'Poems To Learn By Heart': The Merits Of Memorizing Verse
()Caroline Kennedy isn't just an advocate for reading poetry. In her latest book, Poems to Learn by Heart, Kennedy stresses the importance of memorizing poetry and presents a collection of poems that she believes kids and adults alike should internalize.
Dilruba Ahmed: An Outsider Turns To Poetry()
April 28, 2013 For National Poetry Month, Bangladeshi-American poet Dilruba Ahmed talks about how her heritage and her experience of being an outsider in small rural towns pushed her toward writing poetry.
Just In Time For Poetry Month, Four Fantastic Books Of Verse()
April 27, 2013 April is National Poetry Month, and what better way to celebrate than with new books? This month brings us a reissue of Hayden, a retranslation of Dante, a gathering of estimable poems from the past quarter-century and a new collection with a camera-eye view of the world.
Author Interviews
For A Student Of Theology, Poetry Reverberates()
April 21, 2013 Nate Klug is a poet and candidate for ordination in the United Church of Christ. "Poetry is a form where the language is under so much pressure," he says, "and that can really bring about wonderful surprises and insights in our ways of talking about God or thinking about our faith."
From The NPR Bookshelves
Meet America's Poets Laureate, Past And Present()
April 17, 2013 In honor of National Poetry Month, we've reached into our archives and pulled up 10 interviews with Poets Laureate. Hear current laureate Natasha Trethewey on Hurricane Katrina, Ted Kooser on his Valentine's Day poems, Robert Pinsky on the news, and more.
Short And Sweet: Celebrating D.C.'s Cherry Blossoms With Haiku()
April 12, 2013 The cherry blossoms are finally in bloom in Washington, D.C., and what better way to celebrate these beautiful Japanese gifts than with a haiku? We celebrate the delicate pink petals with poetry submitted by our listeners.
Harmony Holiday On Finding Poetry In Her Biracial Roots()
April 14, 2013 In celebration of National Poetry Month, Weekend Edition is asking young poets about what poetry means to them. This week, Harmony Holiday describes how poetry helped her "negotiate the language" of having a white mother and an African-American father.
Does Poetry Still Matter? Yes Indeed, Says NPR NewsPoet()
April 6, 2013 April is famously the cruelest month — according to the poem — but it's also the month we celebrate poetry. Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Tracy K. Smith says we all need poetry, and even those of us who don't write poems can still learn how to see and hear the world through poetry.
Revisiting Iraq Through The Eyes Of An Exiled Poet()
March 21, 2013 Dunya Mikhail fled her homeland in the wake of the first Gulf War, after her writing was labeled subversive by Saddam Hussein's government. She has never physically returned to Iraq, but she remembers it in her poetry.
The Case For Being Concise: Short Poems That Speak Volumes()
February 28, 2013 Brad Leithauser likes to look for poetry in graveyards. An author and poet himself, there's something he values greatly in tombstone epitaphs: brevity. In a piece for The New Yorker's Page-Turner blog, Leithauser cites tiny works that speak volumes.
For Modern American Poets, A 'Likeness' Could Evolve()
February 28, 2013 Poets are not the world's most visible celebrities. But an exhibit at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., puts faces to verse, and explores poets' shifting — and sometimes conflicting — public images.
Inaugural Poet Richard Blanco: 'I Finally Felt Like I Was Home'()
February 18, 2013 Blanco, who read his poem "One Today" at Obama's second inauguration, is the first immigrant, Latino and openly gay poet chosen to read at an inauguration. He tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross that while he was on the podium, "I really embraced America up there like I never had before."
Pentametron Reveals Unintended Poetry of Twitter Users()
February 16, 2013 A program that makes poems from our tweets / With rhyming lines and smooth iambic beats ... Ranjit Bhatnagar wrote a program to find tweets in iambic pentameter and retweet them in rhyming pairs. With NPR's Jacki Lyden, he shares some of the resulting couplets.
In A North Vietnamese Prison, Sharing Poems With 'Taps On The Walls'()
February 12, 2013 As a prisoner of war in the "Hanoi Hilton," Air Force fighter pilot John Borling spent years composing and memorizing poetry that he tapped to fellow prisoners, like the future Sen. John McCain, using a special code.
Rare Robert Frost Collection Surfaces 50 Years After His Death()
January 29, 2013 Jonathan Reichert, professor emeritus at the State University of New York at Buffalo, has donated a rare collection of Robert Frost's letters, photographs and audio files to the school. The materials chronicle the decades-long friendship between the poet and Reichert's father, rabbi and poet Victor Reichert.
Research News
Shall I Encode Thee In DNA? Sonnets Stored On Double Helix()
January 24, 2013 The world is full of data — and that's a problem. We have to find a place to store all those digital photos, tax records and unfinished novels. British scientists have demonstrated a possible solution: They've stored all of Shakespeare's sonnets on several small stretches of DNA.
Monkey See
A Memorized Poem 'Lives With You Forever,' So Choose Carefully()
January 19, 2013 As poet Jean Sprackland told NPR's Scott Simon, a poem you learn by heart becomes a part of you. In that case, choosing what works to memorize is a big decision. We have 10 suggestions, based on the Poetry By Heart anthology; what would you recommend?
U.K. Asks Students To Learn Poetry 'By Heart,' Not By Rote()
January 19, 2013 Poetry By Heart is a new program in which students memorize two of 130 poems and recite them in a contest. Poet Jean Sprackland, who helped compile the list, says memorizing a poem makes it "something that lives with you forever."
Richard Blanco Will Be First Latino Inaugural Poet()
January 9, 2013 Blanco, a first-generation Cuban-American, says he identifies with the theme of the inauguration: Our People, Our Future. He is the fifth poet to take part in a U.S. presidential inauguration, and also the youngest. He says being selected was a "great honor."
Guns, God And A Reggae Beat: A 2013 Poetry Preview()
January 7, 2013 2012 was the year of the big collected volume when it came to poetry. It was intimidating, even for the most hardened poetry fans. But critic Craig Morgan Teicher says 2013 will be full of slim collections that are still smart, important and powerful.
I Found My Inner Beat Poet On 'Coney Island'()
November 12, 2012 For Alan Shapiro, reading Lawrence Ferlinghetti's poems was like an discovering an alternate universe. A Coney Island of the Mind elevated him out of the staid world of his parents and changed his sense of self forever. Is there a book that shook your convictions? Tell us about it in the comments.
