In our eighth programme we look at Wordsworth’s famous poem ‘Composed Upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802.’ That poem is the climax of Lance’s Guided Poetry Walk along the Banks of the Thames. One of the things Lance shows visitors is a series of paving stones with poem extracts that are on the walkway near the Festival Hall. So on this program Lance reads all four paving stone poems before finishing with Wordsworth’s famous words – just as he does on the walk!

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In our seventh programme we look at three of the so-called Metaphysical Poets. ‘The Baite’ by John Donne, ‘To His Coy Mistress’ by Andrew Marvell, ‘The Pulley’ by George Herbert and ‘Holy Sonnet X’ by John Donne.

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The Baite by John Donne

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

‘To His Coy Mistress’ by Andrew Marvell

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

‘The Pulley’ by George Herbert

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Holy Sonnet X (Death be not proud) by John Donne

In our sixth programme we read our first listener-nominated poem – ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’ by Alfred Lord Tennyson. Since he wrote it while he was Poet Laureate Lance also reads two other poems by famous holders of that office. ’14th November 1973′ by John Betjeman – on the occasion of Princess Anne’s wedding to Mark Phillips. And Carol Ann Duffy’s ‘Last Post’ – written to commemorate the deaths of two veterans of the First World War.

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‘Last Post’ from 1914: Poetry Remembers by Carol Ann Duffy. Publilshed by Faber & Faber, 2015. Copyright (c) Carol Ann Duffy. Recorded by permission of the author c/o Rogers, Coleridge & White Ltd, 20 Powis Mews, London W11 1JN

 

 

 

In our third programme focusing on Lance’s favourite poems we come to his number one choice. George Herbert’s ‘Love (III).’

Download: Programme 5

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You can find Lance’s poetry CDs here

The music at the end of the podcast can be found here. Love Bade Me Welcome (Five Mystical Songs) by Ralph Vaughan Williams. Jamie W. Hall – Bass baritone. Richard McVeigh – Piano.

In our second of three programmes we hear another of Lance’s favourite poems. Gerard Manley Hopkins’ ‘Epithalamion.’

Download: Programme 4

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Frank Skinner’s Poetry Podcast episode on Hopkins’ poem ‘The Windhover’ can be found here

Find out more about The Hopkins Society here

You can find Lance’s Hopkins CDs here or listen to his Hopkins podcast here

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In our next three programmes we hear three of Lance’s favourite poems. We begin today with a deeply personal poem by John Betjeman: Before the Anaesthetic or A Real Fright

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You can find most of Betjeman’s poems in John Betjeman, Collected Poems, published by John Murray.  There is a fuller list of books at betjemansociety.com/booklist

You can hear 72 of his most famous poems on: ‘John Betjeman: A First Class Collection’, BBC Audio and the best of the rest on ‘The John Betjeman You Never Knew‘ by Lance Pierson

Find out more about The Betjeman Society here

AN Wilson’s list of 31 Betjeman poems that he considered to be among the best written poems (in English) in the 20th century

Aldershot Crematorium

The Arrest of Oscar Wilde at the Cadogan Hotel

Business Girls

By the Ninth Green, St Enodoc

Christmas

The Cockney Amorist

The Costa Blanca

Croydon

Death in Leamington

Death of King George V

Devonshire Street, W.1

Eunice

Felixstowe

Harrow-on-the-Hill

In a Bath Teashop

In Willesden Churchyard

Invasion Exercise on the Poultry Farm

Ireland with Emily

Late-Flowering Lust

Lenten Thoughts of a High Anglican

The Licorice Fields at Pontefract

Middlesex

Myfanwy

Myfanwy  at Oxford

Oxford: Sudden Illness at the Bus-stop

Parliament Hill Fields

Pershore Station

St Saviour’s, Aberdeen Park, Highbury, London N

A Subaltern’s Love Song

Sun and Fun

Youth and Age on Beaulieu River, Hants

In our second programme we look at five poems (see below) by modern poets writing about poetry itself.

Download: Programme 2

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Click here to find out more about Lance’s poetry CD (Sing in My Mind)

Follow these links to find the words to each poem (where no link exists we encourage you to buy the book!)

 

Shed Fever by Malcolm Guite (from After Prayer published by Canterbury Press. Used with the author’s permission.)

Preliminary Ritual by Malcolm Guite (from After Prayer published by Canterbury Press. Used with the author’s permission.)

After the Book is Closed by Gerard Benson (from Swings and Shadows, edited by Anne Harvey, published by Random House. Copyright Control)

When there was nothing by Stewart Henderson (from Homeland published by Hodder & Stoughton.  Copyright c 1993 Stewart Henderson.  Used with the author’s permission.)

Take a Poem by James Carter (from Zim Zam Zoom – zappy poems to read out loud published by Otter-Barry Books Ltd. Used with the author’s permission.)

In our first programme we look at three poems (see below) to help get us through hard times (since the podcast was launched during the Corona Virus lock-down of 2020).

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Click here to find out more about the CD (Shakespeare’s Greatest Hits) which features Lance’s performance of ‘Once more unto the breach’

William Shakespeare, King Henry V, Act 3, scene 1.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

John Milton, ‘Sonnet on his Blindness’

 

 

 

 

 

 

William Cowper, ‘Light shining out of darkness’