Skip to main content
Access to this video is a benefit for members through PBS Passport.
Back to Show
Poetry in America

This Is Just to Say, by William Carlos Williams

Season 2 Episode 7

Just 28 words and in the form of a refrigerator note, is “This is Just to Say” simply a short apology or something more subtle and passive-aggressive? Join actor John Hodgman, poet and physician Rafael Campo, poet Jane Hirshfield, a chorus of couples, and host Elisa New as they consider what may or may not lie beneath the surface of William Carlos Williams’s brief tribute to marital relations.

Available Until
4/4/2026
Support Provided By
Season
you can say that again, billie, by Evie Shockley
Unlock with PBS Passport
25:22
Cassandra Wilson, Elisa New & more read Evie Shockley’s “you can say that again, billie.”
Cascadilla Falls, by A. R. Ammons
Unlock with PBS Passport
25:21
DJ Spooky, Joshua Bennett, & more discuss A.R. Ammon’s “Cascadilla Falls” with Elisa New.
Looking for The Gulf Motel, by Richard Blanco
Unlock with PBS Passport
25:02
Gloria Estefan & more read Richard Blanco’s "Looking for The Gulf Motel" with Elisa New.
The Wound-Dresser, by Walt Whitman
Unlock with PBS Passport
25:11
Tony Kushner, David Strathairn & more read Whitman’s “The Wound-Dresser” with Elisa New.
Leaves of Grass, by Walt Whitman
Unlock with PBS Passport
26:46
Join host Elisa New to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Walt Whitman’s birth.
You and I Are Disappearing, by Yusef Komunyakaa
Unlock with PBS Passport
27:01
Explore the mingled beauty and horror of war, with this Yusef Komunyakaa poem.
Finishing the Hat, by Stephen Sondheim
Unlock with PBS Passport
26:46
Stephen Sondheim blends lyrics and music in his poem "Finishing the Hat".
This Your Home Now, by Mark Doty
Unlock with PBS Passport
26:46
In Doty's poem “This Your Home Now,” a barber shops sparks a meditation on love and more.
The Fish, by Marianne Moore
Unlock with PBS Passport
26:46
Explore Moore’s great poem of marine life, with Al Gore, Jorie Graham, and others.
One Art, by Elizabeth Bishop
Unlock with PBS Passport
26:46
Katie Couric, Mary Chapin Carpenter and others explore Elizabeth Bishop's poem "One Art".
Urban Love Poem, by Marilyn Chin
Unlock with PBS Passport
26:46
Maxine Hong Kingston, Randy Komisar and others explore Marilyn Chin's "Urban Love Poem".
The New Colossus by Emma Lazarus
Unlock with PBS Passport
25:27
Contemplate the physical—and figurative—journeys charted by all immigrants.
Active loading indicator