The Poetry Detective

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Vanessa Kisuule explores the stories behind the poems we carry with us through life.

What's the line of poetry that will live in your head forever? Vanessa Kisuule tells the stories of poems that speak to us so strongly that we return to them again and again.

This is a show about the poems we carry with us. The poems that speak to us so strongly that we return to them in times of confusion, fear, loneliness or joy. Some of us might choose to scribble a couple of lines on a Post It and stick it to the mirror. Some of us mutter them under our breath like a mantra. Some of us ink them permanently into our skin. Some of us find that lines come back to us, unbidden, across the decades - and transport us to another time and place. 

Our Poetry Detective is the writer Vanessa Kisuule. She meets people with a poem that is precious to them, and unfolds the history of the poem. Why does it mean so much to them? Who wrote it and how? What's the story behind how it came to be written? How does it work on us?

BBC Radio 4 LW

The Poetry Detective: Episode One

Episode One

BBC Radio 4 - The Poetry Detective, Episode OneSearch BBC

Vanessa Kisuule explores the stories behind people's most treasured poems.

What's the line of poetry that will live in your head forever? The writer Vanessa Kisuule explores the stories behind people's most treasured poems.

A new series about the poems we carry with us through life. Poems that speak to us so strongly that we return to them in times of confusion or fear… loneliness or joy… love or doubt. Some of us might scribble these words on Post Its and stick them next to the mirror or on the fridge door. Some of us send them to friends or read them at funerals. Some of us mutter them under our breath like a mantra in moments of stress. Some of us ink them permanently into our skin. 

The poet Vanessa Kisuule speaks to people about the poems - and bits of poems - that mean the most to them. She finds out why the poems matter, and then unfolds the backstory of the poem itself - who wrote it, what was the context it came out of and how does it work on us. 

In episode one, Vanessa explores poems that have been handed down through families. For Juan Dickinson, there are lines of Louis MacNeice's poetry which will forever remind him of his late dad - who used MacNeice's verse to impart life lessons to his son. But he's never known much about MacNeice the man - can Glenn Patterson help fill in the blanks?

Meanwhile, Eleanor Penny has a poem in her family that she's never been able to identify - found in her grandad's pocket after his death. Can Chris McCabe, Librarian at the National Poetry Library help Vanessa track down the source? 

Produced in Bristol by Mair Bosworth for BBC Audio

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