The Poetry Podcast

To join this community on Patreon, click here: ⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/cw/welcome2thepoetrypodcast⁠⁠ Revenge by Eliza Acton I would not, in the wildness of revenge, Give poison to mine enemy, nor strike My dagger to his heart, but I would plant Love--burning--hopeless--and unquenchable-- Within the inmost foldings of his breast, And bid him die the dark, and ling'ring death, Of the pale vict...

To join this community on Patreon, click here: ⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/cw/welcome2thepoetrypodcast⁠⁠ When latest autumn spreads her evening veil, And the gray mists from these dim waves arise, I love to listen to the hollow sighs Through the half leafless wood that breathes the gale. For at such hours the shadowy phantom pale,         Oft seems to fleet before the poet's eyes; Strange sounds...

To join this community on Patreon, click here: ⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/cw/welcome2thepoetrypodcast⁠⁠ LETTER VI (excerpt) from Letters written during a short residence in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark by Mary Wollstonecraft Nature is the nurse of sentiment, the true source of taste; yet what misery, as well as rapture, is produced by a quick perception of the beautiful and sublime when it is exerci...

To join this community on Patreon, click here: ⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/cw/welcome2thepoetrypodcast⁠⁠ Good morning, Even in bed my ideas yearn towards you, my Immortal Beloved, here and there joyfully, then again sadly, awaiting from Fate, whether it will listen to us. I can only live, either altogether with you or not at all. Yes, I have determined to wander about for so long far away, until I c...

To join this community on Patreon, click here: ⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/cw/welcome2thepoetrypodcast⁠⁠ A poet is somebody who feels, and who expresses his feelings through words. This may sound easy. It isn’t. A lot of people think or believe or know they feel — but that’s thinking or believing or knowing; not feeling. And poetry is feeling — not knowing or believing or thinking. Almost anybody ca...

To join this community on Patreon, click here: ⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/cw/welcome2thepoetrypodcast⁠⁠ Winter Stars BY SARA TEASDALE I went out at night alone; The young blood flowing beyond the sea Seemed to have drenched my spirit’s wings— I bore my sorrow heavily. But when I lifted up my head From shadows shaken on the snow, I saw Orion in the east Burn steadily as long ago. From windows in my...

To join this community on Patreon, click here: ⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/cw/welcome2thepoetrypodcast⁠⁠ To the Moon BY PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY I Art thou pale for weariness Of climbing heaven and gazing on the earth, Wandering companionless Among the stars that have a different birth, — And ever changing, like a joyless eye That finds no object worth its constancy? II Thou chosen sister of the Spirit,...

To join this community on Patreon, click here: ⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/cw/welcome2thepoetrypodcast⁠⁠ HOME:  "The place where you are treated best and grumble most. Here’s a sigh to those who love me, And a smile to those who hate; And whatever sky’s above me, Here’s a heart for every fate. Were’t the last drop in the well, As I gasped upon the brink, Ere my fainting spirit fell, ’Tis to the...

To join this community on Patreon, click here: ⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/cw/welcome2thepoetrypodcast⁠⁠ The Ballad of Reading GaolBY OSCAR WILDEIHe did not wear his scarlet coat,For blood and wine are red,And blood and wine were on his handsWhen they found him with the dead,The poor dead woman whom he loved,And murdered in her bed. He walked amongst the Trial MenIn a suit of shabby gray;A cricket c...

To join this community on Patreon, click here: ⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/cw/welcome2thepoetrypodcast⁠⁠ People at NightBy Rainer Maria Rilke (1875–1926) The Nights were not made for crowds, and they severYou from your neighbour, and you shall neverSeek him, defiantly, at night. But if you make your dark house light,To look on strangers in your room,You must reflect—on whom. False lights that on men...

To join this community on Patreon, click here: ⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/cw/welcome2thepoetrypodcast⁠⁠ Endymion BY JOHN KEATS (1795–1821) A Poetic Romance (excerpt) BOOK A thing of beauty is a joy for ever: Its loveliness increases; it will never Pass into nothingness; but still will keep A bower quiet for us, and a sleep Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing. Therefore, on every m...

To join this community on Patreon, click here: ⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/cw/welcome2thepoetrypodcast⁠⁠ Song of Myself, 4by Walt Whitman (1819-1892)Trippers and askers surround me, People I meet, the effect upon me of my early life or the ward and city I live in, or the nation, The latest dates, discoveries, inventions, societies,  authors old and new, My dinner, dress, associates, looks, complimen...

To join this community on Patreon, click here: ⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/cw/welcome2thepoetrypodcast⁠⁠ Ashes of LifeBY EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY (1892–1950)Love has gone and left me and the days are all alike;Eat I must, and sleep I will, — and would that night were here! But ah! — to lie awake and hear the slow hours strike! Would that it were day again! — with twilight near! Love has gone and left...

To join this community on Patreon, click here: ⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/cw/welcome2thepoetrypodcast⁠⁠ The Walrus and the CarpenterBY LEWIS CARROLL (1832–1898)'The sun was shining on the sea,Shining with all his might:He did his very best to makeThe billows smooth and bright —And this was odd, because it wasThe middle of the night. The moon was shining sulkily,Because she thought the sunHad go...

To join this community on Patreon, click here: ⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/cw/welcome2thepoetrypodcast⁠⁠ The New ColossusBY EMMA LAZARUS (1849–1887)Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,With conquering limbs astride from land to land;Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall standA mighty woman with a torch, whose flameIs the imprisoned lightning, and her nameMother of Exiles. From her beacon-han...

To join this community on Patreon, click here: ⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/cw/welcome2thepoetrypodcast⁠⁠ GriefBY ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING (1806–1861) I tell you, hopeless grief is passionless;That only men incredulous of despair,Half-taught in anguish, through the midnight airBeat upward to God’s throne in loud accessOf shrieking and reproach. Full desertness,In souls as countries, lieth silent-ba...

To join this community on Patreon, click here: ⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/cw/welcome2thepoetrypodcast⁠⁠ The Second ComingBy William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)Turning and turning in the widening gyreThe falcon cannot hear the falconer;Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhereThe ceremony of innocence is drowned;The b...

To join this community on Patreon, click here: ⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/cw/welcome2thepoetrypodcast⁠⁠ A Thousand Martyrs by Aphra Behn  (1640–1689)A thousand martyrs I have made,All sacrificed to my desire;A thousand beauties have betrayed,That languish in resistless fire. The untamed heart to hand I brought,And fixed the wild and wandering thought. I never vowed nor sighed in vainBut both, thoug...

To join this community on Patreon, click here: ⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/cw/welcome2thepoetrypodcast⁠⁠ On Death by John Keats 1795-1821Can death be sleep, when life is but a dream,And scenes of bliss pass as a phantom by? The transient pleasures as a vision seem,And yet we think the greatest pain's to die. How strange it is that man on earth should roam,And lead a life of woe, but not forsakeH...

To join this community on Patreon, click here: ⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/cw/welcome2thepoetrypodcast⁠⁠ *This poem was read at 2 am in my new kitchen after moving house. Please enjoy with the characterful refrigerator sound in the background.* ARMISTICEBy Sophie Jewett (1861-1909)The water sings along our keel,The wind falls to a whispering breath;I look into your eyes and feelNo fear of life or de...

To join this community on Patreon, click here: ⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/cw/welcome2thepoetrypodcast⁠⁠ Composed upon Westminster Bridge September 3, 1802, by William WordsworthEarth has not anything to show more fair:Dull would he be of soul who could pass byA sight so touching in its majesty:This City now doth, like a garment, wearThe beauty of the morning; silent, bare,Ships, towers, domes, thea...

To join this community on Patreon, click here: ⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/cw/welcome2thepoetrypodcast⁠⁠ Wealth by Langston Hughes (1902-1967)From Christ to GhandiAppears this truth-St. Francis of AssisiProves it, too:Goodness becomes grandeurSurpassing might of kings. Halos of kindnessBrighter shineThan crowns of gold,And brighterThan rich diamondsSparklesThe simple dewOf love.

To join this community on Patreon, click here: ⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/cw/welcome2thepoetrypodcast⁠⁠ Rose Schneiderman (1882-1972) was a Jewish immigrant from Poland and a labor union leader of the early women’s movement. Schneiderman fought to improve women’s working conditions and gain universal suffrage. In the early 1900s, many NYC factories operated without fire escapes or locked exit doors...

To join this community on Patreon, click here: ⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/cw/welcome2thepoetrypodcast⁠⁠ Muriel Strode (b 1875) was an American poet about whom I have been able to only find bits and pieces about her life. She was born in Illinois, and from what I gather, she was a self-made woman both in business and as a writer. She is the originator of a quote often misattributed to Ralph Waldo Em...

To join this community on Patreon, click here: ⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/cw/welcome2thepoetrypodcast⁠⁠ Charles Dickens, 1812-1870Charles Dickens was a famous and successful writer in the 19th-century, England. He was a novelist, a reporter, an essayist, a correspondent, and an editor. His work examines the reality of Victorian life as he knew it. He is famous for novels that include “A Christmas C...