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Poetry Workshop

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Ruth Padel explores the pleasures of writing and reading poems

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Poetry Workshop: Series 2

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Series 2

BBC Radio 4 - Poetry Workshop, Series 2, Episode 1Search BBC

Ruth Padel works on poems in progress with the Dove Cottage Poets in Grasmere.

Ruth Padel and the Dove Cottage Poets in Grasmere work on some poems in progress, testing and revising as they go, in a spirit of supportive criticism. Tough love for poems.

Ruth Padel and the The Dove Cottage Poets in Grasmere work on some poems in progress. Tough love for poems.

Poetry Workshops are gathering all over the country. In the back rooms of pubs, in libraries and in front rooms, poets meet to hone their craft and sharpen their verse. Ruth Padel begins a new series of programmes by working with The Dove Cottage Poets in Grasmere.
Going behind the scenes of the poems, the group are ruthless yet supportive as they chuck out words and redraft; listening, pruning and testing their work as they go. The theme for this week's poems is fathers, apt of course for the home-place of Wordsworth, the father of English romanticism.
The group discuss the techniques, inspiration, wordplay and imagination that make poetry so enjoyable and rewarding. As well as working on their own poems, the group bravely try out a writing exercise to warm up their poetry muscles, focussing on line endings by experimenting with a very famous poem by William Carlos Williams. They also consider a poem by a much loved poet associated with the area; Norman Nicholson.
Producer: Sarah Langan.

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

Ruth Padel presents a landmark series exploring the pleasures of writing and reading poems

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