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Poetry Please

05/05/2013

Duration: 30 minutes

First broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 FMLatest broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 LW

Roger McGough with a varied selection of poetry requests.
Poems of praise to the lowly and the heavenly, including work by George Barker and RS Thomas who were both born one hundred years ago this year. RS Thomas's 'A Marriage' is tender and moving; "We met under a shower of bird notes", and he analyses the powerful stillness of the atmosphere 'In Church.' Poems by another priest poet, Gerard Manley Hopkins also feature, with his sonnet to Felix Randall, which he wrote after the death of a parishioner of his while he was a priest in Liverpool, as well as 'God's Grandeur'. There will be many secular exultations too though, with Les Murray paying homage to the bed, Emily Dickinson to the sea and a paean to the music of Bach by the Swedish poet Lars Gustafsson. With readings by John Mackay and guest poets Leontia Flynn and Paula Meehan.
Producer: Sarah Langan. Show less

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