Skip to main content
Access to this video is a benefit for members through

Up Next

Poetry in America Season 4

Phillis Wheatley: To the University

Season 4 Episode 1
25:21
Six Years Later, Epitaph for a Centaur

Six Years Later, Epitaph for a Centaur

Season 4 Episode 2
25:21
Mushrooms, Weakness and Doubt

Mushrooms, Weakness and Doubt

Season 4 Episode 3
25:21
July in Washington

July in Washington

Season 4 Episode 4
25:21
Episode 5: The Calling

The Calling

Season 4 Episode 5
53:05
When Whales Could Walk

When Whales Could Walk

Season 51 Episode 1
53:31
Back to Show
Poetry in America

Poems about Motherhood by Sharon Olds and Bernadette Mayer

Season 3 Episode 6

Sharon Olds’s “The Language of the Brag” and Bernadette Mayer’s “The Desires of Mothers to Please Others in Letters” are exuberant, boisterous tributes to motherhood. Both poets join host Elisa New, actor Donna Lynne Champlin, writer Emily Oster, activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali, obstetrician Lorna Wilkerson, and co-founders of Our Bodies Ourselves to explore the miracle, and mess, of creating new life.

Support Provided By
Season
July in Washington
25:21
David Axelrod, Bill Kristol and Andrea Mitchell read Robert Lowell with Elisa New.
Mushrooms, Weakness and Doubt
25:21
Consider the poetics, and politics, of fungi with poems by Sylvia Plath and Kay Ryan.
Six Years Later, Epitaph for a Centaur
25:21
Read the elegiac poetry of Joseph Brodsky, a Cold War Russian exile, with host Elisa New.
Poetry in America Season 4
25:21
Poems by Wheatley with Amanda Gorman, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Richard Blanco, and more.
Sonnet IV; I shall forget you presently, my dear, by Millay
Unlock with PBS Passport
25:41
Leslie Jamison, Olivia Gatwood, & more read a sonnet by Millay with host Elisa New.
Two poems, by Linda Hogan and Alberto Ríos
Unlock with PBS Passport
25:14
Linda Hogan & Alberto Ríos explore their poems with host Elisa New, Jeff Corwin & more.
Mending Wall, by Robert Frost
Unlock with PBS Passport
25:21
Caroline Kennedy, Tracy K. Smith & more read Robert Frost’s “Mending Wall” with Elisa New.
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.
Active loading indicator