Sonneteers
A sonnet is a poetic form which originated in the poetry composed at the Court of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II in the Sicilian city of Palermo. The 13th-century poet and notary Giacomo da Lentini is credited with the sonnet's invention and the Sicilian School of poets who surrounded him then spread the form to the mainland.
14 episodes
Episodes in this category also belong to the following categories:
Christina Rossetti
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life and work of the Victorian poet Christina Rossetti.
1 December 2011
Featuring: Dinah Birch, Rhian Williams, Nicholas Shrimpton
CultureVictorian women writersSonneteersEnglish fantasy writersAnglican saintsBurials at Highgate CemeteryEnglish hymnwritersEnglish women poetsWriters from the London Borough of Camden19th-century British writersPoets from London19th-century English women writersBritish people of Italian descent, English people of Italian descent, Polidori-Rossetti familyVictorian poetsGeorge Herbert
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the author of 'the most beautiful poem in the world' whose works on his relationship with God offered comfort to Charles I when he faced execution.
07 November 2024
Featuring: Helen Wilcox, Victoria Moul, Simon Jackson
CulturePoet priestsSonneteersPeople celebrated in the Lutheran liturgical calendar17th-century English Anglican priestsAnglican saintsAnglo-Welsh poets17th-century deaths from tuberculosisEnglish male poetsAnglican poetsTuberculosis deaths in EnglandLutheran saintsAlumni of Trinity College, CambridgePeople educated at Westminster School, London17th-century Christian mystics17th-century English male writersProtestant mystics17th-century English poetsAnglican writersGerard Manley Hopkins
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the works of Hopkins, unpublished in his lifetime, who FR Leavis called 'the only influential poet of the Victorian age and the greatest'.
21 March 2019
Featuring: Catherine Phillips, Jane Wright, Martin Dubois
John Clare
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss John Clare, the 'Northamptonshire peasant poet', whose writing was as celebrated as his life was humble.
9 February 2017
Featuring: Jonathan Bate, Mina Gorji, Simon Kövesi
John Donne
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the extraordinary life and work of one of England's finest love poets and, as Dean of St Paul's Cathedral, most remarkable preachers.
12 January 2023
Featuring: Mary Ann Lund, Sue Wiseman, Hugh Adlington
CulturePeople from the City of London17th-century Anglican theologiansLutheran saintsLiteracy and society theoristsIndependent scholarsPamphleteers17th-century English Anglican priestsChristian poetsAnglican poetsAlumni of Hart Hall, OxfordEpigrammatistsMetaphor theoristsPoet priestsEnglish people of Welsh descentPeople celebrated in the Lutheran liturgical calendar16th-century English male writersCritics of the Catholic ChurchLiterary theoristsEnglish male poets16th-century English poets17th-century English poetsMetaphysical poetsWriters from LondonSonneteersPhilosophers of religionAnglican saintsEnglish satiristsWriters about activism and social changeEnglish male non-fiction writers17th-century English male writersJorge Luis Borges
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life and work of the Argentinian master of the short story, Jorge Luis Borges.
4 January 2007
Featuring: Edwin Williamson, Efraín Kristal, Evelyn Fishburn
Postmodern writers, Recipients of the Legion of HonourBlind writersLiteracy and society theoristsPhilosophers of literatureTrope theoristsPhilosophers of identityMetaphor theoristsAphoristsJerusalem Prize recipientsCommanders Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of GermanyPhilosophers of cultureAnthologistsPhilosophers of artLiterary theorists20th-century essayistsPhilosophers of mathematics20th-century translatorsPhilosophers of timeMagic realism writers20th-century mysticsPhilosophers of mindLecturersBlind poetsSonneteersHaiku poetsSpanish-language poetsPhilosophers of pessimismMetaphysics writersSurrealist writersLorca
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the work of Federico Garcia Lorca, author of Blood Wedding, Yerma and The House of Bernarda Alba, executed by Franco's forces, his body unrecovered.
4 July 2019
Featuring: Maria Delgado, Federico Bonaddio, Sarah Wright
Milton
Melvyn Bragg examines the literary and political career of the 17th century poet John Milton, examining work such as Paradise Lost as well as his role as propagandist during the English Civil War.
7 March 2002
Featuring: John Carey, Lisa Jardine, Blair Worden
Mythopoeic writersChristian humanistsBlind writersEnglish male dramatists and playwrightsPeople from the City of LondonLiteracy and society theorists17th-century English dramatists and playwrights17th-century English philosophersEnglish writers with disabilitiesBritish philosophers of religionPamphleteersNeoclassical writersRhetoriciansBritish free speech activistsEpic poetsChristian poetsSocial philosophersMale essayistsAnglican poetsDeaths from kidney failure in the United KingdomMetaphor theoristsEnglish DissentersRhetoric theoristsAlumni of Christ's College, Cambridge17th-century writers in LatinLiterary theoristsCritics of the Catholic ChurchEnglish male poets17th-century English writersEnglish theologians17th-century English poetsEnglish Anglican theologiansWriters from LondonAnti-Catholicism in the United KingdomBlind poetsCalvinist and Reformed poetsSonneteersAnglican philosophers17th-century English educatorsEnglish essayistsEnglish political philosophersEnlightenment philosophersEnglish educational theoristsWriters about activism and social changeEnglish non-fiction writersEnglish republicans17th-century English male writersShakespeare and Literary Criticism
Melvyn Bragg discusses the enduring popular and academic appeal of Shakespeare and examines whether literary criticism and the academic institution ruins the pleasure of reading.
4 March 1999
Featuring: Harold Bloom, Jacqueline Rose
16th-century English dramatists and playwrightsSonneteersEnglish male dramatists and playwrightsEnglish male poetsPeople of the Elizabethan era17th-century English dramatists and playwrights16th-century English poets17th-century English male writers17th-century English poetsEnglish Renaissance dramatists16th-century English male actors, 17th-century English male actors, Burials in Warwickshire, English male stage actors, King's Men (playing company), Male actors from Stratford-upon-Avon, People educated at King Edward VI School, Stratford-upon-Avon, Shakespeare family, William Shakespeare, Writers from WarwickshireShakespeare's Life
Melvyn Bragg discusses what we know about the life of William Shakespeare, a tantalising conundrum that has exercised minds since the day the playwright died.
15 March 2001
Featuring: Katherine Duncan-Jones, John Sutherland, Grace Ioppolo
16th-century English dramatists and playwrightsSonneteersEnglish male dramatists and playwrightsEnglish male poetsPeople of the Elizabethan era17th-century English dramatists and playwrights16th-century English poets17th-century English male writers17th-century English poetsEnglish Renaissance dramatists16th-century English male actors, 17th-century English male actors, Burials in Warwickshire, English male stage actors, King's Men (playing company), Male actors from Stratford-upon-Avon, People educated at King Edward VI School, Stratford-upon-Avon, Shakespeare family, William Shakespeare, Writers from WarwickshireShakespeare's Work
Melvyn Bragg discusses whether the work of William Shakespeare is 'not of an age but for all time' or increasingly irrelevant museum pieces embalmed in out of reach language.
11 May 2000
Featuring: Frank Kermode, Michael Bogdanov, Germaine Greer
16th-century English dramatists and playwrightsSonneteersEnglish male dramatists and playwrightsEnglish male poetsPeople of the Elizabethan era17th-century English dramatists and playwrights16th-century English poets17th-century English male writers17th-century English poetsEnglish Renaissance dramatists16th-century English male actors, 17th-century English male actors, Burials in Warwickshire, English male stage actors, King's Men (playing company), Male actors from Stratford-upon-Avon, People educated at King Edward VI School, Stratford-upon-Avon, Shakespeare family, William Shakespeare, Writers from WarwickshireSir Thomas Wyatt
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Tudor courtier who found a way to write extraordinary and enduring poetry while under the intense scrutiny of Henry VIII's machinery of state.
09 May 2024
Featuring: Brian Cummings, Susan Brigden, Laura Ashe
Yeats and Irish Politics
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the poet W.B. Yeats and Irish politics from the suspension of home rule to the division of Ireland.
17 April 2008
Featuring: Roy Foster, Fran Brearton, Warwick Gould
Culture19th-century Irish dramatists and playwrights, 19th-century Irish poets, Symbolist dramatists and playwrightsIrish Anglicans20th-century Irish dramatists and playwrights, 20th-century Irish male writers, 20th-century Irish poetsSonneteersNobel laureates in LiteratureIrish male dramatists and playwrightsIrish male poetsVictorian writersFellows of the Royal Society of LiteratureFormalist poetsAnthologistsAnglican poetsIrish Nobel laureates, Irish modernist poetsAnglo-Irish artists, Irish fantasy writersIrish expatriates in FranceAbbey Theatre, Alumni of the National College of Art and Design, Burials in the Republic of Ireland, Butler Yeats family, Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, Independent members of Seanad Éireann, Irish Dominion League, Irish folklorists, Irish occult writers, Irish occultists, Members of the 1922 Seanad, Members of the 1925 Seanad, Members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, People educated at The High School, Dublin, People from Sandymount, People from West Kensington, Protestant Irish nationalists, Symbolist poets, W. B. Yeats, William Blake scholarsModernist theatreYeats and Mysticism
Melvyn Bragg discusses the life and beliefs of the Irish Poet W B Yeats and explores how a passion for magic and mysticism served and stood alongside his poetry.
31 January 2002
Featuring: Roy Foster, Warwick Gould, Brenda Maddox
Religion19th-century Irish dramatists and playwrights, 19th-century Irish poets, Symbolist dramatists and playwrightsIrish Anglicans20th-century Irish dramatists and playwrights, 20th-century Irish male writers, 20th-century Irish poetsSonneteersNobel laureates in LiteratureIrish male dramatists and playwrightsIrish male poetsVictorian writersFellows of the Royal Society of LiteratureFormalist poetsAnthologistsAnglican poetsIrish Nobel laureates, Irish modernist poetsAnglo-Irish artists, Irish fantasy writersIrish expatriates in FranceAbbey Theatre, Alumni of the National College of Art and Design, Burials in the Republic of Ireland, Butler Yeats family, Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, Independent members of Seanad Éireann, Irish Dominion League, Irish folklorists, Irish occult writers, Irish occultists, Members of the 1922 Seanad, Members of the 1925 Seanad, Members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, People educated at The High School, Dublin, People from Sandymount, People from West Kensington, Protestant Irish nationalists, Symbolist poets, W. B. Yeats, William Blake scholarsModernist theatre