Three Score and Ten – The poets and their poems, collected
Ian McMillan builds a collection of 70 remarkable poets reading their own poems, from the last seven decades of the Third Programme and Radio 3.
Dame Edith Sitwell
Ian McMillan introduces poet Dame Edith Sitwell reading in an archive recording from 1947
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Cecil Day-Lewis: An Italian Visit
In a broadcast from 1949, Cecil Day-Lewis reads from his poem An Italian Visit.
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Louis MacNeice
A recording from 1949 in which Louis MacNeice reads his poems Snow and Prayer Before Birth
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TS Eliot
Archive recordings: TS Eliot reads The Journey of the Magi and part of The Four Quartets.
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Dylan Thomas
A 1950 archive recording of Dylan Thomas reading his poem In the White Giant's Thigh.
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Edmund Blunden
Edmund Blunden reads his own poem Concert Party in an archive broadcast from 1957.
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Siegfried Sassoon
A 1955 archive recording in which Siegfried Sassoon reads three of his own poems.
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John Betjeman, William Empson
Archive recordings from 1958 made by poets John Betjeman and William Empson.
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Jenny Joseph, Edwin Muir
Archive recordings from the late 1950s made by poets Jenny Joseph and Edwin Muir.
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Walter de la Mare
An archive broadcast: Walter de la Mare reads his poems England and the Little Salamander.
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Sylvia Plath
In an archive recording first broadcast in 1963, Sylvia Plath reads her poem Daddy.
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RS Thomas
Archive broadcast from 1965 in which RS Thomas reads his poetry at the Edinburgh Festival.
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Stevie Smith
Archive broadcast from 1965 of Stevie Smith reading her poem Not Waving But Drowning.
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Philip Larkin
Archive broadcast of Philip Larkin reading his poem The Whitsun Weddings.
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Adrian Mitchell
Archive broadcast, with Adrian Mitchell reading his poem Nostalgia - Now Threepence Off.
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Vernon Scannell
Archive broadcast in which Vernon Scannell reads his poems Dejection and A Case of Murder.
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Ted Hughes
Archive broadcasts by Ted Hughes: part of The Captain's Speech and also The Mackerel Song.
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WH Auden
Archive broadcast from 1972 of WH Auden reading his poems a Lullaby and Song of the Devil.
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Dannie Abse
Archive broadcast from 1971 of Dannie Abse reading the first two parts of his poem Funland
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Seamus Heaney
Seamus Heaney talks about and reads his poems Digging and The Ministry of Fear.
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George Mackay Brown, WS Graham
Recordings of George Mackay Brown and WS Graham reading poems about loss and memory.
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Geoffrey Hill
An archive broadcast from 1979 by Geoffrey Hill, who reads a selection of his poems.
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Douglas Dunn and Michael Longley
Archive poetry readings from the 1970s, from Douglas Dunn and Michael Longley.
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Iain Crichton Smith
Archive broadcasts of Iain Crichton Smith reading his poems in Poetry Now in 1976 and 1981
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