Yusef Komunyakaa’s war poem, “Latitudes,” begins with a curious sentence: “If I am not Ulysses, I am/ his dear, ruthless... more

Chi and Chad close read Robert Hayden’s “A Plague of Starlings,” a tiny poem about a walk across campus that... more

Chi attempts to fix a problem she’s been having while teaching W. E. B. Du Bois’s The Souls of Black... more

Chi and Chad discuss the classical allusions in Wheatley’s poem, “To Maecenas.” Who was Maecenas? Why did Wheatley write a... more

In this sidebar episode, Chad tells Chi about his close reading of Jupiter Hammon’s first published poem, “An Evening Thought:... more

Chad takes a tour through the Joseph Lloyd Manor where Jupiter Hammon, the first published African American poet, was enslaved... more

Phillis Wheatley was both the first African American woman to publish poetry and a poet deeply engaged with the classical... more

Introducing the Old-School Podcast