In this episode of Beyond the Verse, the official podcast of PoemAnalysis.com and Poetry+, hosts Maiya and Joe explore 'Small Towns and the River' by Mamang Dai, a deeply resonant poem that blends cosmology, animism, and the intimate experiences of life and death in India’s northeastern hill communities.

Together, they unpack how Dai—drawing on her Adi tribal heritage and deep environmental consciousness—uses the imagery of a flowing river to explore permanence, transience, and the cyclical nature of life and grief. The hosts examine the significance of animistic belief systems, the personification of the natural world, and how rituals provide both protection and continuity for communities facing modern encroachment.

From the evocative opening line—“Small towns always remind me of death”—to the river’s symbolic immortality, Maiya and Joe discuss how Dai crafts a vision of death not as an end, but a transformation woven into ancestral and geographic memory. They also analyze how the poem’s structure mimics the flow of water and how it reflects Dai’s subtle anxieties about cultural erosion in a modernizing world.

Download exclusive PDFs on Small Towns and the River, available to Poetry+ members:

• Full PDF Guide
• Poetry Snapshot PDF

Tune in and discover:

• How Dai’s Adi heritage and environmentalism shape the poem’s core message.
• Why the river becomes a metaphor for both grief and ancestral continuity
• How oral tradition and mythology intersect with poetic form.
• What the poem reveals about the tension between rural identity and urban expansion.
• How Dai uses timeless natural symbols to explore mortality, memory, and renewal.

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In this episode of Beyond the Verse, the official podcast of PoemAnalysis.com and Poetry+, hosts Joe and Maiya examine Alfred Lord Tennyson's iconic war poem 'The Charge of the Light Brigade.' Written just weeks after the disastrous cavalry charge during the Crimean War in October 1854, this poem dramatically reshaped the Victorian cultural conversation around military sacrifice and heroism.

Joe and Maiya explore how Tennyson, as Poet Laureate, transformed a military blunder that initially embarrassed the British public into a testament of soldier bravery and noble sacrifice. They analyze how the poem's distinctive dactylic meter evokes galloping horses while creating a soundscape that immediately signals to readers that something has gone wrong, mirroring the disastrous charge itself.

The hosts unpack Tennyson's masterful techniques, including biblical allusions to "the valley of death," the mythic resonance of "the six hundred," and the use of natural imagery to elevate a military disaster into an epic, almost spiritual struggle. Through careful close reading, they reveal how Tennyson subtly criticizes military leadership while glorifying the common soldiers, setting a precedent for later war poetry.

Download exclusive PDFs on 'The Charge of the Light Brigade,' available to Poetry+ members:

• Full PDF Guide
• Poetry Snapshot PDF
• Poem Printable PDF
  • with meter
  • with rhyme scheme
  • with both meter and rhyme scheme
• Alfred Lord Tennyson PDF Guide

Tune in and discover:

• How Tennyson wrote and published this influential poem just seven weeks after the actual military event
• Why the poem's metrical choices create a soundscape of battle
• How biblical and classical allusions elevate a military disaster into heroic sacrifice
• The connections between this Victorian poem and later World War I poetry
• The remarkable power of poetry to reshape national narratives around tragedy

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As always, for the ultimate poetry experience, join Poetry+ and explore all things poetry at PoemAnalysis.com.

In this week’s episode of Beyond the Verse, the official podcast of PoemAnalysis.com and Poetry+, Joe and Maiya delve into the strange brilliance of the Metaphysical Poets. From the explosive intimacy of Donne’s 'The Flea,' to the restless rebellion in Herbert’s 'The Collar,' and the dizzying contradictions of Marvell’s 'To His Coy Mistress,' this episode unpacks what unites—and divides—these 17th-century innovators.

Joe and Maiya trace the origins of the term “metaphysical poets,” coined pejoratively by Samuel Johnson, and explore how these poets tackled vast philosophical themes—time, mortality, innocence, desire—through unexpected conceits and daring paradoxes. They debate whether these poets truly form a unified movement or are better understood as outliers brought together by critics. Whether it’s Donne’s mingling of sacred and profane, Herbert’s oscillation between doubt and faith, or Marvell’s seductive argument wrapped in cosmic dread, this episode wrestles with how intellect, sensuality, and contradiction define the metaphysical legacy.

Get exclusive PDFs on Donne, Marvell, and more—available to Poetry+ users:

• Movement overview PDF: The Metaphysical Poets
• Full PDF Guides on poets:
  • John Donne PDF Guide
  • Andrew Marvell PDF Guide
  • Henry Vaughan PDF Guide

Tune in and discover:

• Why conceits lie at the heart of metaphysical poetry
• How these poets balance contradiction, faith, and philosophy
• What “vegetable love,” fleas, and collars have in common
• Whether the metaphysical poets ever really existed as a movement

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Support the show

As always, for the ultimate poetry experience, join Poetry+ and explore all things poetry at PoemAnalysis.com.