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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: The Namer of Clouds

10/06/2018

The Namer of Clouds

BBC Radio 4 Extra - Poetry Extra, The Namer of Clouds

Daljit Nagra selects a poem about Luke Howard, who named the clouds and inspired Romantics

4 Extra Debut. Poet Daljit Nagra selects The Namer of Clouds about Luke Howard, who named the clouds and inspired the Romantics. From June 2013.

Poet Daljit Nagra revisits the BBC's radio poetry archive with 'The Namer of Clouds' showcasing Luke Howard. 
  
Poet Lavinia Greenlaw composes a tribute to the amateur meteorologist who in 1802 devised the cloud classification system and inspired the Romantics.

Luke Howard, often called "the father of meteorology" was a chemist, whose ideas for cloud classification were stirred when he was a schoolboy. In his late 20s, he composed the influential 'Essay on the Modification of Clouds', which was delivered at the Askesian Society, a fortnightly London science meeting.

Howard's influence upon art and poetry is as impressive as his meteorological discoveries. His essay became the subject of poems by Goethe and Percy Bysshe Shelley and he's believed to have inspired some of John Constable's landscapes.

Before composing a new poem dedicated to Luke Howard, Lavinia goes cloud spotting in Somerset with Gavin Pretor-Pinney, founder of The Cloud Appreciation Society. Richard Hamblyn, Luke Howard's biographer, describes how he gave the Romantics a new scientific language and Constable expert Anne Lyles examines Luke Howard's impact on the visual arts.

Producer: Paul Smith
A Just Radio production for BBC Radio 4 first broadcast in 2013.

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