The Daily Poem

Osad

• 
  Edward Lear’s “How Pleasant To Know...” 25.09.2026 3min

  Today’s poem is a comic self-portrait in verse from a poet who spent years working as a painter. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribe
• 
  Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s “Crossing the Bar” 23.09.2026 4min

  In today’s poem, death is a country beyond the sea. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribe
• 
  George Herbert’s “The Pulley” 21.09.2026 4min

  Today’s poem gives us a poet making sense of his restlessness and finding in it the mechanism that draws him upward to God. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribe
• 
  Marsden Hartley’s “Salutations to a Mouse” 18.09.2026 3min

  In today’s poem, the poet discovers unexpected value in his writing. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribe
• 
  Annie Dillard’s “How we spend our days” 17.09.2026 2min

  Today we are remembering Annie Dillard. Her poem offers not only advice for living, but an approach to understanding a life in retrospect. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribe
• 
  Algernon Charles Swinburne’s “Sestina” 16.09.2026 3min

  Today’s poem heightened the form it’s named for by adding patterned rhyme. Even with the added complexity, this sometimes-rigid form strikes the ear as verse that is smooth and unassuming. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribe
• 
  Scott Cairns’ “Chemo With Coleridge” 14.09.2026 3min

  Today’s poem, from Cairns’ new Against Certainty, ponders the value of intravenous poetry. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribe
• 
  Wendell Berry’s “Sabbath Poem III, 1994” 11.09.2026 3min

  Today’s poem is, quite simply, one of my favorites. Berry uses Shakespeare to tell us we cannot see our life clearly until we have passed through death. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribe
• 
  Wendell Berry’s “The Guest” 09.09.2026 3min

  Today’s poem confesses the discomfort and undesirability of loving our neighbor. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribe
• 
  Wendell Berry’s “In a Motel Parking Lot, Thinking of Dr. Williams” 07.09.2026 4min

  Today’s poem is part tribute, part poetic manifesto. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribe
• 
  Jane Austen’s “Mock Panegyric on a Young Friend” 04.09.2026 2min

  Today’s poem marshals Austen’s characteristic wit to praise feminine virtues via comparison to American geography. Fellas, don’t try this at home. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribe
• 
  Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s “Grief” 02.09.2026 4min

  Today’s poem, pitting Victorian stoicism against Victorian sentimentality, contends that the truest grief is the most austere and long-lived. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribe
• 
  Wendell Berry’s “Testament” 01.09.2026 5min

  Composed in 1971 as a self-eulogy, today’s poem is a remembrance of Wendell Berry who embarked for the greater Port Royal yesterday at the age of 92. May his memory be eternal. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribe
• 
  Oliver Wendell Holmes’ “The Last Leaf” 31.08.2026 3min

  Holmes wrote that the man who inspired today’s poem reminded him of "a withered leaf which has held to its stem through the storms of autumn and winter, and finds itself still clinging to its bough while the new growths of spring are bursting their buds and spreading their foliage all around it." Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribe
• 
  Francis Jammes’ “A Prayer to Go to Paradise with the Donkeys” 28.08.2026 3min

  Today’s poem, translated by Richard Wilbur, is part animal appreciation, prayer for a good death. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribe
• 
  William Shakespeare’s Sonnet 71 (“No longer mourn for me when I am dead”) 26.08.2026 5min

  Today’s poem has a different preoccupation than most Shakespearean sonnets–not immortalizing the beloved, but effacing the lover. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribe
• 
  John Milton’s Proem to Paradise Lost 24.08.2026 4min

  Today’s poem is the opening lines of a famous epic poem–composed by a blind poet, about the fall of a great kingdom, a devious stratagem, and a long journey home. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribe
• 
  Shel Silverstein’s “Sick” 21.08.2026 2min

  Today’s poem is angling for a day off. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribe
• 
  David Wagoner’s “The Junior High School Band Concert” 19.08.2026 3min

  “No doubt, in his mind’s earSome band somewhereIn some music of some SphereWas striking a note as pureAs the wishes of Franz Schubert,But meanwhile here we were” Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribe
• 
  William Blake's "The School Boy" 17.08.2026 2min

  Today’s poem is a more eloquent version of an appeal being made in many households this month. Happy reading. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribe