All Episodes
Displaying 21 - 40 of 100 in total
Old Ironsides: The Eagle of the Sea
Join Erika Kyba to encounter "Old Ironsides," the famous elegy that saved the USS Constitution from being scrapped. She discusses how masterfully Holmes pits mercenary...
The Dream of the Rood: The Journey Heavenward
Join Erika Kyba for a celebration of Easter in the conclusion of The Dream of the Rood. She analyzes how the Passion, in the poet's vision, exceeds the boundaries of h...
The Dream of the Rood: Mary and the Cross
Join Erika Kyba and continue your Lenten journey through the medieval Crucifixion poem, "The Dream of the Rood." In today's excerpt, the poet crafts a parallel between...
The Dream of the Rood: A Tale for All Times
Join Erika Kyba and continue your Lenten journey through the medieval Crucifixion poem, "The Dream of the Rood." In today's excerpt, the poet begins to pull in more an...
The Dream of the Rood: Suffering is not the Enemy
Today, we continue our Lenten reflections on The Dream of the Rood. Join Erika Kyba as she discusses how the poet imagines the Cross as Christ's shield partner in batt...
The Dream of the Rood: The Tragedy and the Glory
Today, we enter into the Lenten season by reading The Dream of the Rood. Join Erika Kyba to meditate on the poet's reframing of the Crucifixion's tragedy.
The Legend of the Knight of the Red Cross: The Road to Error
Today, we continue our journey through Spencer's Faerie Queene. Join Erika Kyba to analyze the forest symbolism that Spencer uses to set up the themes that will pervad...
The Legend of the Knight of the Red Cross: What's Up With Una?
Today, we continue our journey through Spencer's Faerie Queene. Join Erika Kyba as she analyzes how Spencer draws a connection between the poem's female lead, Una, and...
The Legend of the Knight of the Red Cross: An Untried Knight and a Lovely Maiden
Today, we continue our journey through Spencer's Faerie Queene. Erika Kyba discusses some of Spencer's typical conventions, such as introducing characters by their app...
Prologue to the Legend of the Knight of the Red Cross: Choose Your Fighters
Today, Erika Kyba introduces you to Spencer's Faerie Queene. In this episode, we read the Prologue to the Legend of the Knight of the Red Cross (narrated by the lovely...
The Milk-Maid and the Milk-Pail: Of Daydreams and Lost Opportunities
Today, Erika Kyba reads La Fontaine's "The Milk-Maid and the Milk-Pail," a witty and practical French fable about the danger of getting carried away in a daydream.
We Should not Mind so Small a Flower: Restoring the Kingdom
Today, Erika Kyba reads Emily Dickinson's "We Should not Mind so Small a Flower," in which poet uses the flower of a mustard seed as a metaphor for God instantiating t...
Architect's Watercolor: Each Minute is Encounter
Today, Erika Kyba reads Arthur Sze's "Architect's Watercolor." This is a poem that toes the line between potentiality and reality.
Comus: To Quench the Draught of Pheobus
Today, Erika Kyba continues to analyze Milton's "Comus," and we learn what makes the wicked spirit, Comus so dangerous: he menaces the rational faculties of men, and t...
Comus: The Rank Vapors of this Sin-Worn Mold
Today, Erika Kyba introduces Milton's "Comus," a purported morality masque which is perhaps not what it seems to be. Alexandra Comus narrates the part of the Attendant...
Sic Transit Gloria Mundi: Accept this "Bonnie Doon"
Today, Erika Kyba reads through the end of "Sic Transit Gloria Mundi," by Emily Dickinson. We begin to tie together the themes of moral bankruptcy, surface versus subs...
Sic Transit Gloria Mundi: Insolvency, Sublime!
Today, Erika Kyba reads "Sic Transit Gloria Mundi," by Emily Dickinson, a witty societal critique dashed with a commentary how certain astronomical discoveries have al...
The Abyss: Above, Below, On Every Side
Today, Erika Kyba reads "The Abyss," by Baudelaire, and attempts to explore the poet's terror of the infinite.
The Benefactors: The Pinch of Pain and Fear
Today, Erika Kyba reads "The Benefactors" by Rudyard Kipling. Kipling mediates on how all innovation springs from the "pinch of pain and fear" that drives man.
Adam's Curse: As Weary-Hearted as that Hollow Moon
Today, Erika Kyba reads "Adam's Curse" by William Butler Yeats. Yeats muses on how all beautiful and lovely things require labor...and how this laboring after the beau...