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Poet
John Keats
B. 1795 D. 1821
Keats was born in London in 1795. His father was killed in a riding accident when Keats was eight; his mother died six years later, probably from tuberculosis. The loss of his parents, especially of his mother, was to help…
The Classics
To Autumn
Read by Andrew Motion
by John Keats
To Autumn - John Keats - Read by Andrew Motion
Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun; Conspiring with him how to load and bless With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run; To bend with apples the moss’d cottage-trees, And fill all fruit…
The Classics
Ode on Melancholy
Read by Andrew Motion
by John Keats
Ode on Melancholy - John Keats - Read by Andrew Motion
No, no, go not to Lethe, neither twist Wolf’s-bane, tight-rooted, for its poisonous wine Nor suffer thy pale forehead to be kiss’d By nightshade, ruby grape of Proserpine; Make not your rosary of yew-berries, Nor let the beetle, nor the…
The Classics
Ode to a Nightingale
Read by Andrew Motion
by John Keats
Ode to a Nightingale - John Keats - Read by Andrew Motion
My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk, Or emptied some dull opiate to the drains One minuute past, and Lethe-wards had sunk: ‘Tis not through envy of thy happy lot,…
The Classics
When I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be
Read by Andrew Motion
by John Keats
When I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be - John Keats - Read by Andrew Motion
When I have fears that I may cease to be Before my pen has gleaned my teeming brain, Before high-pil’d books, in charactery, Hold like rich garners the full ripened grain; When I behold, upon the night’s starred face, Huge…
The Classics
Bright Star
Read by Andrew Motion
by John Keats
Bright Star - John Keats - Read by Andrew Motion
Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art ? Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night And watching, with eternal lids apart, Like nature’s patient, sleepless Eremite, The moving waters at their priestlike task Of pure ablution round…
The Classics
Where be ye going, you Devon maid?
Read by Andrew Motion
by John Keats
Where be ye going, you Devon maid? - John Keats - Read by Andrew Motion
Where be ye going, you Devon maid?And what have ye there i’ the basket?Ye tight little fairy, just fresh from the dairy,Will ye give me some cream if I ask it?I love your meads, and I love your flowers,And I love…
The Classics
On First Looking Into Chapman’s Homer
Read by Simon Russell Beale
by John Keats
On First Looking Into Chapman’s Homer - John Keats - Read by Simon Russell Beale
Much have I travell’d in the realms of gold, And many goodly states and kingdoms seen; Round many western islands have I been Which bards in fealty to Apollo hold. Oft of one wide expanse had I been told That…
Poem
Prelude to a New Fin-de-Siècle - David Gascoyne
Incessant urging, curt, peremptory: Write what you will, in verse, or otherwise, Intelligible, using simple metaphors. Address a reader not just hypothetical But flesh and blood in no need of harangues. The time has come. We’re on the very brink…
Poem
This is the server . . . - Felix Dennis
I This is the Server, waiting on station, Silicone god of an e-mail nation, Bearing you news of a baby boy, Bringing you misery, bringing you joy – Telling you auntie has taken to pottery, Gloating your ex has won…
Poem
At dusk she walks to the lake. On shore a few egrets are pinpointing themselves in the mud. Swallows gather the insect line off the velvet reed-heads and fly up through the drapery of willows. It is still hot….
Poem
You might encounter one in a dream, meaning fair weather, bountiful crops or the welcome arrival of friends from the margins of your life. Sightings, while numerous, have never been validated. Sheep in dreams foretell an inability to protect yourself…
Poem
A Discursive Poem About Poetry and Thought - C. K. Stead
‘Opinion is not worth a rush’ – W. B. Yeats Who cares what the poets think? Shelley said they were ‘unacknowledged legislators’. He made paper boats of his thoughts and set them sailing on the Thames at Marlow – much…
Poet
Andrew Motion
B. 1952
Andrew Motion read English at Oxford University where he won the Newdigate Prize and studied the work of Edward Thomas, an abiding influence. At Hull University he taught English and worked alongside Philip Larkin, another acknowledged mentor, whose official biographer…
Poet
Penelope Shuttle
B. 1947
Penelope Shuttle (b. 1947) has made her home in Cornwall since 1970 and the county’s mercurial weather and rich history are continuing sources of inspiration. So too is the personal and artistic union Shuttle shared with her husband, the poet…
Poet
Stephanie Norgate
B. 1957
Stephanie Norgate was born in 1957 and grew up in Selborne, Hampshire. She spent part of her childhood reading the naturalist Gilbert White and playing in his house and garden, which impelled an early love of nature and of writing….
Poet
Helen Dunmore
B. 1952 D. 2017
Helen Dunmore (1952-2017) was the second of four children, her father the eldest of twelve. As she said herself “In a large family you hear a great many stories,” a grounding which influenced her career as a writer of both poetry…
Poet
Andrew Johnston
B. 1963
Andrew Johnston is the son of an English Professor, has had a successful career as a professional journalist including working as an editor for the International Herald Tribune for many years, and now lives in France where he runs a…