Poetry Professors' Podcast

Last year didn't happen for us, but we're back with fresh new episodes, guest poets, less guessing, and more accessing.

Our 4th of July podcast explores the technique of allusion using the poem that shaped what the Statue of Liberty means to our country.  

This is the culmination of the Poetry Professors' National Poetry Month project - to take Shakespeare's Sonnet 130 through all five layers of the UnVEIL system.

For national poetry month, Dan and Becky are taking Shakespeare's Sonnet 130 and breaking it down in all five layers.  This episode looks at the Voice and Events layers.

For national poetry month, Dan and Becky are taking Shakespeare's Sonnet 130 and breaking it down in all five layers - one each week.  This week begins the process with the UNderstand Words layer.

In this Voice-layer episode, Dan and Becky talk about the different targets "to whom" a voice may be speaking.  Their examples are spring poems that seem to show poets have a hard time being happy about spring.  Featuring poems by Robert Herrick, Emily Dickinson, Edna St. Vincent Millay, and Thomas Carew.

In this Look/Listen/Lesson layer episode, Dan and Becky talk about letting your work shine in the light of day - whether it be publication or performance - and getting students to do so as well.  Dan performs his poem "An Arrow to the Knee"

In this special episode for Black History Month, Dan and Becky talk about the history of African-American poetry, the Harlem Renaissance, controversial modern issues, and allyship.

In this techniques-layer poem, Dan and Becky talk about the romantic things they do for each other and read a poem about death (at least it's a touching one?) so there's something for everyone on this holiday.

In this events-layer episode, Dan and Becky talk about the craziness of January and their desire to arise and go back to William Butler Yeats' "Lake Isle of Innisfree".

This is live audio from our Poetry Slam at Ivan's Backstage in East Troy.  It talks about the voice in Emily Dickinson's "I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died".

This Look/Listen/Lesson Episode is our intention to analyze a happy poem after the crazy holidays.  It stars Happiness by Raymond Carver.

In this Interpret Techniques episode, Dan and Becky talk about a crazy, eventful week for the Poetry Professors and study apostrophe with Carl Sandburg's "At a Window".

In this events-layer episode, Dan and Becky explore Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's poem "The Outcasts" and muse about things Victorian-Era London.

In this voice episode, Becky and Dan talk Thanksgiving, Snoop Dogg, and politely apocalyptic poetry in Sara Teasdale's "There Will Come Soft Rains".

In this "UNderstanding language" step episode, Becky Hansen is both co-host and guest! Becky talks about her commissioned poem "Cold. Hard. Cash." which will be a part of the Kenosha Public Museum's upcoming exhibit on the history of the Wisconsin ice harvesting industry.  

In this look/listen/lesson episode, Dan and Becky celebrate teen writing festivals and dive into Edgar Allen Poe's happy turned creepy "The Bells".  Be careful if you listen right before you go to bed!

In this episode on interpreting techniques, Dan and Becky interview Dr. Sarah Etlinger about her poetry collection, imagine how horrid it would be to walk through a museum for Hugh Hefner, ponder various legal traditions, and think up ways to trick Dan's students into listening to the podcast.  A great time had by all!

In this episode on the "Events" layer of the approach, Dan and Becky break down an important tool to make sure students can identify important events in the poem.  They also make relentless fun of the amazing yet ridiculous pastoral poem, "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love" by Christopher Marlowe.

Dan and Becky talk about voice in this episode that features hilarious impressions of voices such as a mad scientist and a valley girl reading classic lines of poetry.  Reach your students or entertain your friends with the game "Lines and Voices" featured in this episode.

Our fourth episode features the first dive into the look/listen/lesson step of the UnVEILing poetry process.  We talk about how to put all the clues together and find a supportable theory as to the poem's purpose/effect.  This is the step learners want to skip to - and now it's finally here.  Poems referenced include The Names by Billy Collins, Cradle Endlessly Rocking by Walt Whitman, If I Had a Brontosaurus by Shel Silverstein, and To an Athlete Dying Young by A.E. Houseman.

Our third episode features our first deep dive into the "Interpret Techniques" layer.  This episode, we talk about how to find, interpret, and teach the techniques of simile and metaphor.  Poems referenced are Dulce et Decorum Est and A Valediction: Forbidden Mourning.

This is the first episode specifically focused on the "Voice" step in our UnVEILing poetry approach.  If you have not listened to "Hello, Everybody", our introduction podcast, we highly recommend you do so prior to this episode.

In this introductory podcast episode, hosts Dan and Becky Hansen talk about how they aim to help teachers and reluctant embracers of poetry do "less guessing, and more accessing".   They explain their philosophy, approach, and give an overview of their approach to poetry.  They also tell amusing stories and make terrible puns and parodies along the way.