Archive - Poem of the Week of Word & Song by Anthony Esolen

"Home Thoughts, from Abroad"

Here Browning is thinking of spring in England, cooler and wetter than Italy, but with its own beauties, and he misses them.

Jul 2 •

6:48

June 2025

May 2025

The ultimate parade in poetry

One of the greatest English poems ever written -- profound, sweet, learned, deeply human -- features the parade of all parades!

May 28 •

8:30

When in disgrace with Fortune and men's eyes

Here is one of Shakespeare's beloved sonnets, on what's more to be treasured than wealth and power. I'll read it, and so will Dame Judi Dench!

May 21 •

5:50

Can the sound of a cuckoo, of all things, bring you back to your youth -- and even into a world of mystery? Wordsworth says so; he experienced it!

May 14 •

6:30

From "Songs of Innocence"

When William Blake died at age 72, he had sold only 30 copies of what we now consider a very great work, Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience.

May 7 •

5:47

April 2025

The Rolling English Road

The English road of our poem is crooked and crazy, as are the poet and his friend traveling on it. The road is not practical, but that’s the beauty of…

Apr 30 •

7:32

Amid the chaos and the night of man

Our poet today gives us an eight-stanza lyric poem about the Resurrection and eternity.

Apr 23 •

8:32

Incarnation, and Passion

In 1650 England was a raging battlefield, and Henry Vaughan was not a well man. He called the poems he wrote then the fruits of Christ’s own passion and…

Apr 16 •

5:56

Touches of sweet harmony

Shakespeare loved music, and when we hear it in his plays, it is either rollicking and merry, or, more often, sweet, solemn, mysterious, healing.

Apr 9 •

7:55

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