Original version

BBC World Service Online

Something Understood

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

WSEnglish 16 9 Updated

Spiritual themes explored through music, prose and poetry.

Ethical and religious discussion that examines some of the larger questions of life, taking a spiritual theme and exploring it through music, prose and poetry

Something Understood: The Beauty of Birds

03/04/2010

The Beauty of Birds

BBC World Service - Something Understood, The Beauty of Birds

Mark Tully considers the spiritual inspiration poets and musicians have found in birds.

Mark Tully explores birds as symbols of spiritual hope. Soaring above the earth, for many poets and composers they have come to represent the soul, freed from the constraints of our earthly form.

As we enter Holy Week, Mark Tully explores birds as symbols of spiritual hope in this week's Something Understood. Soaring above the earth, for many poets and composers they have come to represent the soul, freed from the constraints of our earthly form.

Mark travels to Suffolk to Lakenheath Nature Reserve, and with hobbies soaring in the background, meets nature writer Richard Mabey, widely respected as one of the leading experts on British birds. He's also the author of "Nature Cure", a book about his recovery from a deep depression, and he talks movingly about his mixed emotions at this time of year, as Spring arrives.

With poetry by Thomas Hardy, George Herbert and Isaac Rosenberg, and music from Handel to Miles Davis - all celebrating the unexpected joy birds can bring.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Something Understood

The Beauty of Birds

Genres

Brand

BBC World Service Online

About BBC World Service