May 2, 1984 • 6h 40m
This introductory programme establishes the continuity and variety of poetry over six centuries, touching on different genres by u...Read more
May 9, 1984 • 6h 40m
A look at the poetry composed between the mid-seventh century and the Norman Conquest, including Julian Glover's reading of part o...Read more
May 16, 1984 • 6h 40m
Chaucer was the first great named poet in English. This programme focuses on The Canterbury Tales, with a reading of the introduct...Read more
May 23, 1984 • 6h 40m
This programme explores the late Medieval period leading into the Renaissance, discussing poems dealing with love, death and ambit...Read more
May 30, 1984 • 6h 40m
A chronological look at Shakespeare's dramatic genius, using extracts from eight plays: Romeo and Juliet, Henry V, Twelfth Night, ...Read more
June 6, 1984 • 6h 40m
The vigour and audacity of John Donne's love poetry is contrasted with his equally powerful devotional works. The programme then e...Read more
June 13, 1984 • 6h 40m
Milton's dedication, his humanity and his blindness are all given illustration in Ian Richardson's reading of the sonnet to his de...Read more
June 20, 1984 • 6h 40m
An overview of the great age of satire: among the works featured are Rochester's 'A Satire Against Reason and Mankind', Dryden's '...Read more
October 21, 1984 • 6h 40m
This programme features excerpts from Jonathan Smart's 'Jubilate Agno', written in Bedlam, five poems by Blake, Coleridge's 'Kubla...Read more
October 28, 1984 • 6h 40m
'Upon Westminster Bridge', 'Daffodils', 'A Slumber Did My Spirit Steal', and an extract from Book I of 'The Prelude' are among the...Read more
November 4, 1984 • 6h 40m
Among the poems featured are Shelly's 'Ozymandias', 'The Mask of Anarchy' and 'Adonais'; Keats' 'La Belle Dame sans Merci' and 'To...Read more
November 11, 1984 • 6h 40m
The Victorian period of richly represented with extracts of poems by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Emily Bronte, Christina Rossetti, Robe...Read more
November 18, 1984 • 6h 40m
Lee Remick reads Julia Ward Howe's 'The Battle Hymn of the Republic' along with poems by Edgar Allen Poe and Emily Dickinson; Stac...Read more
November 25, 1984 • 6h 40m
This programme covers verse of the late Victorian period and the early twentieth century, with poems by Thomas Hardy, Gerard Manle...Read more
December 2, 1984 • 6h 40m
Wilfred Owen's 'Anthem for Doomed Youth' and Edward Thomas' 'Old Man' are among the featured poems, while Cyril Cusack reads a sel...Read more
December 9, 1984 • 6h 40m
Anthony Hopkins reads two of Dylan Thomas' most widely known poems, and Stacy Keach reads Robert Lowell's 'For the Union Dead'; po...Read more