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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: A Foreigner Everywhere

22/01/2017

A Foreigner Everywhere

BBC Radio 4 Extra - Poetry Extra, A Foreigner Everywhere

Daljit Nagra introduces a profile of poet Elizabeth Bishop.

Poet-in-Residence Daljit Nagra introduces a profile of poet Elizabeth Bishop. Presented by Paul Farley. From April 2012.

BBC Radio 4's Poet in Residence, Daljit Nagra revisits BBC's radio archive with a profile of poet Elizabeth Bishop. 

In 'A Foreigner Everywhere', Paul Farley explores the American's extraordinary years in Brazil, and how her rootless, traveller's condition inspired her creativity.

Elizabeth Bishop has been called the poets' poets' poet', and her work, often complex and multi-layered, examines the big themes of home, travel and identity. Though she's regarded as an American poet, for nearly two decades Bishop lived in Brazil, where she wrote much of her best work. Essentially an orphan from the age of five, and a constant observer, a 'foreigner everywhere', she speaks to our modern rootless condition, asking how and where we find a sense of 'home'.

Paul explores how Bishop tackles questions of travel, and how she challenged approaches to other cultures in the early days of mass tourism. Bishop met the love of her life in Brazil, became deeply involved in the Brazilian political tumult of the 1960s, and made the trip of her life up the Amazon River. But her Brazil years also ended in tragedy.

In many ways a poet of our times, Paul explores how her often overlooked Brazil years offer a new way into Bishop's work and its relevance - a constant observer, portraying life in all its nuanced complexity.

Producer: Jo Wheeler
Made for BBC Radio 4 by Brook Lapping Productions and first broadcast in 2012.

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