Larkin Revisited

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Simon Armitage, the poet laureate, unpicks Philip Larkin's poems in his centenary year.

Across ten programmes and ten Philip Larkin poems, Simon Armitage, the poet laureate, finds out what happens when he revisits and unpicks Larkin's work in his centenary year.

Across ten programmes and ten iconic Phillip Larkin poems, Simon Armitage, the poet laureate, finds out what happens when he unpicks Larkin's poems in his centenary year, and lets the language that entered the culture resonate as he goes about his own life as a poet.

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Larkin Revisited: Aubade

Aubade

BBC Radio 4 - Larkin Revisited, Aubade

Simon Armitage explores Philip Larkin's poem Aubade.

Across ten programmes and ten Philip Larkin poems, Simon Armitage, the Poet Laureate, finds out what happens when he revisits and unpicks Larkin's work in his centenary year.

Episode nine:
Simon Armitage explores 'Aubade', a Larkin poem which invites us to contemplate 'Unresting death, a whole day nearer now', and considered to be one of his most powerful.

Simon is joined by the poet Glyn Maxwell, the poetry editor of the Times Literary Supplement Camille Ralphs (both of whom read the poem for us in the small hours, when the poem is set), and by Stephen Bush, associate editor of the Financial Times, to see how Larkin's unflinching look at non-existence lands in 2022.

Producer: Faith Lawrence
Mixed by: Sue Stonestreet

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