Deaths Of The Poets

Episodes

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Broadcast
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01A Portable Shrine2017021320170220 (R4)
20170221 (R4)
What is the cost of poetry? Must poets be melancholic, doomed and self-destructive? Or is this just a myth? In our new Book of the Week, Michael Symmons Roberts and Paul Farley - both award winning poets themselves - explore that very question through a series of journeys across Britain, America and Europe.

From Sylvia Plath's desperate suicide in the gas oven of her Primrose Hill kitchen to John Berryman's leap from a bridge onto the frozen Mississippi, the deaths of poets have often cast a backward shadow on their work.

The post-Romantic myth of the dissolute drunken poet has fatally skewed the image of poets in our culture. Novelists can be stable, savvy, politically adept and in control, but poets should be melancholic, doomed and self-destructive. Is this just a myth, or is there some essential truth behind it: that great poems only come when a poet's life is pushed right to an emotional knife-edge of acceptability, safety, security?

Today the poets explore the lives - and tragic deaths - of Thomas Chatterton and Dylan Thomas.

Written and read by the authors

Abridged for radio by Lauris Morgan Griffiths

Produced by Simon Richardson.

Poets Michael Symmons Roberts and Paul Farley ask 'What is the true cost of poetry?'.

02The Names Of The Bridges2017021420170221 (R4)
20170222 (R4)
What is the cost of poetry? Must poets be melancholic, doomed and self-destructive? Or is this just a myth? In our new Book of the Week, Michael Symmons Roberts and Paul Farley - both award winning poets themselves - explore that very question through a series of journeys across Britain, America and Europe.

From Thomas Chatterton's Pre-Raphaelite demise to Dylan Thomas's eighteen straight whiskies, the deaths of poets have often cast a backward shadow on their work.

The post-Romantic myth of the dissolute drunken poet - exemplified by Thomas and made iconic by his death in New York - has fatally skewed the image of poets in our culture. Novelists can be stable, savvy, politically adept and in control, but poets should be melancholic, doomed and self-destructive. Is this just a myth, or is there some essential truth behind it: that great poems only come when a poet's life is pushed right to an emotional knife-edge of acceptability, safety, security?

Today the poets explore the lives - and suicides - of John Berryman and Sylvia Plath.

Written and read by the authors

Abridged for radio by Lauris Morgan Griffiths

Produced by Simon Richardson.

The authors explore the lives - and suicides - of John Berryman and Sylvia Plath.

03Poet Interrupted2017021520170222 (R4)
20170223 (R4)
What is the cost of poetry? Must poets be melancholic, doomed and self-destructive? Or is this just a myth? In our new Book of the Week, Michael Symmons Roberts and Paul Farley - both award winning poets themselves - explore that very question through a series of journeys across Britain, America and Europe.

From Chatterton's Pre-Raphaelite demise to Dylan Thomas's eighteen straight whiskies and Sylvia Plath's desperate suicide in the gas oven of her Primrose Hill kitchen or John Berryman's leap from a bridge onto the frozen Mississippi, the deaths of poets have often cast a backward shadow on their work.

The post-Romantic myth of the dissolute drunken poet - exemplified by Thomas and made iconic by his death in New York - has fatally skewed the image of poets in our culture. Novelists can be stable, savvy, politically adept and in control, but poets should be melancholic, doomed and self-destructive. Is this just a myth, or is there some essential truth behind it: that great poems only come when a poet's life is pushed right to an emotional knife-edge of acceptability, safety, security?

Today the poets explore the lives - and deaths - of Stevie Smith and Louis MacNeice.

Written and read by the authors

Abridged for radio by Lauris Morgan Griffiths

Produced by Simon Richardson.

The authors explore the lives - and deaths - of Stevie Smith and Louis MacNeice.

04The Burning Of Some Idols2017021620170223 (R4)
20170224 (R4)
What is the cost of poetry? Must poets be melancholic, doomed and self-destructive? Or is this just a myth? In our new Book of the Week, Michael Symmons Roberts and Paul Farley - both award winning poets themselves - explore that very question through a series of journeys across Britain, America and Europe.

From Chatterton's Pre-Raphaelite demise to Dylan Thomas's eighteen straight whiskies and Sylvia Plath's desperate suicide in the gas oven of her Primrose Hill kitchen or John Berryman's leap from a bridge onto the frozen Mississippi, the deaths of poets have often cast a backward shadow on their work.

The post-Romantic myth of the dissolute drunken poet - exemplified by Thomas and made iconic by his death in New York - has fatally skewed the image of poets in our culture. Novelists can be stable, savvy, politically adept and in control, but poets should be melancholic, doomed and self-destructive. Is this just a myth, or is there some essential truth behind it: that great poems only come when a poet's life is pushed right to an emotional knife-edge of acceptability, safety, security?

Today the poets explore the lives - and reclusive deaths - of Emily Dickinson and Rosemary Tonks.

Written and read by the authors

Abridged for radio by Lauris Morgan Griffiths

Produced by Simon Richardson.

05 LAST2017021720170224 (R4)
20170225 (R4)
What is the cost of poetry? Must poets be melancholic, doomed and self-destructive? Or is this just a myth? In our new Book of the Week, Michael Symmons Roberts and Paul Farley - both award winning poets themselves - explore that very question through a series of journeys across Britain, America and Europe.

From Chatterton's Pre-Raphaelite demise to Dylan Thomas's eighteen straight whiskies and Sylvia Plath's desperate suicide in the gas oven of her Primrose Hill kitchen or John Berryman's leap from a bridge onto the frozen Mississippi, the deaths of poets have often cast a backward shadow on their work.

The post-Romantic myth of the dissolute drunken poet - exemplified by Thomas and made iconic by his death in New York - has fatally skewed the image of poets in our culture. Novelists can be stable, savvy, politically adept and in control, but poets should be melancholic, doomed and self-destructive. Is this just a myth, or is there some essential truth behind it: that great poems only come when a poet's life is pushed right to an emotional knife-edge of acceptability, safety, security?

Today the poets explore the life - and death - of eccentric poet W H Auden.

Written and read by the authors

Abridged for radio by Lauris Morgan Griffiths

Produced by Simon Richardson.

Michael Symmons Roberts and Paul Farley explore the life, and death, of poet WH Auden.