Poetry Extra: A Dream Vision for Our Times

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

A Dream Vision for Our Times

BBC Radio 4 Extra - Poetry Extra, A Dream Vision for Our Times

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

Dajlit Nagra selects A Dream Vision of Our Times exploring the poems of Geoffrey Chaucer.  Presented by Henry Eliot.  From 2019.

The poet Dajlit Nagra revisits the BBC's poetry archive and selects  A Dream Vision of Our Times - an exploration of the poems of Geoffrey Chaucer.  

Daljit also shares a favourite, recently published poetry collection and reads a poem from it.  

This month's Poetry Extra Book of the Month is: Five Fifty Five by Maura Dooley.


A Dream Vision of Our Times - Writer Henry Eliot explores Geoffrey Chaucer’s surreal Dream Vision poems and their contemporary relevance.

Chaucer, the father of English literature, is best known for his long narrative poem The Canterbury Tales, but his witty and imaginative dream visions are also wild, funny and surprisingly relevant today. Henry Eliot considers three of these medieval poems - The Parliament of Fowls, The Book of the Duchess and The House of Fame - and how they changed the course of English poetry.

They all begin with a narrator falling asleep, before quickly slipping into surreal and fantastical dream worlds, where talking birds debate the nature of true love, eagles fly into space and men grieve in forests. There are desert wildernesses, ice mountains, glass temples, wicker houses and emerald palaces.

Chaucer depicts the cacophonous worlds of rumour, debate, gossip and hearsay, invoking uncanny parallels with today’s world of social media frenzies, celebrity culture, post-truth and fake news. But he also explores the complex and messy nature of psychology, experience and what it means to be human.


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

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

A Dream Vision for Our Times

Genres

Brand

BBC Radio 4 Extra

About BBC Radio 4 Extra