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

Sonnet IV; I shall forget you presently, my dear, by Millay

Season 3 Episode 8

In 1920s Greenwich Village, Edna St. Vincent Millay wrote sonnets that toppled clichés of love and romance. To probe this unsentimental break-up poetry, host Elisa New speaks with musician Natalia Zukerman, poet Olivia Gatwood, New York Times advice columnist Philip Galanes, writer Leslie Jamison, scholar of Greenwich Village Jeffery Kennedy, and a chorus of National Student Poets.

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.
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.
Poems about Motherhood by Sharon Olds and Bernadette Mayer
Unlock with PBS Passport
25:38
Elisa New, Emily Oster, Sharon Olds, & Bernadette Mayer explore poems on motherhood.
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