Poetry Extra

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BBC Radio 4 Extra

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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: Old Possum's Book Of Practical Cats 2/2/Letters To A Young Poet: Moniza Alvi

Old Possum's Book Of Practical Cats 2/2/Letters To A Young Poet: Moniza Alvi

BBC Radio 4 Extra - Poetry Extra, Old Possum's Book Of Practical Cats 2/2/Letters To A Young Poet: Moniza Alvi

Daljit Nagra selects the very best programmes from the BBC's poetry archive.

Daljit selects Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats read by Jeremy Irons (2/2) 2015; Letters to a Young Poet: Moniza Alvi (2014).

Poet Daljit Nagra revisits the BBC's radio poetry archive and selects two programmes this week.    Firstly part 2/2 of Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats read by Jeremy Irons and The Essay featuring Moniza Alvi: Letters To A Young Poet.   

On Christmas Day 1937, nearly two years before book publication, five of T.S Eliot's Practical Cats poems were broadcast as readings by Geoffrey Tandy on BBC Radio. The Radio Times wrote' For some time past Mr Eliot has been amusing and instructing the offspring of some of his friends in verse on the subject of cats. These poems are not the kind that have been usually associated with his name'.  Over 75 years later, one of our greatest actors, Oscar- winning Jeremy Irons re-visits the original poems.

In part two you can hear five poems featuring Gus: The Theatre Cat,  The Old Gumbie, CatBustopher Jones: The Cat about Town, Cat Morgan introduces himself and The Ad-dressing of Cats.

Producer:  Susan Roberts. 

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on Christmas Day 2015. 



The Essay - Moniza Alvi: Letters To A Young Poet 

Taking Rilke's classic correspondence as inspiration, leading poets write a personal letter to a young poet to pass on life experience and thoughts about the poetic art..
Today, Pakistan-born Moniza Alvi.

The original Letters to a Young Poet is a compilation of letters by Rainer Maria Rilke, written between 1902 and 1908 to a 19-year-old officer cadet called Franz Kappus.  Rilke's letters touch on poetry and criticism, but they range widely in subject matter from atheism and loneliness, to friendship and sexuality.   

Moniza Alvi was born in Pakistan and grew up in Hertfordshire. 

Producer - Emma Harding

First broadcast on BBC Radio 3 in 2014.

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