1960s: Experiment and Pop
A Departure from Convention The BBC began the new decade with a new format for poetry programmes. ‘The Living Poet’, which ran until the early 1990s, would feature a single poet ...
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1920s: The Birth of Poetry Broadcasting
The Early Years We sometimes imagine, looking back, that change happens overnight. The BBC’s first Director-General John Reith, predicted that ‘broadcasting is a development with which the future ...
Poetry on BBC Radio: Introduction
Year One of a New Era The year that the BBC was founded was also a famous year for modern literature, seeing the publication of Joyce’s Ulysses and T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land. Both ...
Learn about the history of Poets Laureate
Poets Laureate are appointed as an honorary representative in their country, region, or group and often represent an eminent writer of their time. Laureates capture prominent moments or moods for ...
On the shoulders of giants…
Celebrating voices we lost in 2019 The role of the Poetry Archive is to capture recordings of poets reading their own work so we can share them with you and keep them safe for future generations ...
The 10 best recordings of poets
From Alfred Lord Tennyson to Alice Oswald, Andrew Motion chooses his favourite recordings of poems read aloud by those who wrote them Hear and download all of the recordings at poetryarchive.org, ...