Episodes
Jan. 11, 2026
"Quatrain" by Gwendolyn Bennett
How strange that grass should sing— Grass is so still a thing . . . And strange the swift surprise of snow So soft it falls and slow.
Jan. 4, 2026
"All the World's a Stage" by William Shakespeare
All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts...
Dec. 28, 2025
"Song" by Christina Rossetti
When I am dead, my dearest, Sing no sad songs for me; Plant thou no roses at my head, Nor shady cypress tree: Be the green grass above me With showers and dewdrops wet; And if thou wilt, remember, And if thou wilt, forget.
Dec. 21, 2025
"The Ship Starting" by Walt Whitman
Lo, the unbounded sea, On its breast a ship starting, spreading all sails, carrying even her moonsails. The pennant is flying aloft as she speeds she speeds so stately- below emulous waves press forward, They surround the shi...
Dec. 14, 2025
"The Eagle" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
He clasps the crag with crooked hands; Close to the sun in lonely lands, Ring'd with the azure world, he stands. The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls; He watches from his mountain walls, And like a thunderbolt he falls.
Dec. 7, 2025
"Night" by Sara Teasdale
Stars over snow, And in the west a planet Swinging below a star— Look for a lovely thing and you will find it, It is not far— It will never be far.
Nov. 30, 2025
"The Secret" by Emily Dickinson
Some things that fly there be, — Birds, hours, the bumble-bee: Of these no elegy. Some things that stay there be, — Grief, hills, eternity: Nor this behooveth me. There are, that resting, rise. Can I expound the skies? How st...
Nov. 23, 2025
"The Negro Speaks of Rivers" by Langston Hughes
I’ve known rivers: I’ve known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins. My soul has grown deep like the rivers. I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young. I built my hut near the...
Nov. 16, 2025
"Nancibel" by Bliss Carmen
The ghost of a wind came over the hill, While day for a moment forgot to die, And stirred the sheaves Of the millet leaves, As Nancibel went by. Out of the lands of Long Ago, Into the land of By and By, Faded the gleam Of a j...
Nov. 9, 2025
"In a Station of the Metro" by Ezra Pound
The apparition of these faces in the crowd; Petals on a wet, black bough.
Nov. 2, 2025
"Unfortunate Coincidence" by Dorothy Parker
By the time you swear you’re his, Shivering and sighing, And he vows his passion is Infinite, undying— Lady, make a note of this: One of you is lying.
Oct. 26, 2025
"First Fig" by Edna St. Vincent Millay
My candle burns at both ends; It will not last the night; But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends— It gives a lovely light!
Oct. 19, 2025
"Fire and Ice" by Robert Frost
Some say the world will end in fire, Some say in ice. From what I’ve tasted of desire I hold with those who favor fire. But if it had to perish twice, I think I know enough of hate To say that for destruction ice Is also grea...
Oct. 12, 2025
"The Wind" by Robert Louis Stevenson
I saw you toss the kites on high And blow the birds about the sky; And all around I heard you pass, Like ladies' skirts across the grass— O wind, a-blowing all day long, O wind, that sings so loud a song! I saw the different ...
Oct. 5, 2025
"Fog" by Carl Sandburg
The fog comes on little cat feet. It sits looking over harbor and city on silent haunches and then moves on.
Sept. 28, 2025
"Silver" by Walter de la Mare
Slowly, silently, now the moon Walks the night in her silver shoon; This way, and that, she peers, and sees Silver fruit upon silver trees; One by one the casements catch Her beams beneath the silvery thatch; Couched in his k...
Sept. 26, 2025
Trailer - "The Red Wheelbarrow" by William Carlos Williams
Hello and Welcome! My name is John, and this is The Concise Verse, a podcast for people who love poetry but don't always have time for it. In each episode we'll bring you a single, beautiful poem. No commentary, no analysis, ...