The Concise Verse

Recent Episodes

Nov. 23, 2025

"The Negro Speaks of Rivers" by Langston Hughes

I’ve known rivers: I’ve known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins. My soul has grown deep like the rivers. I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young. I built my hut near the...
Nov. 16, 2025

"Nancibel" by Bliss Carmen

The ghost of a wind came over the hill, While day for a moment forgot to die, And stirred the sheaves Of the millet leaves, As Nancibel went by. Out of the lands of Long Ago, Into the land of By and By, Faded the gleam Of a j...
Nov. 9, 2025

"In a Station of the Metro" by Ezra Pound

The apparition of these faces in the crowd; Petals on a wet, black bough.
Nov. 2, 2025

"Unfortunate Coincidence" by Dorothy Parker

By the time you swear you’re his, Shivering and sighing, And he vows his passion is Infinite, undying— Lady, make a note of this: One of you is lying.
Oct. 26, 2025

"First Fig" by Edna St. Vincent Millay

My candle burns at both ends; It will not last the night; But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends— It gives a lovely light!
Oct. 19, 2025

"Fire and Ice" by Robert Frost

Some say the world will end in fire, Some say in ice. From what I’ve tasted of desire I hold with those who favor fire. But if it had to perish twice, I think I know enough of hate To say that for destruction ice Is also grea...

Recent Blog Posts

Nov. 23, 2025

Ancient, Dusky Rivers: The Enduring Soul in Langston Hughes' "The Neg…

Langston Hughes’ “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” first published in The Crisis in June 1921, is one of the most famous and foundational poems of the Harlem Renaissance. Hughes wrote the brief poem in 1920 while crossing the Mississip…

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Nov. 16, 2025

The Ghost of a Wind: Bliss Carman's Lyrical "Nancibel"

Bliss Carman’s “Nancibel,” published in 1895, is a shimmering piece of lyrical, late-Romantic poetry. It captures a moment of intense, fleeting natural beauty inextricably linked to human memory and presence. While Carman—one…

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Nov. 9, 2025

Apparitions and Boughs: Ezra Pound's "In a Station of the Metro"

Ezra Pound’s “In a Station of the Metro,” first published in 1913, is a cornerstone of literary Modernism and the ultimate example of the Imagist movement. Clocking in at a mere fourteen words, it is a perfect example of why this p…

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