Poetry

Content under this subject

Michael Wood on Beowulf

Focusing on Beowulf, historian Michael Wood traces English poetry back to the Dark Ages.

Poets in Person

Six short performances and personal insights from contemporary poets.

6. A Poet's Guide to Britain: Louis MacNeice

Owen Sheers heads into the trees to explore Louis MacNeice's poem Woods.

5. A Poet's Guide to Britain: Lynette Roberts

Owen Sheers visits a Welsh village to explore Lynette Roberts's Poem from Llanybri.

4. A Poet's Guide to Britain: Matthew Arnold

Owen Sheers visits Oxford to explore Matthew Arnold's bleak poem Dover Beach.

3. A Poet's Guide to Britain: George Mackay Brown

Owen Sheers visits the Orkneys to explore George Mackay Brown's poem Hamnavoe.

2. A Poet's Guide to Britain: Sylvia Plath

Owen Sheers explores the story behind Sylvia Plath's poem Wuthering Heights.

1. A Poet's Guide to Britain: William Wordsworth

Owen Sheers explores the story behind Wordsworth's Composed upon Westminster Bridge.

3. The Romantics: Eternity

How the radical way Byron, Keats and Shelley lived their short lives changed the world.