Episodes

  • Selected Poems - Siegfried Sassoon

    Selected Poems - Siegfried Sassoon
    Jul 8 2026
    Siegfried Sassoon, best known for his outspoken opinions on the futility of war, is portrayed in these poems as an observer, an observer of the wonder and beauty of life and an admirer of innocence, the innocence of youth, of nature, of all that remains as yet unexposed to the realism of mankind's brutality, inhumanity and penchant for armed conflict to assuage a mad hunger for vengeance. This set of poems explores aspects of Sassoon that are essential in an attempt to understand the soldier, lover and humanitarian that he was. Foremost a warrior, he was a decorated fighter who would discover on the battlefield a grim microcosm of life itself and be compelled to put into words his observations. He was also a lover who portrayed in his poems the virtuousness of youth and the beauty of nature, but ever lurking beneath the surface in these portrayals was a darkness, a foreboding, an inevitability that the innocence he observed would soon be followed by the disillusionment he himself had experienced. Sassoon was all too familiar with the soldier's obligation to kill or be killed and sense of patriotic duty, but he was also familiar - and intimately so - with the effect that deprivation, loss, loneliness, agony and exhaustion can have on even the most resilient of souls. This is a collection of poems about war and its atrocities, but it is also a collection of a poet's thoughts about the evolution of a human being - the progression of a man from the idealism of youth to one hardened by the mental and physical scars of combat. It is a journey from dream to disillusion, from idealism to despair, from beauty to horror - all expertly represented in these poems of exploration and introspection, "For I am lone, a dweller among men / Hungered for what my heart shall never say." - Summary by Bruce Kachuk
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    1 hr and 35 mins
  • Selected Poems - Siegfried Sassoon

    Selected Poems - Siegfried Sassoon
    Jul 8 2026
    Rubén Darío was a Nicaraguan poet and the founder of the modernismo literary movement. These English-language translations are by Salomón de la Selva, Thomas Walsh, Alice Stone Blackwell, Muna Lee, Elijah Clarence Hills and John Pierrepont Rice and were published from 1916-1925. - Summary by Newgatenovelist
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    1 hr and 35 mins
  • Selected Poems - Siegfried Sassoon

    Selected Poems - Siegfried Sassoon
    Jul 8 2026
    These are poems selected by the publisher, Henry Holt & Company reprinted from "Mountain Interval" "North of Boston" and "A Boy's Will." Included are some of Robert Frost's best known poems such as "Mending Wall" and "The Road Not Taken," but also some of his longer poems that are dialogs, or conversations, presented in a unique way as collaborative productions by a group of talented readers - Summary by Larry Wilson
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    1 hr and 35 mins
  • Selected Poems - Siegfried Sassoon

    Selected Poems - Siegfried Sassoon
    Jul 8 2026
    Marion Strobel was a poet, an author of fiction and an associate editor of Poetry. These poems were published from 1919 to 1926 in Poetry, Others and The Bookman Anthology of Verse and explore personal relationships, parenthood and modern life. (Summary by Newgatenovelist)
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    1 hr and 35 mins
  • Selected Poems - Siegfried Sassoon

    Selected Poems - Siegfried Sassoon
    Jul 8 2026
    Marion Cummings was an American poet and academic. Born in San Jose, she graduated from the University of California and taught at the University of Arizona. These poems reflect on love and loss and delight in the landscape of the American Southwest. - Summary by Newgatenovelist
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    1 hr and 35 mins
  • Selected Poems - Siegfried Sassoon

    Selected Poems - Siegfried Sassoon
    Jul 8 2026
    Luis Muñoz Marín was the first elected governor of Puerto Rico as well as a poet. This collection includes poems published from 1920 to 1924 in magazines such as The Smart Set, The Measure and Poetry. - Summary by Newgatenovelist
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    1 hr and 35 mins
  • Selected Poems - Siegfried Sassoon

    Selected Poems - Siegfried Sassoon
    Jul 8 2026
    Iris Barry was a British and American poet, novelist, film critic and curator at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. These poems were published between 1914 and 1924 in Poetry, Others, Poetry and Drama, The Little Review, The Chapbook and The Living Age. - Summary by Newgatenovelist
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    1 hr and 35 mins
  • Selected Poems - Siegfried Sassoon

    Selected Poems - Siegfried Sassoon
    Jul 8 2026
    These poems, from Herbert’s book The Temple, show the evolution of a soul’s relationship with God. Sudden reversals of mood are common, for although Herbert is best known for his quiet tone, he was not a tranquil man but proud and ambitious. He achieved tranquility by active effort. His works may be read autobiographically, for they are intensely personal. Yet through his personal experience we perceive a reality larger than the personal. For example, his many homely comparisons—to bowling, pulleys, laxatives, a blunted knife, sweeping a room—serve “for lights of Heavenly Truths,” as he says of scriptural references to matters of daily life like “a plough, a hatchet, leaven, boyes piping and dancing.” Hence we find in Herbert a startling simplicity of spirit, an almost mystical ability to make every sensory experience sacramental and to express deep and subtle emotions with perfect tact. But there are also angry, frustrated, nearly despairing moments when he longs for the worldly paths he might have taken, the academic honors, the seat in Parliament that he once held, “the ways of Pleasure, the sweet strains, / The lullings and the relishes of it.” But at such moments God is always at hand to throw him a lifeline—whispering in his ear, recalling him to a far deeper and older level of emotional experience. (summary by T. A. Copeland)
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    1 hr and 35 mins