Have you measured out your life in coffee spoons? Feeling like a pair of ragged claws today? Afraid to eat messy food while other people are watching? Or are you just channeling a little too much Polonius? If so, today’s poem–the classic modernist anthem of insecurity and isolation (and mermaids)–will feel very familiar. Happy reading! (And for an even better reading of this poem, you should discover Jeremy Irons reading Eliot’s complete poems.) Get full access to The Daily Poem Podcast at dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribe ..read more

Happy birthday to the Bard! NB: Anyone itching to dig deeper into Shakespeare’s plays should look no further than one of our sister podcasts, The Play’s the Thing! Get full access to The Daily Poem Podcast at dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribe ..read more

Louise Glück was born in New York City in 1943. She is the author of numerous poetry collections, including Winter Recipes from the Collective (2021); Faithful and Virtuous Night (2014), which won the National Book Award; Poems: 1962-2012 (2012), winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize; and The Wild Iris (1992), which won the Pulitzer Prize; and Ararat (1990), which won the Rebekah Johnson Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry from the Library of Congress. In 2020, Glück was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. Her other honors include The New Yorker’s Book Award in Poetry, the ..read more

Francis Thompson was born in Northwest England in 1859. The son of Catholic converts, as a boy he was initially educated for the priesthood. When he was 18, at his parents' insistence, he entered Owens College in Manchester to follow in his father's footsteps and study medicine. But before long, he left for London hoping to pursue what he believed was his true vocation of being a writer. As a result of ill health and subsequent medical treatment, like many before him, Thompson became addicted to opium. He soon fell into a life of despair and destitution, sleeping on the banks of the Thames wit ..read more

Today’s poem–benign anthem of the resilient human spirit or a hymn to radical autonomy?–has divided audiences for more than a century. Born in Gloucester, England, poet, editor, and critic William Ernest Henley was educated at Crypt Grammar School, where he studied with the poet T.E. Brown, and the University of St. Andrews. His father was a struggling bookseller who died when Henley was a teenager. At age 12 Henley was diagnosed with tubercular arthritis that necessitated the amputation of one of his legs just below the knee; the other foot was saved only through a radical surgery performed b ..read more

What do John Donne, Paul Simon, and AC/DC have in common? Today’s poem. Happy reading! Get full access to The Daily Poem Podcast at dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribe ..read more

Today it’s Whitman (and Dylan) on the march of progress. Get full access to The Daily Poem Podcast at dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribe ..read more

Today’s poem imagines what you might do when you’re through paying taxes. Get full access to The Daily Poem Podcast at dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribe ..read more

Today’s poem is an ekphrasis on a portrait of the poet himself–all that the portrait does and doesn’t capture or convey. Get full access to The Daily Poem Podcast at dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribe ..read more

Today’s poem is a lighter take on the self-portrait ekphrasis. What is it about the self-portrait that is so intriguing to poets, anyway? Get full access to The Daily Poem Podcast at dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribe ..read more