The Poetry Fix

Epithalamion: An Unusual Invocation

If you've completed high school English, it's likely you've heard of the standard "invocation of the muse" invoked by epic poets such as Homer and Virgil. What would happen if a poet used this invocation to frame a poem about a wedding, rather than adventure and war? Spencer's "Epithalamion" accomplishes just that; join Erika Kyba to encounter this love ballad.

A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning

Does absence make the heart grow fonder? John Donne, our poet who believes so strongly in the united souls of lovers, asks himself what happens to this harmony when the lovers are separated. Join Erika Kyba for a reading and analysis of this epic love poem.

• Transcript

The Ecstasy: A Dialogue of One

When you love someone, do you love them with your soul, mind, or body? Is love by one of the faculties superior to that of the others? John Donne meditates on this theme in "The Ecstasy." Join Erika Kyba for a reading and analysis of this poem.

Since She Whom I Lov'd Hath Paid Her Last Debt: A Holy Thirsty Dropsy

Is it possible to have enough love to be content? Can a Christian be content with God's love, being that God is infinite, or will he always crave more of God? And what relationship does God's love for us have with our love for others? John Donne wrestles with all these questions and more in "Since She Whom I Lov'd Hath Paid Her Last Debt." Tune in for Erika Kyba's reading of this complex poem.

• Transcript

Start Close In: The Ground You Know

Can you know others without knowing yourself? This is the question which David Whyte interrogates in "Start Close In," as he examines what it means to cross over into the unknown territory of The Other. Join Erika Kyba to delve into sound advice...with a poetic twist.

Pied Beauty: Dappled Things

We tend to think of beauty in terms of purity and proportion, but Hopkins upends those conventional ideas in "Pied Beauty." Instead, he proposes that God "fathers-forth" his beauty in the irregular and variable. Join Erika Kyba for her reading of why Hopkins celebrates sublimity in the strange.

The Banquet: Sweet and Sacred Cheer

In today's episode of The Poetry Fix, tune in for further musings from George Herbert on the Eucharist, Christ's sacrifice, and man's orientation towards his Creator. Join Erika Kyba as she analyzes the themes of Herbert's "The Banquet" and reads it aloud.

The Agony: Do You Want to Know

“Do you want to know?” That’s the question that undergirds George Herbert’s “The Agony.” Join Erika Kyba to encounter this poem, in which George Herbert explores the metaphysics of sin and love.

Kubla Khan: Beware, Beware!

Do you seek beauty, or do you fear it? In "Kubla Khan," Coleridge places most of humanity on the second side of that equation; tune in to hear Erika Kyba's analysis and find out why.

• Transcript

Kubla Khan: Caverns Measureless to Man

Have you ever enjoyed a time in your life (or lived through a period of history) marked by prosperity, abundance, and opulence—yet felt a certain unease, especially when reminded of chaotic forces that could upset the bliss you find yourself in? Samuel Taylor Coleridge might have something to say about that. Tune in for Erika Kyba's analysis of Coleridge's psychedelic, fairy-tale-poem: Kubla Khan.

• Transcript

The Holy Communion: Leaping the Wall

How do you imagine God in relation to yourself? Is He a distant entity, to be admired from without? Or does He seek to be with you, making His way into your inner soul? Tune in to hear George Herbert's answer to this question in "The Holy Communion," read and analyzed by Erika Kyba.

• Transcript

The Tables Turned: A Study Break

Perhaps you've encountered YouTube videos appearing on your feed to tell you to get off YouTube. In today’s episode of The Poetry Fix, join Erika Kyba to encounter the poetic version of this phenomenon in Wordsworth's "The Tables Turned." Wordsworth seems to exhort the student to do away with his books, seeking nature instead...but is this all that our poet has to say?

• Transcript

The Grasshopper and the Ant: Not Quite a Morality Tale

In today’s episode of The Poetry Fix, join Erika Kyba for another bilingual episode. She reads La Fontaine's famous "The Grasshopper and the Ant" in French and English. Tune in to discover a new twist on the moral that you might have thought you knew.

The Oak and the Reed: Let us See the End

In today’s episode of The Poetry Fix, join Erika Kyba for a bilingual episode. She reads La Fontaine's "The Oak and the Reed" in French and English, exploring a poem-parable that discusses the fall of the mighty and the survival of the humble.

I Taste a Liquour Never Brewed: Inebriate of Air

In today’s episode of The Poetry Fix, join Erika Kyba to read Emily Dickinson's "I Taste a Liquour Never Brewed." It's a poem about getting drunk on the beauty of the universe...which the poet believes has fundamental, eschatological importance.

How Many Nights: Who’s Afraid of the Dark?

In today’s episode of The Poetry Fix, join Erika Kyba to read Galway Kinnell's "How Many Nights," the work of a modern existentialist poet. We all remember our childhood fears of the dark, and how they dissipated with the sunrise. What are we to do, though, with a more adult, existential version of this experience?

Nobody Knows This Little Rose: Taken From the Ways

In today’s episode of The Poetry Fix, join Erika Kyba to read Emily Dickinson's "Nobody Knows This Little Rose." It's a deceptively simple little poem, in which the poet wrestles with one of the most profound human tragedies.

The Poetry Fix: Comus, Part Seven

In today’s episode of The Poetry Fix, join Erika Kyba to read the continuation of Comus and the Lady's first encounter. We have already seen that our heroine has a very high view of her own powers of virtue and discernment...but her naiveté is exposed in this episode, as she blindly puts her faith in the flattering Comus.

Comus: Square my Trial to my Proportioned Strength

In today’s episode of The Poetry Fix, join Erika Kyba to read the continuation of Comus and the Lady's first encounter. We have already seen that our heroine has a very high view of her own powers of virtue and discernment...but her naiveté is exposed in this episode, as she blindly puts her faith in the flattering Comus.

Comus: Such Divine Enchanting Ravishment

In today’s episode of The Poetry Fix, join Erika Kyba to read the excerpt of Milton's "Comus" in which Comus and the Lady are united for the first time. Erika finds that Comus's reaction to the Lady's song parallels one of Milton's most famous scenes in Paradise Lost...