The Influential Lyrics podcast and website are intended to fill a gap in users’ understanding and appreciation of English poetry. After teaching poetry for nearly 40 years at the undergrad and graduate levels, I’ve been astonished and delighted at the number of resources that are now freely available online. At the same time, however, I’ve been frustrated that almost all of these resources are exclusively print based; consequently, they tend to miss the musical quality that makes poetic language different from and more aesthetically potent than ordinary prose.

It’s not surprising then that many students come to treat poems as verbal puzzles to be analyzed and understood, but not necessarily as aesthetically pleasing works of art. This is very different from other artistic works. With music and painting, for example, we typically have some favorite works that we save on playlists or hang on our walls because we find them pleasing and we want to return to them over and over. With poems, however, students tend to read them and perhaps write a college essay about them, but they don’t tend to return to read them again and again–that would be like going back to do the same crossword puzzle again!

Influential Lyrics aims to change this. By focusing on form and sound, the podcast will help readers develop an “ear” for poetic language and poetic form. In the process, readers/listeners will discover a deeper appreciation for poetry and a more profound understanding of the beauty and wisdom it conveys.