From Whitman to Kanye

     Here we are, midway through National Poetry Month, and PBS is on the spot with season two of its TV series Poetry in America.

     The show has fairly broad taste. Sure, there are episodes built around Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson -- can't discuss American verse without mentioning them -- but there's also an episode that pays tribute to Broadway composer Stephen Sondheim as a poet, and guests like Nas, Herbie Hancock, Bono and Elena Kagan are on hand to talk about the poems they hold dear. Here's Nas reciting and explicating one of his raps to a Harvard professor:


   

     The second season of Poetry in America is airing now; if you'd like to check out the first season, all its episodes are free to stream here.