Poem Guides Poem Guides Poem Guide“Fragment Thirty-six” by H.D. & SapphoBy Dan Beachy-QuickNovember 14, 2024Translation as PermissionPoem GuideCathy Park Hong: “Ballad in A”By Christopher SpaideFebruary 28, 2018A madcap fracas! Law and dastards clash! All As!Poem GuideTristan Tzara: “Speaking Alone”By Heather GreenApril 1, 2024Silence and speech in post-war FranceShowing 1-20 of 102 poem guidesPoem Guide“Fragment Thirty-six” by H.D. & SapphoBy Dan Beachy-QuickNovember 14, 2024Translation as PermissionPoem GuideAriana Brown: “A Division of Gods”By Remica Bingham-RisherSeptember 5, 2024What do we uncover when we try to salvage history?Poem GuideT.S. Eliot: “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”By Peter O’LearyAugust 21, 2024One of the most famous poems in English, one of the first encounters readers have with modern poetry—and may have even invented modern poetry.Poem GuideRobert Frost: “Nothing Gold Can Stay”By Tyler MaloneJuly 8, 2024For a poem about the brevity of every state of being, the single octave perfectly enacts its themes through its form.Poem GuideFederico García Lorca: “Dreamwalking Ballad”By Sarah ArvioMay 23, 2024Metaphor in Lorca is a form of gorgeous shorthand.Poem GuideTristan Tzara: “Speaking Alone”By Heather GreenApril 1, 2024Silence and speech in post-war FrancePoem GuideJohn Tickhill: “A Bird in Bishopswood”By Eric WeiskottMarch 4, 2024A melancholy medieval rent collector’s sorrows, scribbled on the back of a legal documentPoem GuideMetamorphoses: “Erysichthon” by Ovid and “Erysichthon’s Seed” by Shanta LeeBy Shanta LeeJanuary 29, 2024Race, Class, Gender, and the Imperial BodyPoem GuideMargaret Walker: “For My People”By CM BurroughsNovember 6, 2023There is lightness within these downtrodden lives!Poem GuideGwendolyn Brooks: “the mother”By Annie FinchAugust 7, 2023What does it mean if a poem is “neither pro nor con abortion”?Poem GuideSylvia Plath: “The Applicant”By Julie IrigarayJuly 3, 2023A hymn to female independence in the form of a withering critique of marriagePoem GuideT.S. Eliot: The Waste LandBy Tyler MaloneMarch 6, 2023Who are all these people? Where is this waste land they inhabit? What is this chaos of impressions we are privy to? Wherefore such madness?Poem GuideAnne Carson: “Red Meat: Fragments of Stesichoros”By Kristi MaxwellSeptember 14, 2022Are these pieces translations, inventions, or interventions that add to a story that has been lost to us?Poem Guidesam sax: “LISP”By Jeffrey CareyvaJanuary 11, 2021A queer childhood and the demand to “sound straight.”Poem GuideHarryette Mullen: “Elliptical”By Austin AllenSeptember 11, 2020When polite prejudice makes for scathing satire.Poem GuidePercy Bysshe Shelley: “England in 1819”By Christopher SpaideFebruary 18, 2020A letter, a list, a sonnet, and the state of a nation.Poem GuideRhina P. Espaillat: “Bilingual/Bilingüe”By Austin AllenFebruary 12, 2020Bridging two languages and generations in one intricate poem.Poem GuideLangston Hughes: “Harlem”By Scott ChallenerSeptember 25, 2019This short poem about dreams is one of the most influential poems of the 20th century.Poem GuideRobert Frost: “Mending Wall”By Austin AllenAugust 20, 2019How a poem about a rural stone wall quickly became part of debates on nationalism, international borders, and immigration.Poem GuideMarilyn Nelson: “Daughters 1900”By Austin AllenSeptember 5, 2018Family, culture, and history converge in a deft poetic portrait.12345Jump to:
Poem Guide“Fragment Thirty-six” by H.D. & SapphoBy Dan Beachy-QuickNovember 14, 2024Translation as Permission
Poem GuideCathy Park Hong: “Ballad in A”By Christopher SpaideFebruary 28, 2018A madcap fracas! Law and dastards clash! All As!
Poem GuideTristan Tzara: “Speaking Alone”By Heather GreenApril 1, 2024Silence and speech in post-war France
Poem Guide“Fragment Thirty-six” by H.D. & SapphoBy Dan Beachy-QuickNovember 14, 2024Translation as Permission
Poem GuideAriana Brown: “A Division of Gods”By Remica Bingham-RisherSeptember 5, 2024What do we uncover when we try to salvage history?
Poem GuideT.S. Eliot: “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”By Peter O’LearyAugust 21, 2024One of the most famous poems in English, one of the first encounters readers have with modern poetry—and may have even invented modern poetry.
Poem GuideRobert Frost: “Nothing Gold Can Stay”By Tyler MaloneJuly 8, 2024For a poem about the brevity of every state of being, the single octave perfectly enacts its themes through its form.
Poem GuideFederico García Lorca: “Dreamwalking Ballad”By Sarah ArvioMay 23, 2024Metaphor in Lorca is a form of gorgeous shorthand.
Poem GuideTristan Tzara: “Speaking Alone”By Heather GreenApril 1, 2024Silence and speech in post-war France
Poem GuideJohn Tickhill: “A Bird in Bishopswood”By Eric WeiskottMarch 4, 2024A melancholy medieval rent collector’s sorrows, scribbled on the back of a legal document
Poem GuideMetamorphoses: “Erysichthon” by Ovid and “Erysichthon’s Seed” by Shanta LeeBy Shanta LeeJanuary 29, 2024Race, Class, Gender, and the Imperial Body
Poem GuideMargaret Walker: “For My People”By CM BurroughsNovember 6, 2023There is lightness within these downtrodden lives!
Poem GuideGwendolyn Brooks: “the mother”By Annie FinchAugust 7, 2023What does it mean if a poem is “neither pro nor con abortion”?
Poem GuideSylvia Plath: “The Applicant”By Julie IrigarayJuly 3, 2023A hymn to female independence in the form of a withering critique of marriage
Poem GuideT.S. Eliot: The Waste LandBy Tyler MaloneMarch 6, 2023Who are all these people? Where is this waste land they inhabit? What is this chaos of impressions we are privy to? Wherefore such madness?
Poem GuideAnne Carson: “Red Meat: Fragments of Stesichoros”By Kristi MaxwellSeptember 14, 2022Are these pieces translations, inventions, or interventions that add to a story that has been lost to us?
Poem Guidesam sax: “LISP”By Jeffrey CareyvaJanuary 11, 2021A queer childhood and the demand to “sound straight.”
Poem GuideHarryette Mullen: “Elliptical”By Austin AllenSeptember 11, 2020When polite prejudice makes for scathing satire.
Poem GuidePercy Bysshe Shelley: “England in 1819”By Christopher SpaideFebruary 18, 2020A letter, a list, a sonnet, and the state of a nation.
Poem GuideRhina P. Espaillat: “Bilingual/Bilingüe”By Austin AllenFebruary 12, 2020Bridging two languages and generations in one intricate poem.
Poem GuideLangston Hughes: “Harlem”By Scott ChallenerSeptember 25, 2019This short poem about dreams is one of the most influential poems of the 20th century.
Poem GuideRobert Frost: “Mending Wall”By Austin AllenAugust 20, 2019How a poem about a rural stone wall quickly became part of debates on nationalism, international borders, and immigration.
Poem GuideMarilyn Nelson: “Daughters 1900”By Austin AllenSeptember 5, 2018Family, culture, and history converge in a deft poetic portrait.