Explore Poetry
Not sure where to start? Who to listen to? What to read? The links below will help you - simply search below using names or key words to explore all our poetry recordings, texts, interviews and a huge range of other materials.
Search & Filter
14 results
Sort by:
Poem
by Nairn Kennedy
Poet
W N Herbert
B. 1961
Herbert takes on the major forms of ode and elegy, adding satire, comedy and the ancient Scottish tradition of extended insult, as well as modes still undefined. - Sean O'Brien
Poet
John Agard
B. 1949
His poems are direct and arresting, playful, full of startling imagery, and are hilarious, passionate and erotic as often as they are political - often managing to be all these things at once - Maura Dooley
Poet
Poet
Susan Hampton
B. 1949
Hampton is an open-minded writer, with the uncertainties and hesitations of the true seeker. - Stephen Lawrence
Poet
E E Cummings
B. 1894 D. 1962
America makes prodigious mistakes, America has colossal faults, but one thing cannot be denied: America is always on the move. She may be going to Hell, of course, but at least she isn't standing still. - E. E. Cummings
Poet
Sylvia Plath
B. 1932 D. 1963
The blood jet is poetry,/ There is no stopping it. - 'Kindness', Sylvia Plath (written 1st February 1963)
Poet
Kit Wright
B. 1944
I think so highly of poetry that I've dedicated my life to it. It's the most important thing to me. - Kit Wright
Poet
John Betjeman
B. 1906 D. 1984
Now if the harvest is over / And the world cold / Give me the bonus of laughter / As I lose hold. - 'A Nip in the Air', John Betjeman
Poet
Jenny Joseph
B. 1932 D. 2018
Why are we frightened of the word for love? - 'Language teaching: naming', Jenny Joseph
Poet
Poet
Alan Brownjohn
B. 1931
I've always been concerned to get into [my poetry] the details of daily living which portray - or betray - human strengths and weaknesses and oddities. - Alan Brownjohn