Poetry Extra: Suckers! Poet and Parasite

Original version

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

Suckers! Poet and Parasite

BBC Radio 4 Extra - Poetry Extra, Suckers! Poet and Parasite

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

Daljit Nagra chooses Suckers! Poet and Parasite as Paul Farley hunts out fleas and lice and their link to poetry.  From 2010.

Daljit Nagra revisits the BBC's poetry archive and chooses Suckers! Poet and Parasite, as poet Paul Farley explores the itchy relationship between poets and blood-sucking parasites.  

Parasites are not an obvious subject matter for poetry, but in fact there are a surprising number of poems about these miniature blood-suckers.  From Donne's 'The Flea', to Rimbaud's 'Lice Hunters' and D.H. Lawrence's 'Mosquito', it seems that a number of prominent poets have been fascinated by the notion of blood-sucking and by the uncomfortable relationship between man and parasite.  

Paul Farley considers this long relationship between poets and parasites as he looks for leeches in the pools of Dungeness, visits the mosquito colonies cultivated under Gower Street in London and marvels at the strange beauty of the flea specimens in the Rothschild Collection of Fleas at the Natural History Museum.  

In the company of entomologists and of fellow poets, Susan Wicks, Antony Dunn and Sarah Howe, Paul examines both classic and contemporary poems to discover how parasites have been portrayed - and transformed - in verse.  

Produced by Emma Harding

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2010.

Your digital radio entertainment station showcasing the best in comedy and drama

Your digital radio entertainment station showcasing the best in comedy and drama. With recent favourites from BBC Radio 4.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Poetry Extra

Suckers! Poet and Parasite

Genres

Brand

BBC Radio 4 Extra

About BBC Radio 4 Extra