Poetry
7 episodes
Greek and Roman Love Poetry
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Greek and Roman love poetry, from the Greek poet Sappho and her erotic descriptions of romance to the love-hate poems of the Roman writer Catullus.
26 April 2007
Featuring: Nick Lowe, Edith Hall, Maria Wyke
Lyrical Ballads
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Lyrical Ballads, the 1798 volume of poems by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
8 March 2012
Featuring: Judith Hawley, Jonathan Bate, Peter Swaab
Rumi's Poetry
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the poetry of Rumi, the Persian scholar and Sufi mystic of the 13th century, whose great poetic works are the Masnavi and the Divan.
11 February 2016
Featuring: Alan Williams, Carole Hillenbrand, Lloyd Ridgeon
Shakespeare's Sonnets
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the 154 sonnets collected and printed in 1609 of which some are famous, many are glorious, most are inspiring and several are unsettling.
24 June 2021
Featuring: Hannah Crawforth, Don Paterson, Emma Smith
Tang Era Poetry
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the most celebrated poets of 8th-century China, Li Bai and Du Fu, and their influence from the Tang Era to the present day.
12 May 2022
Featuring: Tim Barrett, Tian Yuan Tan, Frances Wood
The Sonnet
Melvyn Bragg discusses the Sonnet, the most enduring form in the poet’s armoury, from Petrarch and Shakespeare, to Milton, Wordsworth and Heaney.
21 June 2001
Featuring: Frank Kermode, Phillis Levin, Jonathan Bate
Thomas Hardy's Poetry
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Hardy's poems, which he prized far above the novels which made him famous and rich, and his ambition to be ranked alongside Shelley and Byron.
13 January 2022
Featuring: Mark Ford, Jane Thomas, Tim Armstrong
CultureFellows of the Royal Society of LiteratureBritish male poetsEnglish short story writersAlumni of King's College London20th-century English male writers19th-century English poets19th-century English novelistsEnglish male novelistsEnglish male short story writersMembers of the Order of MeritPantheistsVictorian novelists19th-century British short story writersBurials at Westminster AbbeyVictorian poets19th century20th centuryPoetry
