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The Wound-Dresser, by Walt Whitman

Episode 1 explores Walt Whitman’s “The Wound-Dresser,” set in the battlefield infirmaries and operating theaters of 1860s Washington, D.C. Actor David Strathairn, playwright Tony Kushner, composer Matthew Aucoin, opera star Davóne Tines, physician-writers Rafael Campo and Abraham Verghese, and historian Drew Faust join Elisa New to discuss how the trauma of the Civil War shaped American history.

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Sonnet IV; I shall forget you presently, my dear, by Millay

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Poems about Motherhood by Sharon Olds and Bernadette Mayer

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