Poetry Aloud

Poetry Aloud

Poetry Aloud will help you learn how to read poetry with your ears. Unlike children with bad table manners, poetry is meant to be heard and not just seen. Join Anthony Esolen every other week (or so) as he introduces and discusses a longish poem and then reads it aloud.

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Tennyson presents Ulysses as a hero, but an ambiguous hero who cannot rest or ever satisfy his longing to know, but by restless action.

Sep 29

"How It Strikes a Contemporary"

In Browning's poem, the poet is the Corrector, not by legal means, but by honest observation and wise, careful judgment.

Sep 22 •

Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey

Our Poetry Aloud selection this week, “Tintern Abbey,” is one of the finest tributes to nature ever written, and nature as the work of God.

Sep 15 •

What's Fortune got to say for herself?

Listen now (13 mins) | From The Consolation of Philosophy

Aug 25

Excerpt from The Prelude

This week for Poetry Aloud, we’re listening to a part of William Wordsworth's long poem, The Prelude, which is about the making of the soul of a poet.

Aug 18

The Boston Evening Transcript

This week’s Poetry Aloud is T.S. Eliot’s poem, “The Boston Evening Transcript."

Aug 11

Frost has set a powerful, even explosive scene, and has created two sharply drawn characters, with strengths and failings, while leaving much implied.

Jul 21 •

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