Larkin Revisited

Episode

Title

First
Broadcast

Repeated

Comments

Born Yesterday

20220808

20251229 (R4)

Across ten programmes and ten iconic Phillip Larkin poems, Simon Armitage, the Poet Laureate, finds out what happens when he unpicks Larkin's poems in his centenary year, and lets the language that entered the culture resonate as he goes about his own life as a poet ( Sent out of sight/ Somewhere becoming rain.', It becomes still more difficult to find/ Words at once true and kind/ Or not untrue and not unkind.').

Larkin's poems still feel like contraband: saying the unsayable, facing the reality of time and its passing - whilst offering moments of astonishing beauty and transcendence. Simon has lived with Larkin's work ever since he was told as a teenager that there was a real poet living in Yorkshire. He is fascinated by the way his poems are constructed; the way they often seem to tear things down, often exposing the truth of something difficult, and yet can also be freeing - the opposite of platitudes.

The poems Simon has chosen to explore (including Aubade' and The Whitsun Weddings') show Larkin's range and achievement; they are poems that face the truth of relationships, of death, as well as poems of place and civic life like 'Bridge for the Living' (an unusual commission for Larkin which celebrates Hull as an 'Isolate city').

In this series Simon takes us to the places Larkin's poems understood intimately - Coventry, and Hull - as he roadtests' different poems, to see what survives of them in 2022, especially when we know so much more about the private world of this complex and contradictory poet, than his first readers would have known.

Episode one;

Simon Armitage explores Philip Larkin's poem 'Born Yesterday' - a poem written to celebrate the birth of a baby girl, and which suggests she might be happier if she can be dull.

Producer: Faith Lawrence

Mixed by: Sue Stonestreet

[LISTEN NOW]

Love Songs In Age

20220809

20251230 (R4)

Across ten programmes and ten Philip Larkin poems, Simon Armitage, the Poet Laureate, finds out what happens when he revisits and unpicks Larkin's work in his centenary year.

Episode two:

Simon Armitage explores Philip Larkin's poem Love Songs in Age

Love Songs in Age is a poem that tries to capture the emotions we feel when we hear music that reminds us of our youth, and love that has passed or ended.

But does it still resonate with us in 2022?

Producer: Faith Lawrence

Mixed by: Sue Stonestreet

[LISTEN NOW]

Talking In Bed

20220810

20251230 (R4)

Across ten programmes and ten Philip Larkin poems, Simon Armitage, the Poet Laureate, finds out what happens when he revisits and unpicks Larkin's work in his centenary year.

Episode 3:

Simon Armitage explores Philip Larkin's poem Talking in Bed.

In Talking in Bed Larkin depicts a couple who are struggling to communicate - to find words 'at once true and kind,/ Or not untrue and not unkind.' Does this poem still speak to us meaningfully about the difficulty of intimate relationships?

Producer: Faith Lawrence

Mixed by: Sue Stonestreet

[LISTEN NOW]

Toads Revisited

20220811

20251231 (R4)

Across ten programmes and ten Philip Larkin poems, Simon Armitage, the Poet Laureate, finds out what happens when he revisits and unpicks Larkin's work in his centenary year.

Episode four:

Simon Armitage explores Philip Larkin's poem Toads Revisited.

Larkin's image of the toad as a metaphor for the burden of work appears in his poem Toads - but in Toads Revisited the 'toad work' becomes a kind of crutch, helping the poet 'down Cemetery Road'. Does the image of the 'toad' still work for us today, as Larkin intended?

Producer: Faith Lawrence

Mixed by: Sue Stonestreet

[LISTEN NOW]

High Windows

20220812

20251231 (R4)

Across ten programmes and ten poems, Simon Armitage, the poet laureate, finds out what happens when he revisits Philip Larkin's work in his centenary year.

Episode five:

Simon Armitage explores Philip Larkin's poem 'High Windows'.

High Windows' was described by one reviewer as speaking 'plainly of a feeling of exclusion from sexual happiness'. But does its swearing, and its transcendent imagery - 'the deep blue air' - still hold a charge for us today?

Producer: Faith Lawrence

Mixed by: Sue Stonestreet

[LISTEN NOW]

To The Sea

20220815

20260101 (R4)

Across ten programmes and ten poems, Simon Armitage, the Poet Laureate, finds out what happens when he revisits Philip Larkin's work in his centenary year.

Episode 6:

Simon Armitage explores Philip Larkin's poem 'To the Sea', a poem which describes how everything 'crowds under the low horizon' at the beach in high summer.

Larkin wrote once that holidays stemmed from 'a romantic notion that it will all be better at Frinton or Venice', but this is one of his most celebratory poems. Does 'To the Sea' still speak to us today?

Producer: Faith Lawrence

Mixed by: Sue Stonestreet

[LISTEN NOW]

Going, Going

20220816

20260101 (R4)

Across ten programmes and ten Philip Larkin poems, Simon Armitage, the Poet Laureate, finds out what happens when he revisits and unpicks Larkin's work in his centenary year.

Episode seven:

Simon Armitage explores Philip Larkin's poem 'Going, Going', which invokes an England the poet fears will soon disappear ('The shadows, the meadows, the lanes,/The guildhalls, the carved choirs.) Does this poem's tone and language still resonate with us today? Can 'Going, Going' be seen as an eco-poem?

[LISTEN NOW]

Bridge For The Living

20220817

20260102 (R4)

Across ten programmes and ten Philip Larkin poems, Simon Armitage, the Poet Laureate, finds out what happens when he revisits and unpicks Larkin's work in his centenary year.

Episode eight:

Simon Armitage explores extracts from Philip Larkin's 'Bridge for the Living', which ends with an unusually uplifting final verse for a Larkin poem: 'Reaching for the world as our lives do/As all lives do ... Always it is by bridges that we live.' 'Bridge for the Living' was a commissioned poem, set to music by the composer Anthony Hedges to mark the opening of the Humber Bridge.

Commissioned poems don't always survive the moment of their making - so does this one deserve our attention in 2022?

And why did Larkin call it 'Bridge for the Living'?

Producer: Faith Lawrence

Mixed by: Sue Stonestreet

Simon Armitage explores Bridge for the Living.

[LISTEN NOW]

Aubade

20220818

20260102 (R4)

Across ten programmes and ten Philip Larkin poems, Simon Armitage, the Poet Laureate, finds out what happens when he revisits and unpicks Larkin's work in his centenary year.

Episode nine:

Simon Armitage explores 'Aubade', a Larkin poem which invites us to contemplate 'Unresting death, a whole day nearer now', and considered to be one of his most powerful.

Simon is joined by the poet Glyn Maxwell, the poetry editor of the Times Literary Supplement Camille Ralphs (both of whom read the poem for us in the small hours, when the poem is set), and by Stephen Bush, associate editor of the Financial Times, to see how Larkin's unflinching look at non-existence lands in 2022.

Producer: Faith Lawrence

Mixed by: Sue Stonestreet

Simon Armitage explores Philip Larkin's poem Aubade.

[LISTEN NOW]

10 LAST

The Whitsun Weddings

20220819

20260103 (R4)

Across ten programmes and ten Philip Larkin poems, Simon Armitage, the Poet Laureate, finds out what happens when he revisits and unpicks Larkin's work in his centenary year.

Episode ten:

Simon Armitage explores Philip Larkin's 'The Whitsun Weddings' - considered by many to be the poem that best represents his unique talent.

In this programme Simon, and his fellow poets Daljit Nagra and Sinéad Morrissey celebrate Larkin's attention to detail - his particular gift for description, and consider whether the journey Larkin takes us on across the poem still resonates in 2022.

Producer: Faith Lawrence

Mixed by: Sue Stonestreet

Simon Armitage explores Philip Larkin's poem The Whitsun Weddings.

[LISTEN NOW]

OMNI-01

Born Yesterday, Talking In Bed, Toads Revisited, High Windows

20220812

OMNI-02

To The Sea, Going Going, Aubade, The Whitsun Weddings

20220819

Episodes

Episode	Title	First Broadcast	Repeated	Comments
01	Born Yesterday	20220808	20251229 (R4)	Across ten programmes and ten iconic Phillip Larkin poems, Simon Armitage, the Poet Laureate, finds out what happens when he unpicks Larkin's poems in his centenary year, and lets the language that entered the culture resonate as he goes about his own life as a poet ( Sent out of sight/ Somewhere becoming rain.', It becomes still more difficult to find/ Words at once true and kind/ Or not untrue and not unkind.'). Larkin's poems still feel like contraband: saying the unsayable, facing the reality of time and its passing - whilst offering moments of astonishing beauty and transcendence. Simon has lived with Larkin's work ever since he was told as a teenager that there was a real poet living in Yorkshire. He is fascinated by the way his poems are constructed; the way they often seem to tear things down, often exposing the truth of something difficult, and yet can also be freeing - the opposite of platitudes. The poems Simon has chosen to explore (including Aubade' and The Whitsun Weddings') show Larkin's range and achievement; they are poems that face the truth of relationships, of death, as well as poems of place and civic life like 'Bridge for the Living' (an unusual commission for Larkin which celebrates Hull as an 'Isolate city'). In this series Simon takes us to the places Larkin's poems understood intimately - Coventry, and Hull - as he roadtests' different poems, to see what survives of them in 2022, especially when we know so much more about the private world of this complex and contradictory poet, than his first readers would have known. Episode one; Simon Armitage explores Philip Larkin's poem 'Born Yesterday' - a poem written to celebrate the birth of a baby girl, and which suggests she might be happier if she can be dull. Producer: Faith Lawrence Mixed by: Sue Stonestreet [LISTEN NOW]
02	Love Songs In Age	20220809	20251230 (R4)	Across ten programmes and ten Philip Larkin poems, Simon Armitage, the Poet Laureate, finds out what happens when he revisits and unpicks Larkin's work in his centenary year. Episode two: Simon Armitage explores Philip Larkin's poem Love Songs in Age Love Songs in Age is a poem that tries to capture the emotions we feel when we hear music that reminds us of our youth, and love that has passed or ended. But does it still resonate with us in 2022? Producer: Faith Lawrence Mixed by: Sue Stonestreet [LISTEN NOW]
03	Talking In Bed	20220810	20251230 (R4)	Across ten programmes and ten Philip Larkin poems, Simon Armitage, the Poet Laureate, finds out what happens when he revisits and unpicks Larkin's work in his centenary year. Episode 3: Simon Armitage explores Philip Larkin's poem Talking in Bed. In Talking in Bed Larkin depicts a couple who are struggling to communicate - to find words 'at once true and kind,/ Or not untrue and not unkind.' Does this poem still speak to us meaningfully about the difficulty of intimate relationships? Producer: Faith Lawrence Mixed by: Sue Stonestreet [LISTEN NOW]
04	Toads Revisited	20220811	20251231 (R4)	Across ten programmes and ten Philip Larkin poems, Simon Armitage, the Poet Laureate, finds out what happens when he revisits and unpicks Larkin's work in his centenary year. Episode four: Simon Armitage explores Philip Larkin's poem Toads Revisited. Larkin's image of the toad as a metaphor for the burden of work appears in his poem Toads - but in Toads Revisited the 'toad work' becomes a kind of crutch, helping the poet 'down Cemetery Road'. Does the image of the 'toad' still work for us today, as Larkin intended? Producer: Faith Lawrence Mixed by: Sue Stonestreet [LISTEN NOW]
05	High Windows	20220812	20251231 (R4)	Across ten programmes and ten poems, Simon Armitage, the poet laureate, finds out what happens when he revisits Philip Larkin's work in his centenary year. Episode five: Simon Armitage explores Philip Larkin's poem 'High Windows'. High Windows' was described by one reviewer as speaking 'plainly of a feeling of exclusion from sexual happiness'. But does its swearing, and its transcendent imagery - 'the deep blue air' - still hold a charge for us today? Producer: Faith Lawrence Mixed by: Sue Stonestreet [LISTEN NOW]
06	To The Sea	20220815	20260101 (R4)	Across ten programmes and ten poems, Simon Armitage, the Poet Laureate, finds out what happens when he revisits Philip Larkin's work in his centenary year. Episode 6: Simon Armitage explores Philip Larkin's poem 'To the Sea', a poem which describes how everything 'crowds under the low horizon' at the beach in high summer. Larkin wrote once that holidays stemmed from 'a romantic notion that it will all be better at Frinton or Venice', but this is one of his most celebratory poems. Does 'To the Sea' still speak to us today? Producer: Faith Lawrence Mixed by: Sue Stonestreet [LISTEN NOW]
07	Going, Going	20220816	20260101 (R4)	Across ten programmes and ten Philip Larkin poems, Simon Armitage, the Poet Laureate, finds out what happens when he revisits and unpicks Larkin's work in his centenary year. Episode seven: Simon Armitage explores Philip Larkin's poem 'Going, Going', which invokes an England the poet fears will soon disappear ('The shadows, the meadows, the lanes,/The guildhalls, the carved choirs.) Does this poem's tone and language still resonate with us today? Can 'Going, Going' be seen as an eco-poem? [LISTEN NOW]
08	Bridge For The Living	20220817	20260102 (R4)	Across ten programmes and ten Philip Larkin poems, Simon Armitage, the Poet Laureate, finds out what happens when he revisits and unpicks Larkin's work in his centenary year. Episode eight: Simon Armitage explores extracts from Philip Larkin's 'Bridge for the Living', which ends with an unusually uplifting final verse for a Larkin poem: 'Reaching for the world as our lives do/As all lives do ... Always it is by bridges that we live.' 'Bridge for the Living' was a commissioned poem, set to music by the composer Anthony Hedges to mark the opening of the Humber Bridge. Commissioned poems don't always survive the moment of their making - so does this one deserve our attention in 2022? And why did Larkin call it 'Bridge for the Living'? Producer: Faith Lawrence Mixed by: Sue Stonestreet Simon Armitage explores Bridge for the Living. [LISTEN NOW]
09	Aubade	20220818	20260102 (R4)	Across ten programmes and ten Philip Larkin poems, Simon Armitage, the Poet Laureate, finds out what happens when he revisits and unpicks Larkin's work in his centenary year. Episode nine: Simon Armitage explores 'Aubade', a Larkin poem which invites us to contemplate 'Unresting death, a whole day nearer now', and considered to be one of his most powerful. Simon is joined by the poet Glyn Maxwell, the poetry editor of the Times Literary Supplement Camille Ralphs (both of whom read the poem for us in the small hours, when the poem is set), and by Stephen Bush, associate editor of the Financial Times, to see how Larkin's unflinching look at non-existence lands in 2022. Producer: Faith Lawrence Mixed by: Sue Stonestreet Simon Armitage explores Philip Larkin's poem Aubade. [LISTEN NOW]
10 LAST	The Whitsun Weddings	20220819	20260103 (R4)	Across ten programmes and ten Philip Larkin poems, Simon Armitage, the Poet Laureate, finds out what happens when he revisits and unpicks Larkin's work in his centenary year. Episode ten: Simon Armitage explores Philip Larkin's 'The Whitsun Weddings' - considered by many to be the poem that best represents his unique talent. In this programme Simon, and his fellow poets Daljit Nagra and Sinéad Morrissey celebrate Larkin's attention to detail - his particular gift for description, and consider whether the journey Larkin takes us on across the poem still resonates in 2022. Producer: Faith Lawrence Mixed by: Sue Stonestreet Simon Armitage explores Philip Larkin's poem The Whitsun Weddings. [LISTEN NOW]
OMNI-01	Born Yesterday, Talking In Bed, Toads Revisited, High Windows	20220812
OMNI-02	To The Sea, Going Going, Aubade, The Whitsun Weddings	20220819