Poetry Extra

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BBC Radio 4 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: The Essay - WB Yeats

The Essay - WB Yeats

BBC Radio 4 Extra - Poetry Extra, The Essay - WB Yeats

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

Daljit Nagra selects two programmes from The Essay on WB Yeats.  Written and read by Fiona Shaw and Fintan O'Toole.

To mark 100 years since poet, dramatist and prose writer WB Yeats was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1923, Daljit Nagra revisits the BBC's poetry archive and selects two programmes from the series The Essay. 

William Butler Yeats is a commanding presence in 20th-century literature and has inspired, and occasionally infuriated, successive generations of readers, writers, and performers ever since.

The Essay: Yeats by Heart 
Celebrated actress and director Fiona Shaw explains the lasting impact of her childhood introduction to the work of WB Yeats.

Producer: Stan Ferguson.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 3 in 2015.

The Essay: Not Liking Yeats
Writer and cultural commentator Fintan O'Toole explains why it is not always necessary to like everything about the man himself to appreciate the wonder of the poetry of WB Yeats.

Producer: Stan Ferguson.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 3 in 2015.

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The Essay - WB Yeats

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