Fireside Poems

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Each week Dr. J shares a poem from one of the nineteenth-century American Fireside Poets, reading it aloud and commenting on it to enhance the listener’s enjoyment of the poem.

Fireside Poems


    • Jul 20, 2022 LATEST EPISODE
    • weekly NEW EPISODES
    • 11m AVG DURATION
    • 105 EPISODES


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    Latest episodes from Fireside Poems

    Episode 105: The Wedding Day

    Play Episode Listen Later Jul 20, 2022 11:15


    Priscilla Mullins and John Alden wed, symbolizing the continuity of life in a true pastoral image.

    Episode 104: Milton and Keats

    Play Episode Listen Later Jul 13, 2022 10:23


    The young Endymion sleeps Endymion's sleep . . .

    Episode 103: Chaucer and Shakespeare

    Play Episode Listen Later Jul 6, 2022 8:22


    The essence of each poet: Chaucer and Shakespearre

    Episode 102: Telling the Bees

    Play Episode Listen Later Jun 29, 2022 10:26


    A young man learns of the death of his beloved when he comes upon a strange ceremony.

    Episode 101: The Revenge of Rain-in-the-Face

    Play Episode Listen Later Jun 22, 2022 10:12


    The poet recounts an apocryphal story of the Battle of the Little Bighorn and then asks "whose was theright and the wrong?"

    Episode 100: Helen of Tyre

    Play Episode Listen Later Jun 15, 2022 8:54


    The poet asks our sympathy for a woman the world considers unworthy of sympathy.

    Episode 99: fromUnder the Willows

    Play Episode Listen Later Jun 8, 2022 14:04


    The poet fancies himself related to a willow tree and laments the negative influence of Puritanism on New England and American culture

    Episode 98: Curfew

    Play Episode Listen Later Jun 1, 2022 9:45


    A writer finishing a book ike a family going to bed.

    Episode 97: Killed at the Ford

    Play Episode Listen Later May 25, 2022 9:10


    A "beatiful youth" is killled by a sharpshooter's bullet in the Civil War. The bullet continues on to his hometown, where it takes another life.

    Episode 96: Hawthorne

    Play Episode Listen Later May 18, 2022 8:40


    Longfellow remembers the burial of his friend Nathaniel Hawthorne

    Episode 95: A Spectre of Terror

    Play Episode Listen Later May 11, 2022 7:39


    What should we cheer?

    Episode 94: The Yellow Violet

    Play Episode Listen Later May 4, 2022 8:00


    We shouldn't forget the modest flowers of April when the showier flowers of May come into bloom.

    Episode 93: Two Night Sea Poems

    Play Episode Listen Later Apr 27, 2022 10:28


    The poet meditates in the darkness upon time and eternity.

    Episode 92: Paul Revere's Ride

    Play Episode Listen Later Apr 20, 2022 18:45


    On the 19th of April, 1775, Pau Revere rides to alert his countrymen that British troops are moving from Boston to seize Patriot munitions at Concord, Massachussetts.

    Episode 91: from The Cathedral 2

    Play Episode Listen Later Apr 13, 2022 10:21


    The poet is grateful that he s able to dwell in modes of being other than his own.

    Episode 90: from The Cathedral 1

    Play Episode Listen Later Apr 6, 2022 11:23


    A poet contemplates the gulf between medieval Christianity and the modern world.

    Episode 89: A Dutch Picture

    Play Episode Listen Later Mar 30, 2022 10:40


    An old buccaneer dreams of going to sea again.

    Episode 88: The Occultation of Orion

    Play Episode Listen Later Mar 23, 2022 15:08


    the poet anticipaes atime of world peace.

    Episode 87: Priscilla (from The Courtship of Miles Standish)

    Play Episode Listen Later Mar 16, 2022 13:57


    To have any hope of happiness with a man, a woman from when she is a child must develop both a strong sense of self-confidence and a strong sense of self-worth.

    Episode 86: Twilight

    Play Episode Listen Later Mar 9, 2022 6:43


    A faather is late coming home . . .

    Walter Von Der Vogelweid

    Play Episode Listen Later Mar 2, 2022 11:00


    A medieval minnesinger provdes for the care of the birds who taught him

    from Snow-Bound

    Play Episode Listen Later Feb 23, 2022 10:43


    The importance and need of community seen in a snow-bound farm.

    from Snow-Bound

    Play Episode Listen Later Feb 16, 2022 19:20


    Two portraits: one of the poet's learning disabled uncle and one of a young schoolteacher such as would go to the South after the Civil War to teach the sons and the daughters of the Freedmen.

    from Snow-Bound

    Play Episode Listen Later Feb 9, 2022 20:42


    An early 19th-century New England family passes a snowbound evening telling stories.

    from Snow-Bound

    Play Episode Listen Later Feb 2, 2022 16:01


    A memory of a snowstorm in rural Massachussetts.

    from Michael Angelo

    Play Episode Listen Later Jan 26, 2022 8:34


    The artist Michael Angelo reflects on the demands and importance of art.

    Episosde 79: The Wreck of the Hesperus

    Play Episode Listen Later Jan 19, 2022 15:21


    A schooner sinks in a storm with the daughter of its captain tied to the mast for her safety.

    Episode 78: Snow-Flakes

    Play Episode Listen Later Jan 12, 2022 9:00


    A poem challenges us to think both about poetry and about nature: is nature simpy a material fact that can be understood through scentific materialism, or are their apects of nature that are unknowable trhough the scientific world view?

    Episode 77: The First Snowfall

    Play Episode Listen Later Jan 5, 2022 8:15


    The first winter snowfall brings both sadness and peace to a faher grieving the death of an infant daughter.

    Episode 76: Sweaters Tht Go on over Your Head

    Play Episode Listen Later Dec 29, 2021 7:43


    The trials and tribulations of a child on Christmas morning.

    Episode 75: Advent

    Play Episode Listen Later Dec 22, 2021 10:00


    A mother and daughter build a gingerbread house as Christmas approaches.

    Episode 74: December

    Play Episode Listen Later Dec 15, 2021 9:10


    December represented in all its facets: natural, pagan, and Christian. Syncretism as a characteristic of Christianity.

    Episode 73: Tegner's Drapa

    Play Episode Listen Later Dec 8, 2021 12:22


    The Norse god Balder, considered as a transition figure from Norse paganism to Christianity.

    Episode 72: The Brook and the Wave

    Play Episode Listen Later Dec 1, 2021 7:15


    Can sweetness transform bitterness?

    Episode 71: Thanksgiving Day

    Play Episode Listen Later Nov 24, 2021 10:56


    Our most familiar Thanksgiving Day poem

    Episode 70: from The Song of Hiawatha

    Play Episode Listen Later Nov 17, 2021 13:52


    A healing ceremony of the Ojibwa nation, shown to be effective in the treatment of grief.

    Episode 69: from Henry V

    Play Episode Listen Later Nov 10, 2021 12:45


    For Veteran's Day, the Band of Brother's speech from Henry V by William Shakespeare.

    Episode 68: The Bridge

    Play Episode Listen Later Nov 3, 2021 8:58


    Aremembrnce of thoughts of despair and suicide by on of America's best-loved poets.

    Episode 67: The Spectre Pig

    Play Episode Listen Later Oct 27, 2021 8:00


    A slaughtered pig comes back from the dead to avenge himself on the butcher who slaughterered him. A scary poem for Halloween.

    Episode 66: When the Frost is on the Punkin'

    Play Episode Listen Later Oct 20, 2021 10:15


    A poem in Hoosier dialect celebrating autumn in the rural Midwest

    Episode 65: The March of Miles Standish

    Play Episode Listen Later Oct 13, 2021 17:41


    The first fatal encounter between the Massachusetts Pilgrims and the native Massachusetts people, a counterweight to the story of the first Thanksgiving

    Episode 64: Under the October Maples

    Play Episode Listen Later Oct 6, 2021 9:42


    The beauty of red maples in autumn is used by the poet to convey the beauty--and loss--of his beloved.

    Episode 63: The Skeleton in Armor

    Play Episode Listen Later Sep 29, 2021 19:14


    Longfellow invents a legend of a Viking/Norse visit to North America before Coumbus.

    Episode 62: Hymn to the Night

    Play Episode Listen Later Sep 22, 2021 7:30


    Poetry as an alternative to Monday Night Football and he general hurly-burly of the world, with a shout-out to The Last Duel.

    Episode 61: Chrysaor

    Play Episode Listen Later Sep 15, 2021 9:49


    Wordsworth, Longfellow, and our modern estrangement from nature. The World Is Too Much With Us

    Episode 60: from “The Courtship of Miles Standish”

    Play Episode Listen Later Sep 8, 2021 21:58


    A classic moment from American literature, when the Puritan maiden Priscilla says to John Alden "Why don't you speak for yourself, John?" and thus seals forever America as a place of freedom for women, men, and love.

    Episode 59: from: “To a Child”

    Play Episode Listen Later Sep 1, 2021


    Still let it ever be thy pride/To linger by the laborer's side

    Episode 58: The Ropewalk

    Play Episode Listen Later Aug 25, 2021 12:41


    A mid-day reverie of all the human activities done with ropes, both happy and sad, good and bad.

    Episode 57: Gudrun

    Play Episode Listen Later Aug 18, 2021 7:48


    A woman on here bridal night raises her hand to stab her sleeping husband.

    The Light of Stars

    Play Episode Listen Later Aug 11, 2021 7:30


    The poet finds strength gazing on the planet Mars in the night sky.

    Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking

    Play Episode Listen Later Aug 4, 2021 16:27


    Walt Whitman recalls a childhood memory that speaks of his origins as a poet

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