Close Reads is a book club podcast for the incurable reader.
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The Daily Poem offers one essential poem each weekday morning. From Shakespeare and John Donne to Robert Frost and Emily Dickinson, The Daily Poem curates a broad and generous audio anthology of the best poetry ever written, read-aloud by David Kern and an assortment of various contributors. Some lite commentary is included and the shorter poems are often read twice, as time permits. The Daily Poem is presented by Goldberry Studios. dailypoempod.substack.com
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Close Reads is a book-club podcast for the incurable reader. Featuring David Kern, Tim McIntosh and Heidi White, alongside a couple of other occasional guests, we read Great Books and talk about them. This is a show for amateurs in the best sense. We’re book lovers, book enthusiasts. This is not an experts show and it’s barely literary analysis in the way that literary analysis is commonly understood. Instead it’s a show about experiences with literary urge. Join us! closereads.substack.com
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Withywindle is a whimsical interactive show for kids who love stories, words, and groan-worthy jokes and features your favorite authors and illustrators. Part book club, part game show it's an adventure through the wild world of wordplay. Each episode we chat with a very special guest, usually an author or illustrator of children's books, plus tell silly jokes, share riddles, talk about stories and books, eat snacks, and much more! withywindle.substack.com
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James Whitcomb Riley's "When the Frost is on the Punkin"
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Today’s poem celebrates the crisp, cool days of early Autumn as the most hospitable season of the year. Happy reading. Get full access to The Daily Poem Podcast at dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribeBởi Sean Johnson
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The world-wandering John Masefield waxes Solomonic in today’s poem. Happy reading. Get full access to The Daily Poem Podcast at dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribeBởi Sean Johnson
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Today’s poem is for everyone who knows that children keep you young, but also know how old you feel while it’s happening. Hall, taken aback by the success of this poem, expressed some regret that he became “the fellow whose son strapped him into the electric chair,” explaining that its inspiration came from 2 a.m. bottle-feedings that he conducted …
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Now that we’ve read all of Mauriac’s Vipers’ Tangle, we can discuss the details. So in this episode, we dig into the degree to which we can trust the narrator as the novel goes on, the degree to which his children are malicious, and the degree to which he’s truly changed/saved in the end. And so much more. Happy listening! This is a public episode.…
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Now that we’ve read all of Mauriac’s Vipers’ Tangle, we can discuss the details. So in this episode, we dig into the degree to which we can trust the narrator as the novel goes on, the degree to which his children are malicious, and the degree to which he’s truly changed/saved in the end. And so much more. Happy listening!…
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Samuel Taylor Coleridge's "Sonnet: On Receiving a Letter Informing Me of the Birth of a Son"
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The title of today’s poem is a mouthful, but it is fittingly emblematic of the poet’s full heart. Happy reading! Get full access to The Daily Poem Podcast at dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribeBởi Sean Johnson
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Live Episode: Is Flannery O'Connor Funny?
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Flannery O’Connor’s fiction has been described as “gothic,” “violent,” “unsentimental,” even “grotesque.” Yet it is also often described as funny. How can both be true? Well in this episode the whole gang is back together to discuss that very question during a live recording that took place at our recent “Close Reads on the Road” event in Concord, …
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Flannery O’Connor’s fiction has been described as “gothic,” “violent,” “unsentimental,” even “grotesque.” Yet it is also often described as funny. How can both be true? Well in this episode the whole gang is back together to discuss that very question during a live recording that took place at our recent “Close Reads on the Road” event in Concord, …
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Never have rhyming couplets been so full of pathos as in today’s poem, where they symbolize the bond between father and son, tragically cut short. Get full access to The Daily Poem Podcast at dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribeBởi Sean Johnson
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If pumpkin-spice-everything or the sea of puffy vests and Ugg boots at the cider stand are getting you down, let today’s poem remind you of all that is great about Autumn. Happy reading. Get full access to The Daily Poem Podcast at dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribeBởi Sean Johnson
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David McCord's "Mr. Macklin's Jack O'Lantern"
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Today’s poem offers a folksy look at the subtleties of terror. Happy reading. David Thompson Watson McCord was born on December 15, 1897, in New York. A poet and fundraiser, McCord grew up in Portland, Oregon. He received both a BA and MA from Harvard University and briefly served in the military at the end of World War I. In 1922, McCord became as…
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Today’s poem offers a recipe for domestic bliss. Happy reading. Get full access to The Daily Poem Podcast at dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribeBởi Sean Johnson
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Welcome back to Close Reads. This week we’re discussing the way Vipers’ Tangle shift gears in this section and what it means for our understanding of the characters, the goals of the book, and our interaction with it. Plus: lots of conversation about Isa and marriage. Happy reading! This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other…
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Welcome back to Close Reads. This week we’re discussing the way Vipers’ Tangle shift gears in this section and what it means for our understanding of the characters, the goals of the book, and our interaction with it. Plus: lots of conversation about Isa and marriage. Happy reading!
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Walter Savage Landor's "To Robert Browning"
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Though we remember Browning far more readily than we do Landor, this poem dates from a period when their fortunes were reversed and the latter was eager to acquaint the world with the budding talent he had discovered. Walter Savage Landor (30 January 1775 – 17 September 1864) was an English writer, poet, and activist. His best known works were the …
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Today’s poem is a defense of myths and myth-making, inspired by an argument with C. S. Lewis. Happy reading! Get full access to The Daily Poem Podcast at dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribeBởi Sean Johnson
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Ronald Stuart Thomas (29 March 1913 – 25 September 2000), published as R. S. Thomas, was a Welsh poet and Anglican priest noted for nationalism, spirituality and dislike of the anglicisation of Wales. John Betjeman, introducing Song at the Year's Turning (1955), the first collection of Thomas's poetry from a major publisher, predicted that Thomas w…
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Dorothy Parker (née Rothschild; August 22, 1893 – June 7, 1967) was an American poet and writer of fiction, plays and screenplays based in New York; she was known for her caustic wisecracks, and eye for 20th-century urban foibles. Parker rose to acclaim, both for her literary works published in magazines, such as The New Yorker, and as a founding m…
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Today’s poem offers a needful portrait of ‘manly talk.’ Happy reading. Louis Untermeyer was the author, editor or compiler, and translator of more than 100 books for readers of all ages. He will be best remembered as the prolific anthologist whose collections have introduced students to contemporary American poetry since 1919. The son of an establi…
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Welcome back to Close Reads! This week we discuss why Vipers’ Tangle isn’t better known, the degree to which the book wants to be sympathetic with the narrator, where we’re supposed to trust his perceptions, and some areas the book might fall short of being truly great (to David, anyway). Happy listening! This is a public episode. If you’d like to …
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Welcome back to Close Reads! This week we discuss why Vipers’ Tangle isn’t better known, the degree to which the book wants to be sympathetic with the narrator, where we’re supposed to trust his perceptions, and some areas the book might fall short of being truly great (to David, anyway). Happy listening!…
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William Butler Yeats' "Sailing to Byzantium"
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Today’s poem is one of the most-discussed pieces of twentieth-century verse and, love it or hate it, features one of literature’s best extended metaphors for eternal yearnings–the quest for the great and holy city. Happy reading. Get full access to The Daily Poem Podcast at dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribe…
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Walt Whitman's "When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer"
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If the strained relationship between science and Romanticism had an anthem, it might be today’s poem. Happy reading. Get full access to The Daily Poem Podcast at dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribeBởi Sean Johnson
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Today’s poem demonstrates that, unlike Arnold’s sideburns, loving the Bard never goes out of style. Although remembered now for his elegantly argued critical essays, Matthew Arnold, born in Laleham, Middlesex, on December 24, 1822, began his career as a poet, winning early recognition as a student at the Rugby School where his father, Thomas Arnold…
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James Arlington Wright was born on December 13, 1927, in Martins Ferry, Ohio. His father worked for fifty years at a glass factory, and his mother left school at fourteen to work in a laundry; neither attended school beyond the eighth grade. While in high school in 1943, Wright suffered a nervous breakdown and missed a year of school. When he gradu…
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This week we kick off a new book with some conversation about Sean’s obsession with Graham Greene, why books about spiritual struggle are so compelling, whether this book has an unreliable narrator, and the difference between a novelist who is Catholic and a Catholic who is a novelist. Happy listening! This is a public episode. If you’d like to dis…
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This week we kick off a new book with some conversation about Sean’s obsession with Graham Greene, why books about spiritual struggle are so compelling, whether this book has an unreliable narrator, and the difference between a novelist who is Catholic and a Catholic who is a novelist. Happy listening!…
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Today’s poem, from the delightfully clever Wendy Cope, epitomizes the rare and complicated light verse form: the double-dactyl. Wendy Cope was raised in Kent, England, where her parents often recited poetry to her. She earned a BA in history and trained as a teacher at Oxford University. Cope taught in primary schools for many years before publishi…
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Today’s poem is for all those already wondering what they will do when the baseball season ends next month. Happy reading. Get full access to The Daily Poem Podcast at dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribeBởi Sean Johnson
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The Country School, Winslow Homer, 1871 Hello friends, School is back in session and autumn is officially on the way. This means that, not only is prime reading season coming soon, our event on comedy in literature is in just two weeks! Are you coming? We’d love to host you here in Concord and at Goldberry Books—and who wouldn’t want to laugh (and …
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Richard Wilbur was born in New York City on March 1, 1921 and studied at Amherst College before serving in the U.S. Army during World War II. He later attended Harvard University. Wilbur’s first book of poems, The Beautiful Changes and Other Poems (Reynal & Hitchcock) was published in 1947. Since then, he has published several books of poems, inclu…
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Cullen’s exact birthplace is unknown, but in 1918, at the age of 15, Countee LeRoy was adopted by Reverend Frederick A. Cullen, the minster to the largest church congregation in Harlem. Cullen kept his finger on the pulse of Harlem during the 1920s while he attended New York University and then a graduate program at Harvard. His poetry became popul…
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Samuel Johnson's "On the Death of Dr. Robert Levet"
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In today’s poem, the inimitably magnanimous Dr. Johnson eulogizes the man of “The single talent well employed.” Happy birthday to the good doctor, and happy reading to the rest. Get full access to The Daily Poem Podcast at dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribeBởi Sean Johnson
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Lear and Cordelia ("Come, let's away to prison")
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Today’s poem is a passage of blank verse from Act 5, Scene 3 of Shakespeare’s King Lear. In the action of the play the scene is a prelude to tragedy, but as a picture of love between father and daughter it is almost perfect. Happy reading. Get full access to The Daily Poem Podcast at dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribe…
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You had questions about Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont—we have answers. Thanks so much for participating in this series of this episodes and happy listening!
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Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont: Q&A Episode
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You had questions about Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont—we have answers. Thanks so much for participating in this series of this episodes and happy listening! This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit closereads.substack.com/subscribe…
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Some Mondays call for a poem that is uncomplicated and perfectly delightful–and Milne never disappoints. Happy reading! Get full access to The Daily Poem Podcast at dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribeBởi Sean Johnson
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Rudyard Kipling's "The Roman Centurion's Song"
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Joseph Rudyard Kipling (30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936) was an English journalist, novelist, poet, and short-story writer. He was born in British India, which inspired much of his work. Kipling's works of fiction include the Jungle Book duology (The Jungle Book, 1894; The Second Jungle Book, 1895), Kim (1901), the Just So Stories (1902) and man…
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There comes a point in every life when “birthday” goes from meaning "pizza party” to meaning “memento mori.” Today’s poem goes out to everyone in the latter group. Happy reading! Get full access to The Daily Poem Podcast at dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribeBởi Sean Johnson
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Alfred, Lord Tennyson's "In Memoriam: 27"
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Today the age-old question of loss and grief is answered…by the man who raised it in the first place. Get full access to The Daily Poem Podcast at dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribeBởi Sean Johnson
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Announcing the 2025 Book List (AKA: The Great Winnowing)!
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The reading list for 2025 is officially official! After a lively nominating season and much debate (which you can hear in this episode), we have chosen nine books to discuss next year. We’re heavy on classics this year, by design—and we’re going to take our time as we read them. If you’d like to hear how these books came to be chosen (and the books…
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The reading list for 2025 is officially official! After a lively nominating season and much debate (which you can hear in this episode), we have chosen nine books to discuss next year. We’re heavy on classics this year, by design—and we’re going to take our time as we read them. If you’d like to hear how these books came to be chosen (and the books…
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Alice Dunbar-Nelson's "I Sit and Sew"
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Nelson is likely best known for her literary output as a poet. She regularly published in Opportunity and Crisis magazines between 1917 and 1928. Her poems also appeared in James Weldon Johnson’s seminal anthology, The Book of American Negro Poetry (Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1931). Nelson began to keep a personal diary in 1921. Her entries from …
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As we come to the end of Elizabeth Taylor’s novel, it’s time to discuss the degree to which the ending is tragic (vs. merely melancholy). Plus: what do we make of Ludo’s storyline, Mr. Osmond’s role in the final chapters, and the moral framework of the story. Happy listening!
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Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont: The Final Chapters
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As we come to the end of Elizabeth Taylor’s novel, it’s time to discuss the degree to which the ending is tragic (vs. merely melancholy). Plus: what do we make of Ludo’s storyline, Mr. Osmond’s role in the final chapters, and the moral framework of the story. Happy listening! This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscr…
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The author of several collections of poetry–most recently Life on Earth–Dorianne Laux was the recipient of the Oregon Book Award and a finalist for the National Books Critics Circle Award for her book Facts About the Moon. She has also authored several works of non-fiction including The Poet’s Companion and Finger Exercises For Poets. She was elect…
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Today’s poem–#6 in Donne’s La Corona sonnet cycle–is an ideal consummation for many of the themes introduced in this week’s selections. Now go read the rest of his holy sonnets! Happy reading! Get full access to The Daily Poem Podcast at dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribeBởi Sean Johnson
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John Donne's "Divine Meditation 10: 'Death be not proud...'"
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Today, Donne’s best-known poem, but maybe not his last word on death. Happy reading! Get full access to The Daily Poem Podcast at dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribeBởi Sean Johnson
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John Donne's "Divine Meditation 7: 'At the round earth's imagined corners...'"
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Today’s poem dramatizes Donne’s inner turmoil and conflicting desires, but is not without hope. Happy reading. Get full access to The Daily Poem Podcast at dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribeBởi Sean Johnson
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Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont: Chapters 7-12
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Welcome back to the Close Reads! This week we discuss whether Ludo is a decent guy, compare the real Desmond to the fake one, contemplate the creeping scourge of loneliness, and dig deep into a key chapter/scene. As always, happy reading! This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes,…
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