on how all beautiful and lovely things require labor...and how this laboring after the beautiful has become an "idle trade" in the hollow age of modernity.

Today, Erika Kyba reads "The Boston Evening Transcript," by T. S. Eliot. Much in the same vein as Henry David Thoreau, Eliot mediates on our constant obsession with the news, and what that does to the human person.

Today, Erika Kyba reads "Safe in Their Alabaster Chambers," by Emily Dickinson. In this poem, Dickinson plays with the image of a tomb acting as a lamp, and she meditates on legacy, death, and history.

Today, Erika Kyba reads "As Kingfishers Catch Fire," by Gerard Manley Hopkins. In this poem, Hopkins explores the natural image of kingfishers and dragonflies reflecting the sun's light, and he uses it to portray how God's glory shines forth in every single person, with all their particularities.