Dr Embers Verse and Tales
Dr Embers: Verse & Tale stories and poetry told by the fire.Each week begins with a single thought — a line from a philosopher, poet, or thinker — and journeys through classic tales and original works that explore the themes shaping our lives.Here, not all stories are told the same way.Here, you are invited to sit by the fire.Here, you may unwind and let your imagination wander to places you may never have been.Ideas you may never have considered. New episodes every Sunday. The fire is lit.🔥
By the hearth 03
From The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare
“If you prick us, do we not bleed?If you poison us, do we not die?
And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?”
In this final By the Hearth episode of Verse & Tales, we reflect upon a season shaped by exile, memory, and the quiet cost of survival.
From soldiers scarred by winter battlefields, to hollow men wandering through the echoes of trauma…
From those cast out by society, to children torn from the only...
Dr Embers Presents - The Merchant of Wapping: The Hargreaves Recordings
Recently, I led my first historical walk through Wapping—exploring the lives of those who once called those streets home.
To bring that world closer, I made use of a set of restored wax recordings belonging to a Mr Jonathan Hargreaves, a merchant of the area.
What you are about to hear… are those recordings.
If you’d like to move through them, you can use the following time markers:
Prospect of Whitby — 0:49
Tunnel under the Thames — 2:34
Execution Dock — 4:39
The Workhouse — 8:19
The silent women of London — 11:15
Turks Head Beer S...
Dr Embers Presents - Sonnet 97 W.Shakespere and Other Poems
“We who survived the camps are not true witnesses.
This is an uncomfortable notion…
we survivors are only a small and abnormal minority.”
Primo Levi
In this episode of Verse & Tales, we explore exile, belonging, and the quiet loneliness carried by those who find themselves without a place to call home.
Our journey moves through poetry and reflection — from silence, to sorrow, to the bitter taste of frustration.
Alongside Sonnet 97 by William Shakespeare, we encounter original works that explore wandering souls, displacement, and the quiet tragedy of children se...
Dr Embers Presents - The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas by Ursula K. Le Guin and The Island by Armin Greder
“All wars are fought twice, the first time on the battlefield, the second time in memory.”
— Viet Thanh Nguyen
Yet it is not only soldiers who carry those battles with them. For many who flee the chaos, the war follows close behind — across oceans, across borders, and into the uneasy memories of those who receive them.
Tonight, we take our fire to the sea, to visit a place upon the coast shaped by two haunting stories.
Drawing together the moral world of The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas by Ursula K. Le Guin a...
Dr Embers Presents – The Hollow Men by T. S. Eliot
“I have had 80 years to forget it… I still can’t.”
— Harry Patch
Tonight, we take our humble flame into the long shadow cast after war.
For as Harry Patch — the last surviving British soldier of the First World War trenches — once said, some battles do not end when the guns fall silent.
This evening we explore what remains when the powerful have finished their games and peace has been declared. What happens to the men who return? What becomes of the spirit after devastation? When the noise stops — what echoes remain?
Ton...
Dr Embers Presents - A Man in Winter by E. Embers
“What happens in war isn’t just what you do. It’s what you become.”
— Karl Marlantes, Vietnam veteran
In this episode of Verse & Tales, we journey into a frozen landscape gripped by winter.
A Man in Winter is a story of conflict, identity, and consequence. It invites us to look beyond banners and rhetoric — beyond uniforms and ideals — and to consider the person beneath them.
War reduces people to symbols.
This story asks us to see the human being instead.
A tale of survival, transformation, and the quiet m...
By the hearth 02
This episode is a companion piece to the previous four episodes of the season.
Tonight, there is no poem.
No dramatic reading.
No new tale brought to the fire.
Instead, we pause.
By the Hearth is a reflective interlude — a kind of director’s commentary — where I step out from behind the performance and share the thought process beneath the stories.
Across The Raven, The Monkey’s Paw, The Highwayman, and our reflections on division and liberty, a single thread began to emerge: choice.
Not monsters.
Not fate.
Dr Embers Presents: The Highwayman — Alfred Noyes
“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.”
— Søren Kierkegaard
In this episode, we return to The Highwayman — a tale of love, inevitability, and the cruel arithmetic of time.
Some stories only make sense once they are over.
Once the hoofbeats have faded.
Once the shot has rung out.
Once the road lies empty.
Listening now, we know,
that every promise is already haunted,
that every choice is already closing doors,
and that love, however fierce, cannot always o...
Dr Embers presents: Invictus by William E. Henley and Other Poems
“If you let one ant stand up to us, they all stand up to us.”
Tyranny does not rise with banners or chants — it rises quietly, through silence.
In this episode of By the Hearth, I bring three poems to life:
Invictus, No Land of the Free, and Five Men in a Boat —
exploring power, voice, fear, and the cost of not silence.
This is a spoken word poetry episode about:
silence in society, personal resilience, freedom, moral courage, and what happens when we s...
Dr Embers Presents: The Monkeys Paw — W. W. Jacobs
"We are our choices" - Jean-Paul Sartre
Three wishes offered.
Each seems harmless.
Each carries a cost unseen.
In this episode of Dr Embers: Verse & Tale, W. W. Jacobs’ classic short story The Monkey’s Paw is read by the fire — not as a warning, but as a journey into choice, consequence, and the quiet danger of wanting without understanding.
This is a story about decisions made in hope,
and the price paid when fate is asked to bend.
You are invited to sit by the...
Dr Embers Presents: The Raven — Edgar Allan Poe
“He who fights with monsters should see to it that he himself does not become a monster.”
— Friedrich Nietzsche
Many know The Raven for its gothic beauty and haunting rhythm.
But beneath the darkness lies something even more powerful —
a grief so profound it slowly gives way to madness.
In this episode of Dr Embers: Verse & Tale, you are invited to experience Edgar Allan Poe’s The Raven through a different lens —
not as a performance,
but as a journey into loss, obsession, and the fragile edges of the human min...
Truth and Story - A Fireside Prelude
Before the fire truly burns, there is a spark.
This short tale is offered as a quiet introduction to a new world —
a glimpse of the atmosphere, the voice, and the journey that lies ahead.
Not every story needs to be explained.
Some are simply meant to be felt.
Consider this a moment by the hearth…
to settle in,
to listen,
to prepare for what is to come.
The first full journey begins this Sunday at 19:00.
I look forward to welcoming you around the flames...
By the Hearth 01
“You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet,
there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to.”
— Bilbo Baggins
Before the stories begin, we must first build the fire.
In this short opening episode, I invite you to step closer to the hearth —
to discover more about this journey of story and poetry,
and why some tales are not meant to be rushed… but listened to.
This is not a performance.
It is an invitation.
A quiet moment to tend the...
