Poetry Prof – Read, Teach, Study Poetry

September 30, 2026 Poetry Prof

from The Prelude

Strap on your skates and go play on the ice in this passage from the poem William Wordsworth never finished writing
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August 20, 2026 Poetry Prof

Oblivion

Ellis Ayitey Komey resists the coming of the dark
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August 11, 2026 Poetry Prof

Follower

Seamus Heaney wants to grow up to be like his dad
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August 5, 2026 Poetry Prof

Hunting Snake

Judith Wright gives us a glimpse of the sublime
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May 1, 2026 Poetry Prof

The Cockroach

Kevin Halligan’s as stuck as a bug in a rut
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April 11, 2026 Poetry Prof

A Married State

Matrimony’s not quite so holy in Katherine Philips’ anti-marriage poem
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March 27, 2026 Poetry Prof

The Chimney-Sweeper

William Blake sweeps away the comforting lies that enable child exploitation
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February 25, 2026 Poetry Prof

Report to Wordsworth

Boey Kim Cheng asks whether nature’s champions can still save her
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February 21, 2026 Poetry Prof

Before the Sun

Charles Mungoshi eulogises rural life in this deceptively simple poem from Zimbabwe
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February 16, 2026 Poetry Prof

Sonnet 18

Who is really being appreciated in this famously tender poem by William Shakespeare?
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October 12, 2025 Poetry Prof

Where I Come From

Nurture trumps nature in Elizabeth Brewster’s austerely beautiful poem
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September 7, 2025 Poetry Prof

An Essay on Man

Alexander Pope examines our place in the grand scheme of things
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August 7, 2025 Poetry Prof

Lament

There’s plenty of reasons to be sad – and angry – in Gillian Clarke’s poem based on the events of the first Gulf War
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July 30, 2025 Poetry Prof

A Different History

Language can both hurt and heal in Sujata Bhatt’s challenging poem about India’s past – and the place it could be again
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June 3, 2025 Poetry Prof

Song: Love Armed

Love really hurts in Aphra Behn’s cherubic rework
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May 11, 2025 Poetry Prof

The Capital

W.H. Auden takes us on a tour of a glittering city… and gives us a glimpse of the rot that lies beneath
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May 2, 2025 Poetry Prof

The Road

Nancy Cato races time itself – and almost wins – in this exhilarating ballad from Australia
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April 28, 2025 Poetry Prof

an afternoon nap

Arthur Yap is woken from his daily snooze by a piano lesson gone awry
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February 13, 2025 Poetry Prof

At the Bus Station

Life is fast-paced, frenetic, and chaotic in Julius Chingono’s disturbing poem.
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February 8, 2025 Poetry Prof

Touch and Go

Stevie Smith wonders whether mankind is truly alone in the world
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September 10, 2024 Poetry Prof

Plaits

Elizabeth Smither weaves a life lesson from strands of her own hair
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August 10, 2024 Poetry Prof

A Long Journey

Follow Musaemura Zimunya back up an endless river into Zimbabwe’s forgotten past
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July 31, 2024 Poetry Prof

The Enemies

Elizabeth Jennings explores the poisonous power of paranoia in this cold-war parable
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August 10, 2023 Poetry Prof

The Instant of My Death

Sarah Jackson makes an unexpected connection in this elusive poem about travel and change.
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July 24, 2023 Poetry Prof

Song

George Szirtes pays tribute to a determined and courageous spirit.
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June 28, 2023 Poetry Prof

Rich and Poor or, Saint and Sinner

Thomas Love Peacock exposes the unfairness of religious moralism towards the poor.
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June 12, 2023 Poetry Prof

These are the Times We Live In

Imtiaz Dharker’s poem exposes institutional xenophobia through a demeaning interaction.
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June 2, 2023 Poetry Prof

Boxes

Life’s a squeeze in Sampurna Chattarji’s depiction of Mumbai.
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May 27, 2023 Poetry Prof

Children of Wealth

Elizabeth Daryush shows how money can’t buy happiness in this sympathetic sonnet.
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May 23, 2023 Poetry Prof

The Bus

Get your tickets and board Arun Kolatkar’s mysterious old bus for a mystical nighttime journey.
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May 15, 2023 Poetry Prof

Funeral Blues

When the world doesn’t seem to care, turn to Auden’s moving elegy.
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May 8, 2023 Poetry Prof

Away, Melancholy

When Stevie Smith gets knocked down, she gets back up again.
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May 4, 2023 Poetry Prof

From Long Distance

Tony Harrison’s father copes with grief in his own way.
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April 29, 2023 Poetry Prof

The City Planners

Take a drive through Margaret Atwood’s sinister suburban poem to find out who the City Planners are – and what they really want.
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April 21, 2023 Poetry Prof

A Consumer’s Report

Peter Porter pushes back against consumer-culture in this uniquely un-poetic poem.
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April 18, 2023 Poetry Prof

Night Sweat

Sink or swim in the sea of Robert Lowell’s obsession.
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April 14, 2023 Poetry Prof

Request to a Year

Judith Wright knows what it takes to be a successful artist: her great-great-grandmother showed her the way.
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April 10, 2023 Poetry Prof

The Telephone Call

Fleur Adcock reminds us that, in the final reckoning, we’re all winners; we just need to remember to appreciate it.
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April 8, 2023 Poetry Prof

Ozymandias

Pride comes before a fall in Percy Shelley’s smashing sonnet.
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April 5, 2023 Poetry Prof

The Man with Night Sweats

Thom Gunn gives form to fear in a time of crisis.
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March 26, 2023 Poetry Prof

He Never Expected Much

Don’t look back in anger, advises Thomas Hardy; but is he hiding deeper regrets?
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March 16, 2023 Poetry Prof

The Spirit is too Blunt an Instrument

Anne Stevenson’s philosophical poem asks what it means to be truly alive.
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March 4, 2023 Poetry Prof

On Finding a Small Fly Crushed in a Book

Charles Tennyson Turner finds himself unexpectedly moved by a tiny tragedy.
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February 23, 2023 Poetry Prof

Rain

Edward Thomas’ not-quite-a-war poem inspired by a tempestuous downpour.
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April 10, 2022 Poetry Prof

The Character of a Happy Life

Follow Henry Wotton’s step-by-step guide to peace and contentment.
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April 6, 2022 Poetry Prof

Rhyme of the Dead Self

See the lengths A.R.D. Fairburn will go to bury the misery of romantic failure.
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February 10, 2022 Poetry Prof

Nearing Forty

A sleepless night prompts Derek Walcott’s intense, introspective poem.
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January 12, 2022 Poetry Prof

Verses Written on her Death-Bed at Bath

Mary Monck ruminates on death and life in this touching verse-letter.
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January 5, 2022 Poetry Prof

Now Let No Charitable Hope

Elinor Wylie teaches us to face adversity with a dignified smile.
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October 5, 2021 Poetry Prof

The Planners

Boey Kim Cheng reveals the sinister side of relentless urbanisation in his poem that delivers a timely warning.
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June 24, 2021 Poetry Prof

from An Essay on Criticism

Join Alexander Pope on a metaphysical journey of discovery… that will last a lifetime.
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May 13, 2021 Poetry Prof

The Forsaken Wife

Elizabeth Thomas exposes what it means to be a woman in a man’s world.
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February 15, 2021 Poetry Prof

Love in a Life

Lose yourself in Robert Browning’s twisted labyrinth.
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January 23, 2021 Poetry Prof

I Find No Peace

Sir Thomas Wyatt is trapped by his own conflicting desires.
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September 17, 2020 Poetry Prof

Waterfall

Immerse yourself in Lauris Edmond’s beautiful images of sun and spray.
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August 9, 2020 Poetry Prof

A Leave-Taking

Charles Swinburne says he’ll do anything for love – but does he mean it?
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July 25, 2020 Poetry Prof

Stanzas Written in Dejection, near Naples

Percy Bysshe Shelley wrestles with depression in a poem that seems to anticipate his own destiny.
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July 1, 2020 Poetry Prof

The Flower-Fed Buffaloes

Vachel Lindsay laments a vanished way of life.
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May 23, 2020 Poetry Prof

Rooms

What should be her sanctuary becomes Charlotte Mew’s prison cell.
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May 6, 2020 Poetry Prof

I Hear An Army…

James Joyce suffers from terrible nightmares.
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April 21, 2020 Poetry Prof

The Voice

Thomas Hardy’s poem is touching – but also troubling when he rewrites the past.
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April 7, 2020 Poetry Prof

Dover Beach

Armies of ignorance conquer all in Matthew Arnold’s dark and disturbing vision of the world.
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March 18, 2020 Poetry Prof

After

There’s never enough time says Philip Bourke Marston in this powerful poem about loss and bereavement.
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March 5, 2020 Poetry Prof

Amends

Adrienne Rich’s mysterious poem suggests we all have something to make up for – but what?
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February 28, 2020 Poetry Prof

Sonnet 29

Whatever you do, don’t pity Edna St Vincent Millay for her broken heart.
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February 20, 2020 Poetry Prof

Song to the Men of England

Percy Bysshe Shelley exhorts us to rise up in this powerful poetical polemic.
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February 9, 2020 Poetry Prof

Not Waving But Drowning

Stevie Smith asks if we couldn’t all do a little more to help from time to time.
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January 31, 2020 Poetry Prof

In Praise of Creation

Faith is stronger than doubt in this eulogy by Elizabeth Jennings.
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January 26, 2020 Poetry Prof

Ode on Melancholy

Go with John Keats on a quest to find Joy in the mystical realm of Lethe.
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January 17, 2020 Poetry Prof

Cetacean

If you feel like you’re missing that spark of inspiration, go whale-watching with Peter Reading.
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January 7, 2020 Poetry Prof

Little Boy Crying

Mervyn Morris debates if it’s ever right to smack a child.
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December 29, 2019 Poetry Prof

Coming

Is Philip Larkin dreading or welcoming the arrival of spring?
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December 26, 2019 Poetry Prof

Mid-Term Break

Seamus Heaney shares with us a sad memory from his childhood.
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December 19, 2019 Poetry Prof

Stormcock in Elder

Muse, angel, herald, companion, spirit guide. Ruth Pitter explores the significance of a seemingly ordinary bird in this lovely poem.
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December 15, 2019 Poetry Prof

Caged Bird

Maya Angelou explores suffering, inequality and a people’s refusal to give up in this hard-hitting poem.
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November 18, 2019 Poetry Prof

The Three Fates

Rosemary Dobson’s unique backwards-poem reminds us that, however much we might want to, we can’t change the past.
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November 6, 2019 Poetry Prof

Written Near a Port on a Dark Evening

Charlotte Smith negotiates the shifting sands of life in this dark and stormy sonnet.
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October 25, 2019 Poetry Prof

Marrysong

If you think that getting married means living happily-ever-after, Dennis Scott will probably want to have a word.
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October 20, 2019 Poetry Prof

The Caged Skylark

Gerard Manley Hopkins explores what it feels like to be trapped in your skin.
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October 7, 2019 Poetry Prof

Rising Five

Norman Nicholson warns us not to wish our lives away.
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September 25, 2019 Poetry Prof

Watching For Dolphins

David Constantine wonders if there isn’t something more to life than meets the eye.
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September 15, 2019 Poetry Prof

Carpet Weavers, Morocco

Looking at life differently in Carol Rumens’ challenging poem
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September 9, 2019 Poetry Prof

Muliebrity

After many years away from the country of her birth, Sujata Bhatt wonders if it’s finally time to share her memories of India.
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September 7, 2019 Poetry Prof

Storyteller

Liz Lochhead casts a spell in this magical realist poem.
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September 1, 2019 Poetry Prof

The Poplar-Field

William Cowper visits a woody riverbank by which he passed many pleasant childhood days… to find it irrevocably changed.
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August 30, 2019 Poetry Prof

Plenty

Isobel Dixon shows us that older really does mean wiser as she reminisces ruefully about her childhood.
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August 18, 2019 Poetry Prof

You Will Know When You Get There

Allen Curnow suggests that there’s a right time to die in this tough, but rewarding, poem.
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August 8, 2019 Poetry Prof

Farmhand

Watch as James K. Baxter’s eponymous Farmhand refuses the call to adventure in this poem from New Zealand.
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August 3, 2019 Poetry Prof

Sonnet 43

Elizabeth Barrett Browning attempts the impossible: counting the ways one person can love another.
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July 22, 2019 Poetry Prof

She Dwelt Among the Untrodden Ways

Who is the mysterious Lucy in this simple elegy by William Wordsworth?
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July 11, 2019 Poetry Prof

Monologue

Why Hone Tuwhare likes working near a door.
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July 7, 2019 Poetry Prof

The Kraken

Alfred Lord Tennyson conjures a spectacular and sympathetic vision of a mythical creature.
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June 22, 2019 Poetry Prof

Afternoon with Irish Cows

Unlock your imagination and help Billy Collins find his vanished herd.
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June 17, 2019 Poetry Prof

Those Winter Sundays

Robert Hayden’s heartbreaking song of ice and fire.
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June 17, 2019 Poetry Prof

The Buck in the Snow

Edna St. Vincent Millay is confronted with mortality in this exquisitely crafted little poem.
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June 16, 2019 Poetry Prof

First Love

John Clare gets maudlin when he falls in love with an unattainable woman.
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June 13, 2019 Poetry Prof

London Snow

Put on your gloves and hat and come play in the snow with Robert Bridges.
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June 12, 2019 Poetry Prof

The Sea Eats the Land at Home

Kofi Awoonor summons his oral heritage in this mournful poetic lament.
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June 12, 2019 Poetry Prof

The Listeners

Walter De La Mere scares his children – and us – with this mysterious fireside fairytale.
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September 30, 2026 From Volume 3 (2028 - 2030) / Songs of Ourselves

from The Prelude

Strap on your skates and go play on the ice in this passage from the poem William Wordsworth never finished writing

Read

August 20, 2026 From Volume 3 (2028 - 2030) / Songs of Ourselves

Oblivion

Ellis Ayitey Komey resists the coming of the dark

Read

August 11, 2026 From Volume 1 (2026 - 2028) / Songs of Ourselves

Follower

Seamus Heaney wants to grow up to be like his dad

Read

August 5, 2026 From Volume 1 (2026 - 2028) / Songs of Ourselves

Hunting Snake

Judith Wright gives us a glimpse of the sublime

Read

May 1, 2026 From Volume 1 (2026 - 2028) / Songs of Ourselves

The Cockroach

Kevin Halligan’s as stuck as a bug in a rut

Read

April 11, 2026 From Volume 1 (2026 - 2028) / Songs of Ourselves

A Married State

Matrimony’s not quite so holy in Katherine Philips’ anti-marriage poem

Read

March 27, 2026 From Volume 1 (2026 - 2028) / Songs of Ourselves

The Chimney-Sweeper

William Blake sweeps away the comforting lies that enable child exploitation

Read

February 25, 2026 From Volume 1 (2026 - 2028) / Songs of Ourselves

Report to Wordsworth

Boey Kim Cheng asks whether nature’s champions can still save her

Read

February 21, 2026 From Volume 1 (2026 - 2028) / Songs of Ourselves

Before the Sun

Charles Mungoshi eulogises rural life in this deceptively simple poem from Zimbabwe

Read

February 16, 2026 From Volume 1 (2026 - 2028) / Songs of Ourselves

Sonnet 18

Who is really being appreciated in this famously tender poem by William Shakespeare?

Read