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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

Radio 3

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: WB Yeats at 150

The Essay: WB Yeats at 150: Episode 3: The Second Coming of the Second Coming

WB Yeats at 150

Episode 3

Episode 3: The Second Coming of the Second Coming

The Second Coming of the Second Coming

BBC Radio 3 - The Essay, WB Yeats at 150, The Second Coming of the Second Coming

Poet Paul Muldoon discusses WB Yeats's post-First World War poem The Second Coming.

Poet Paul Muldoon explores the connections between Yeats's World War I poem The Second Coming and Shelley's Ozymandias, written a century earlier.

Winner of the Nobel Prize in 1923, William Butler Yeats is a commanding presence in 20th-century literature and has inspired, and occasionally infuriated, successive generations of readers, writers, and performers ever since. 

Marking the 150th anniversary of his birth on 13th June 1865, five of Ireland's leading cultural figures reflect on their relationship with his work. The authors include novelist John Banville, actor Fiona Shaw, writer Fintan O'Toole and poet Paula Meehan.

In this edition, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Paul Muldoon explores the connections between Yeats's post-World War One masterpiece 'The Second Coming' and Shelley's 'Ozymandias' written a century earlier in the aftermath of the Battle of Waterloo. 

Producer: Stan Ferguson.

Live music and the arts: broadcasts more live music than any other radio network. Classical music is its core. Genres include world and new music, jazz, speech and drama.

Leading cultural figures from Ireland reflect on their relationship with WB Yeats's work

To mark the 150th anniversary of his birth in June 1865, five of Ireland's leading cultural figures reflect on their relationship with the poet, dramatist and prose writer William Butler Yeats.

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Episode 3: The Second Coming of the Second Coming

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