Poetry Extra: How to Write a Poem. 

Poetry Extra: How to Write a Poem

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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: How to Write a Poem 2/2

How to Write a Poem 2/2

BBC Radio 4 Extra - Poetry Extra, How to Write a Poem 2/2

Daljit Nagra chooses the very best programmes from the BBC's Poetry archive.

Daljit Nagra selects How to Write a Poem ep 2/2 in which Glyn Maxwell discusses the terror of the blank page.  From 2016.

Daljit Nagra explores the BBC's radio poetry archive and selects part 2 of How to Write a Poem featuring the poet Glyn Maxwell.

Glyn Maxwell is in a strange village. He’s been invited there to teach a poetry masterclass at a literature festival with some impressive names on the line-up. Could that really be John Keats reading in the back room of the pub? Is that John Clare wandering the lanes? Is Emily Dickinson really doing a Q&A in the village hall? And isn't that Lord Byron propping up the bar? 

With Glyn are three new poets - Holly Corfield Carr, Victoria Adukwei Bulley and Dominic Fisher - who share their poems-in-progress. The students put their questions on writing directly to the greats and Glyn shares his own advice on writing better poetry – from facing the blank page and developing ideas, to the intricacies of rhyme, metre, form and line break. 

All words spoken by Keats, Clare, Dickinson and Byron are taken verbatim from their poems, letters and diaries. 

Barmaid - Sally Phillips
Emily Dickinson - Amy Rose
Lord Byron - Adam Harley
Student Poets - Holly Corfield Carr, Victoria Adukwei Bulley, Dominic Fisher

Written and presented by Glyn Maxwell.
Producer:  Mair Bosworth 

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2016.

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