The Daily Poem
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The Daily Poem
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 li...
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Jane Austen’s “Mock Panegyric on a Young Friend”
Today’s poem marshals Austen’s characteristic wit to praise feminine virtues via comparison to American geography. Fellas, don’t try this at home. Hap...
Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s “Grief”
Today’s poem, pitting Victorian stoicism against Victorian sentimentality, contends that the truest grief is the most austere and long-lived. Happy re...
Wendell Berry’s “Testament”
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....
Oliver Wendell Holmes’ “The Last Leaf”
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 winte...
Francis Jammes’ “A Prayer to Go to Paradise with the Donkeys”
Today’s poem, translated by Richard Wilbur, is part animal appreciation, prayer for a good death. Happy reading.
William Shakespeare’s Sonnet 71 (“No longer mourn for me when I am dead”)
Today’s poem has a different preoccupation than most Shakespearean sonnets–not immortalizing the beloved, but effacing the lover. Happy reading.
John Milton’s Proem to Paradise Lost
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 j...
David Wagoner’s “The Junior High School Band Concert”
“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 he...
William Blake's "The School Boy"
Today’s poem is a more eloquent version of an appeal being made in many households this month. Happy reading.
Bill Watterson's "The Yukon Song"
Today’s poem turns the Yukon territory into every boy’s dream. Happy reading.
Thomas Dekker's "The Happy Heart"
Today’s poem ponders the soft pillow of poverty and even boasts a Beatles connection. Happy reading.
John Donne's "The Good-Morrow"
“My face in thine eye, thine in mine appears.” In today’s poem, love awakens the sleeper to new life. Happy reading.
St. John of the Cross's "The Soul Aflame"
Today’s poem is another contemplation of ambivalence toward life that conceals a deeper commitment to life. Happy reading.
Angela Morgan's "Work: A Song of Triumph"
Today’s poem is a very enthusiastic paean to work (doth the lady protest too much?). Happy Monday and Happy reading.
Robert Louis Stevenson's "Consolation"
Today’s poem is a tender consolation after the loss of a friend, suitable for young and old alike. Happy reading.
Francis Thompson's "The Kingdom of God"
In today’s poem, the transcendent is immanent. Happy reading.
Emily Dickinson's "If I can stop one heart from breaking"
Today’s poem uses an unrhymed line to make its point. Happy reading.
Oscar Wilde’s “Portia”
In today’s poem, an embodied literary character possesses the power to steal the hearts of living men. Happy reading.
Robert Service's "The Law of the Yukon"
Today’s poem might be the photo-negative of Emma Lazarus’ “The New Colossus;” the personified Yukon does not mince words in saying the tired, huddled...
Wisława Szymborska's "In Praise of My Sister"
Today’s poem enjoys (among other things) the sheer relief of escaping from other poets. Happy reading.
Thomas Lux’s “A Little Tooth”
Today’s poem lets the reader experience all the dread and feeling of parenthood in nine lines. Happy reading.
Herman Melville's "In the Prison Pen"
Today’s poem comes from a writer not remembered for his poetry, but when Melville’s early success as a novelist seemed to falter, he dedicated a numbe...
Robert Frost's "For Once, Then, Something"
Today’s poem is a poem about the way looking gets in the way of what we perceive. Happy reading.
Edgar Guest's "A Boy and His Dad "
Today’s poem speaks unironically of a pastoral Eden where fathers and sons commune with one another while the fish jump. Happy reading.
Richard Armour's "Parental Pride"
Today’s poem takes a well-meant jab at the things we say about babies. Happy reading.
William McGonagall's "Attempted Assassination of the Queen"
Today’s poem comes from the pen of the perfect mid-week poet. Happy reading.
Prudentius' "The Passion of the Apostles Peter and Paul"
Today’s poem, originally a 4th-century Latin composition, details the celebration of Sts. Peter and Paul in ancient Rome. Happy reading.
Pablo Neruda's "Ode To The Artichoke"
Today’s poem is a paean to the world’s greatest vegetable. Happy reading.
Pablo Neruda's "Sonnet XVII"
Today’s poem, probably Neruda’s best-known (tr. Stephen Mitchell), goes out to all the June brides. Happy reading.
Mary Oliver’s “No Matter What”
Today’s poem tangles and untangles the sweet permanence of impermanence. Happy reading.
Czeslaw Milosz’s “Dedication”
“You whom I could not save/Listen to me./Try to understand this simple speech as I would be ashamed of another./I swear, there is in me no wizardry of...
Joyce Kilmer’s “The House with Nobody In It
Today’s poem, not a cowboy poem per se, nevertheless tells the story of a frontier mentality and the meeting points of civilization and desolation. Ha...
Bruce Kiskaddon's "When They've Finished Shipping Cattle in the Fall"
Today’s poem is about the memories that come flooding in when the season’s work is done and the cowboy’s body finally relaxes. Happy reading.
Curley Fletcher's "The Strawberry Roan"
Today’s poem, about an unbreakable horse, is a classic example of a unique American genre–the cowboy poem. Happy reading.
Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings’ “The Last Vegetable”
Today’s poem is about loyalty to the toughest crop in town. Happy reading.
