Join us in celebrating creativity! Choose from this curated selection of digital titles within Pfeiffer Library that celebrate poetry, all readily available at your fingertips:
Call Number: 44812
Publication Date: 1/17/2012
Edgar Allan Poe was truest to his heart a poet. He has blessed American literature with some of the most striking and moving imagery ever created. His phrasing and lyricism have forever changed the landscape of poetic verse. This film includes “The Conqueror Worm,” “To My Mother,” “Israfel,” “Annabel Lee,” “The City in the Sea,” “Eldorado,” “To Helen,” “The Haunted Palace,” “Evening Star,” and “The Raven.” (34 minutes)
Call Number: 148
Publication Date: 8/13/2012
The Shahnameh, Iran’s national epic, has been illustrated again and again over the course of Persian history. This epic poem, written by the poet Firdausi in the early 11th century, recounts Persia’s mythological and historical past. This program traces the development of Shahnameh painting over three centuries and under the patronage of three distinct Persian dynasties. Parallels between miniature painting and other art forms of the time are drawn, and the cultural settings in which this art flourished are examined. This fascinating look at a unique art form was produced with the assistance of the Fogg Art Museum. (28 minutes)
Call Number: 45465
Publication Date: 12/13/2011
The Arabian Nights or A Thousand and One Nights has influenced world literature and enthralled readers for centuries. Its legend tells us that the beautiful Scheherazade prevented her own murder at the hands of a sultan by telling him a never-ending tale of adventure. This classic from the Middle East introduced us to Aladdin, Sinbad, and Ali Baba. This absorbing program from Ancient Mysteries examines the origins, impact, and mystery of this seminal work of literature. Distributed by A&E Television Networks. (45 minutes) Distributed by A&E Television Networks.
Call Number: 32844
Publication Date: 03/05/2009
More than three centuries ago, the seminal haiku poet Matsuo Basho traveled Japan in a spiritual quest for enlightenment. In this down-to-earth program, haiku enthusiasts from around the world—including award-winning haiku poet and English teacher Visnja McMaster and haiku translator Judit Vihar, professor of Japanese studies at Eötvös Loránd University—follow in the master’s footsteps as they open themselves to the haiku moment at the very places where Basho himself found inspiration. Excerpts from Basho’s impressions of his journey, The Narrow Road to the Deep North, are included, as are haiku written by the trip participants. The therapeutic value of haiku writing for traumatized children and adults is also addressed. (45 minutes)
Call Number: 32794
Publication Date: 03/05/2009
While many of her literary peers achieved notoriety, “the woman in white” remained virtually unknown—by choice. The self-imposed obscurity of Emily Dickinson is just one of many aspects of her life that this program explores. Blending daguerreotypes, paintings, manuscripts, excerpts from Dickinson’s letters, and readings from nearly a dozen of her poems, this program presents the biography of one of America’s most unique and influential voices in poetry. (20 minutes)
Call Number: 32796
Publication Date: 03/05/2009
As a poet, T. S. Eliot did not just modernize, he revolutionized. As critic and publisher, he informed literary theory and promoted a generation of major young writers. This richly resourced program provides a concise biography of Eliot, tracing the key events of his life and highlighting his many contributions to English literature. The program features readings and excerpts from his major poems and critical work, including “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” “Sweeney among the Nightingales,” “Gerontion,” “The Hollow Men,” “Ash Wednesday,” The Wasteland, Four Quartets, and The Sacred Wood. (19 minutes)
Call Number: 128266
Publication Date: 1/29/2017
William Shatner, Tom Poston, Eleanor Ayer, Frances Sternhagen, James Broderick, and Ralph Bunker perform EE. Cumming's poetry and George Santayana's essays on this episode of Camera Three.
Call Number: 128272
Publication Date: 02/01/2017
On this episode of Camera Three, Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee perform poetry about the African-American experience. Excerpts include verses from Paul Laurence Dunbar, Sterling Brown, Frank Horne, Countee Cullen, Langston Hughes, Gwendolyn Brooks, and Margaret Walker.
Call Number: 128231
Publication Date: 01/08/2017
On this episode of Camera Three, Michele Collision and Elizabeth Swados sing the poetry of Sylvia Plath. Selections include Elm, You're, The Applicant, Ariel, Daddy, Lady Lazarus and Getting There.
Call Number: 44835
Publication Date: 1/17/2012
This program showcases more than 130 of the world’s best-known poems cleverly performed and artistically interpreted by The First Poetry Quartet and celebrity guests. Simply an incredible collection of great writers and a wonderful journey through great poems. Within these words one may find all the love, joy, hope, fear, enchantment, and humor that is the human spirit. Featuring Claire Bloom, LeVar Burton, Robert Culp, Ruby Dee, Henry Fonda, Will Geer, Fred Gwynne, Valerie Harper, Jack Lemmon, Vincent Price, William Shatner, Irene Worth, and others. Directed by Marshall Jamison. As seen on PBS
Call Number: 114446
Publication Date: 3/11/2016
In celebration of the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, this program unlocks some of the mysteries surrounding Shakespeare’s life and the legacy of his work across the globe. John Nettles takes us on a journey through the dangerous and dynamic times of Shakespeare’s life and reveals something of the real man who transformed the London theatre and the English language, yet remained a Stratford man.
Call Number: 139987
Publication Date: 12/15/2017
Using 3-D animation, location footage, archive materials, and interviews, the Beowulf epic is examined in the light of the civilization that created it. It investigates the Anglo-Saxons' religious beliefs as well as their everyday life and suggests that, old as the poem is, it may have roots in an even more ancient fertility cult.
Call Number: 10924
Publication Date: 03/05/2009
Recently re-translated by Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney, Beowulf has caused a sensation in both the U.S. and the U.K. In this program, NewsHour correspondent Elizabeth Farnsworth speaks with Heaney about his attraction to that epic poem, the probable background of the bard who created the original, similarities between Old English and bits of Anglo-Saxon that still crop up in rural Ireland, and the importance of meter and alliteration in driving the poem. A reading of a passage from the new text and the old demonstrates the poetic affinity between them while underscoring the poem’s timeless appeal. (12 minutes)
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