Scott Reads Poetry: Recent Episodes
Scott Scharl
I read poems for your enjoyment. Support the show and buy me a coffee at buymeacoff.ee/scottscharl . Feedback is welcome at hello@scottscharl.com. Thanks for listening!
Did you know President Lincoln wrote poetry?
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"My Childhood's Home I See Again" by Abraham Lincoln
My childhood's home I see again,
And sadden with the view;
And still, as memory crowds my brain,
There's pleasure in it too.
O Memory! thou midway world
'Twixt earth and paradise,
Where things decayed and loved ones lost
In dreamy shadows rise,
And, freed from all that's earthly vile,
Seem hallowed, pure, and bright,
Like scenes in some enchanted isle
All bathed in liquid light.
As dusky mountains please the eye
When twilight chases day;
As bugle-notes that, passing by,
In distance die away;
As leaving some grand waterfall,
We, lingering, list its roar—
So memory will hallow all
We've known, but know no more.
Near twenty years have passed away
Since here I bid farewell
To woods and fields, and scenes of play,
And playmates loved so well.
Where many were, but few remain
Of old familiar things;
But seeing them, to mind again
The lost and absent brings.
The friends I left that parting day,
How changed, as time has sped!
Young childhood grown, strong manhood gray,
And half of all are dead.
I hear the loved survivors tell
How nought from death could save,
Till every sound appears a knell,
And every spot a grave.
I range the fields with pensive tread,
And pace the hollow rooms,
And feel (companion of the dead)
I'm living in the tombs.
Text: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/56824/tell-all-the-truth-but-tell-it-slant-1263
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Text: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44395/gods-grandeur
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Text: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43827/the-destruction-of-sennacherib
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Text: https://englishverse.com/poems/leisure
Thanks to Parker Fox for this recommendation!
If you have a poem (in the public domain) that you'd like to hear, reach out to @scott_scharl or hello@scottscharl.com.\
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Editor William Harmon calls this the best villanelle of the twentieth century, and among the best poems of any type for that time.
https://poets.org/poem/do-not-go-gentle-good-night
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Yeats was inspired to write this poem about living a simple life on a lake near a place where he spent summers as a child in County Sligo, Ireland. He was influenced by Henry David Thoreau's Walden.
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43281/the-lake-isle-of-innisfree
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A short poem about hate and indifference. Which is worse?
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44263/fire-and-ice
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45234/the-emperor-of-ice-cream
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A humorous poem about poetry and drinking. Housman is a master of the couplet, and the meter really makes this poem a rewarding read.
https://www.bartleby.com/123/62.html
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This poem is also a riddle! See if you can figure out what is being described...
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The poet laments the futility and emptiness of life.
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This poem is one of my favorites.
The Greek hero of the Iliad and the Odyssey gives an account of his life and purpose before he sets sail on his final journey. The final section ofthe poem is actually quoted by Judy Dench's character "M" in the Bond film Skyfall. She, of course does a better reading than I.
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My reading of this humorous poem about a husband who is forced to choose between his wife and his tobacco.
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