Poetry Extra: Charlotte Mew

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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: Charlotte Mew - The Heart of Hidden Things

Charlotte Mew - The Heart of Hidden Things

BBC Radio 4 Extra - Poetry Extra, Charlotte Mew - The Heart of Hidden Things

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

Daljit Nagra selects Charlotte Mew - The Heart of Hidden Things - the only born and bred Bloomsbury poet.  With Julia Copus.

Poet Daljit Nagra revisits the BBC's poetry archive and selects Charlotte Mew - The Heart of Hidden Things.

Julia Copus explores the poetry and life of the only born and bred Bloomsbury poet.

Thomas Hardy wrote that Charlotte Mew was "Far and away the best living woman poet - who will be remembered when others are forgotten." Siegfried Sassoon said that she was "the only poet who can give me a lump in my throat," while Virginia Woolf called her "the greatest living poetess". 

Although she lived in Bloomsbury all her life, she was never part of the Bloomsbury set and, when Charlotte Mew died in 1928 aged 59, a small notice in a London paper described her simply as "Charlotte Mary New, 53" - the name and the age both wrong. 

But to those who knew her, Charlotte Mew was a compelling, at times mischievous and groundbreaking poet, whose writing was full of sea-breezes, lamp-lit streets, human voices, and the sudden stark contrasts between sound and silence, between life and death. 

Her dramatic monologue The Farmer's Bride caused a sensation in literary circles when it was published in 1912, dramatising the terrifying story of a young woman trapped in a powerless arranged marriage, who is literally locked away. 

Julia explores how Charlotte Mew broke the mould of contemporary styles in the early 20th century and created a unique poetic voice.

Reader: Raquel Cassidy

Producer: Jo Wheeler

A Freewheel production for BBC Radio 4, first broadcast in 2019.

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