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BBC Radio 3 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced Third Programme.

BBC Radio 3

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The Essay Podcast

The Essay

Discussion & Talk

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

Essays from leading writers on arts, history, philosophy, science, religion and beyond.

Leading writers on arts, history, philosophy, science, religion and beyond, themed across a week - insight, opinion and intellectual surprise.

The Essay: Tennyson 200

The Essay: Tennyson 200: Episode 2: The Kraken

Tennyson 200

Episode 2

Episode 2: The Kraken

The Kraken

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Welsh poet Gwyneth Lewis discusses the importance to her of Tennyson's poem The Kraken.

Welsh poet Gwyneth Lewis discusses the importance to her of Tennyson's poem The Kraken - about a legendary sea-monster.

Another chance to hear a series celebrating the 200th anniversary of the birth of poet Alfred Tennyson - 6th August 1809. Three contemporary British poets each choose a single poem or extract by Tennyson and give a personal account of why it means so much to them. 

The Welsh poet Gwyneth Lewis thought she had outgrown Tennyson around the time she did her O Levels. In fact, she was slightly embarrassed by her youthful rapture for what she considered his shallow Arthurian romances. Then, living on a boat off a small Spanish town, she was unexpectedly re-introduced to Tennyson by a local swimming pool attendant, and newly discovered his hidden depths. Her chosen poem is The Kraken - a legendary sea-monster inhabiting the "ancient, dreamless, uninvaded sleep" of the un-chartered ocean, which, when ultimately it rises to the surface, is destined to die. 

Gwyneth Lewis finds surprising poetic inspiration in this short, intense and unforgettable poem. 

Reader: Simon Russell Beale.

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Four contemporary British poets choose a Tennyson poem and explain its importance to them

Four contemporary British poets each choose a single poem or extract by Tennyson and give a personal account of why it means so much to them

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