Recent Episodes
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Oct. 25, 2026
"Gold in the Mountain" by Herman Melville
Gold in the mountain, And gold in the glen, And greed in the heart, Heaven having no part, And unsatisfied men.
56
Oct. 18, 2026
"Chicago" by Carl Sandburg (Excerpt)
HOG Butcher for the World, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, Player with Railroads and the Nation's Freight Handler; Stormy, husky, brawling, City of the Big Shoulders:
55
Oct. 11, 2026
"How Still the Bells in Steeples Stand" by Emily Dickinson
HOW still the bells in steeples stand, Till, swollen with the sky, They leap upon their silver feet In frantic melody!
54
Oct. 4, 2026
"Oread" by H.D.
Whirl up, sea— whirl your pointed pines, splash your great pines on our rocks, hurl your green over us, cover us with your pools of fir.
53
Sept. 27, 2026
"In September" by Amy Levy
The sky is silver-grey; the long Slow waves caress the shore.— On such a day as this I have been glad, Who shall be glad no more.
52
Sept. 20, 2026
"Thought" by Alice Dunbar-Nelson
A swift, successive chain of things, That flash, kaleidoscope-like, now in, now out, Now straight, now eddying in wild rings, No order, neither law, compels their moves, But endless, constant, always swiftly roves.
Recent Blog Posts
Oct. 25, 2026
The Cost of Greed: Herman Melville's "Gold in the Mountain"
Published in 1891 in his final privately printed collection Timoleon, "Gold in the Mountain" is a sharp, five-line cautionary verse by Herman Melville (1819–1891). Best known today as the legendary author of Moby-Dick, Melville spent the final decad…
Oct. 18, 2026
Industrial Might: Carl Sandburg's "Chicago" (Excerpt)
First published in 1914 in Harriet Monroe’s pioneering Poetry: A Magazine of Verse, "Chicago" catapulted Carl Sandburg (1878–1967) to international fame and redefined American working-class poetry. Before earning three Pulitzer Prizes, Sandburg work…
Oct. 11, 2026
Joyful Resonance: Emily Dickinson's "How Still the Bells in Steeples Stand"
First published posthumously in 1890 in her groundbreaking debut volume Poems, "How Still the Bells in Steeples Stand" is a striking four-line study in latent energy and sudden, explosive joy by Emily Dickinson (1830–1886). Dickinson spent most of h…