Original version

BBC Radio 4 Extra

Poetry Extra

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

Weekly opportunity for listeners to revisit the riches of the BBC radio poetry archive

A brand new poetry slot on Radio 4 Extra gives listeners a weekly opportunity to revisit the riches of the BBC radio poetry archive

Poetry Extra: Ursula Vaughan Williams, Poet and Muse

01/01/2017

Ursula Vaughan Williams, Poet and Muse

BBC Radio 4 Extra - Poetry Extra, Ursula Vaughan Williams, Poet and Muse

Daljit Nagra chooses creative collaborator Ursula Vaughan Williams.

Poet-in-Residence Daljit Nagra chooses creative collaborator Ursula Vaughan Williams, poet and muse, and her husband Ralph. From 2013.

BBC Radio 4's Poet in Residence, Daljit Nagra revisits the BBC's radio poetry archive and selects a love story. 

Ursula Vaughan Williams was most famous for being the composer Ralph Vaughan Williams's second wife. However, she was a published poet who contributed poems for her husband to set and collaborated creatively on various occasions with him and other composers.

The writer Irma Kurtz tells her story and looks at her poetry with the help of the Vaughan Williams' friends and colleagues. She discovers a true love story. Ursula met Vaughan Williams when they were both married to other people. He was much older than her. Her husband died during the war and Ralph's wife spent much of her life in a wheel chair. Ursula became the lover and creative collaborator of the composer, even moving into his marital home with the blessing of his first wife. When Adeline Vaughan Williams died, Ralph and Ursula could be married.

Ursula's poetry speaks of love, nature and memory . Her masterpiece, The Dictated Theme was written in the days after Vaughan Williams died and she described the feeling that he was with her, dictating the verse.

Until her own death in 2007, aged 96, Ursula remained a leading figure on the artistic and social scene of London and continued her husband's work supporting English music.

Interviews include Michael Kennedy, biographer of Ralph Vaughan Williams; close friends Joyce Kennedy and Eva Hornstein; Stephen Connock, editor of Ursula Vaughan Williams' collected poems; and Hugh Cobbe, formerly Head of Music Collections for the British Library.

Readings by Isla Blair.

Producer: Laura Parfitt
A White Pebble Media production for BBC Radio 4

First broadcast in 2013.

Your digital radio entertainment station showcasing the best in comedy and drama

Your digital radio entertainment station showcasing the best in comedy and drama. With recent favourites from BBC Radio 4.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Poetry Extra

Ursula Vaughan Williams, Poet and Muse

Genres

Brand

BBC Radio 4 Extra

About BBC Radio 4 Extra