National Poetry Day on Radio 7
National Poetry Day on Radio 7
Thursday, October 8th is National Poetry Day.
As part of the BBC’s Poetry Season, Radio 7 presents the best in English verse.
Andrew Motion hosts Jubilee Poetry, a celebration of the role of Poet Laureate, with Wordsworth, Tennyson and Betjeman (pictured) among the featured poets.
Spike’s Fleas, Knees And Hidden Elephants offers some inspired readings by Spike Milligan of his own marvellously eccentric comic verse.
And The Nation’s Favourite Poems includes some of the most admired of all poetry, including Wilfred Owen’s Dulce Et Decorum Est and Keats’s To Autumn.
With readers including Juliet Stevenson, Siobhan Redmond and Samuel West, National Poetry Day on Radio 7 provides a perfect mix of verse and voice.
Find out about National Poetry Day events on the BBC Poetry Season website.
Andrew Motion presents a gala evening of verse by Britain’s Poets Laureate, specially recorded in 2002 in celebration of the Queen’s Golden Jubilee. Ranging from the seventeenth century to his own work, the then Laureate’s selections include poems by Dryden, Bridges, Masefield (pictured) and Southey. The readers are Juliet Stevenson, Samantha Bond and Samuel West.
Thursday at 10am, 3pm and 3am
Spike's Fleas, Knees And Hidden Elephants
Spike Milligan invites you into the wonderful world of his comic verse. His readings include the strange tale of Timothy Nerp and the mystery of The Hidden Elephant. Learn what to do when attacked by a lion, why you’ve got to have knees and what makes Spike’s fleas so special. These delightful and hilarious poems will also be popping up throughout the day on Radio 7.
Thursday at 10.30am, 3.30pm and 3.30am
John Nettles, Emma Fielding, Greg Wise and Siobhan Redmond read some of the finest poetry from Britain and Ireland. WH Davies's Leisure and Arnold’s Dover Beach are featured alongside Yeats’s The Lake Isle Of Innisfree and Not Waving But Drowning by Stevie Smith (pictured). Among many other classic poems, the programme also includes a reading of Kipling’s If – voted the Nation’s Favourite Poem in a 1995 BBC poll.
Thursday at 10.45am, 3.45pm and 3.45am
