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Frank Skinner loves poetry. And he thinks you might like it too. Join Frank each week as he takes you through some of his choice picks of poems. There may be laughter. There may be tears. There will certainly be poetry. Frank Skinner's Poetry Podcast is produced by Sarah Bishop. It is an Avalon production.
Rebecca Hawkes
Frank gets very excited about the Rebecca Hawkes collection, ‘Meat Lovers’. The poems referenced are ‘After The Blizzard I Followed My Mother’ and ‘Pony Club Summer Camp’ by Rebecca Hawkes.
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49:0320/11/2024
Dylan Thomas
Frank spends the night in Dylan Thomas' bedroom. The poems referenced are ‘And Death Shall Have No Dominion’, ‘Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night’ and ‘A Refusal To Morn The Death, By Fire, Of A Child In London’ by Dylan Thomas.
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56:3313/11/2024
Martin Bell
Frank loves a hard-drinking, hard-smoking Polytechnic lecturer like Martin Bell, especially when he is offering poetic praise to Groucho Marx. The poems referenced are ‘Ode to Groucho’ by Martin Bell and ‘The Second Coming’ by W.B. Yeats.
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45:5328/02/2024
Jo Shapcott
Jo Shapcott sends Frank, an enthusiastic tree-hugger, into a sap-soaked frenzy. The collection referenced is ‘Of Mutability’. The poems referenced are ‘I Go Inside The Tree’, ‘My Oak’ and ‘Cypress’.
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54:1821/02/2024
Sasha Dugdale
Frank stands in awe as Sasha Dugdale sends a frighteningly honest Valentine’s message. The collection referenced is ‘Joy’ by Sasha Dugdale. The poems referenced are ‘Joy’ and ‘Valentine’s’.
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33:5614/02/2024
AE Housman
Frank is alarmed by AE Housman’s A Shropshire Lad.
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47:5507/02/2024
Jessica Traynor
The Irish poet, Jessica Traynor, explores one of Frank’s favourite subjects – ageing performers who don’t know when to quit. The collection referenced is ‘Pit Lullabies’ by Jessica Traynor. The cycle of poems referenced is ‘An Island Sings’. The poems referenced are ‘The Parent’s Song’, ‘Song of the Insomniac’ and ‘Nureyev in Dublin’.
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40:4831/01/2024
Billy Collins
American poet, Billy Collins, makes Frank question the whole Poetry Podcast experience. The poems referenced are ‘Introduction to Poetry’ and ‘American Sonnet’ by Billy Collins.
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44:3824/01/2024
Sappho
Frank trembles at the fragmented beauty of Sappho, the superstar poet of Ancient Greece. The fragment translations are by Aaron Poochigian.
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35:5417/01/2024
T.S. Eliot
Frank explores The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T.S. Eliot. Nuff said.
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57:4710/01/2024
Elizabeth Bishop
Is it a man? Is it a moth? Frank has a strange night out with Elizabeth Bishop. The poem referenced is 'The Man-Moth'.
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54:0420/09/2023
Geoffrey Hill
Frank indulges his obsession with the Anglo Saxons as he reads Geoffrey Hill's Mercian Hymns.
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47:1913/09/2023
Robert Browning
Did he or didn't he? Frank investigates Robert Browning's 'My Last Duchess'. The other poem referenced is 'The Pied Piper of Hamelin' by Robert Browning.
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51:1206/09/2023
Jean Sprackland
Nature gets horny and reflective. Frank is excited about the poetry of Jean Sprackland. The collection referenced is 'Green Noise'. The poem referenced is 'April' and the sequence referenced is 'The Lost Villages'.
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44:2530/08/2023
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Frank examines statues and statutes with Percy Bysshe Shelley. The poems referenced are 'England in 1918' and 'Ozymandias'. The essay referenced is 'A Defense of Poetry'.
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52:4523/08/2023
Sylvia Plath
Frank howls at the moon with Sylvia Plath. The poems referenced are 'The Moon and the Yew Tree' and 'Ariel. TW: mentions of suicide.
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38:4716/08/2023
Don Paterson
Frank celebrates the razor-sharp poetic mind of Don Paterson. The poem referenced is 'Rain'.
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44:5609/08/2023
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Elizabeth Barrett Browning shows Frank that it's hard to be a mother and a poet and a revolutionary. The poem referenced is 'Mother and Poet'.
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40:3802/08/2023
Alans at War
This week, Frank discovers two very different war poets, Alan Ross and Alan Seeger. The poems referenced are ‘Mess Deck’ by Alan Ross and ‘I Have a Rendezvous with Death’ by Alan Seeger.
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41:1910/05/2023
Charlotte Mew
This week, Frank explains why the poet, Charlotte Mew, should, in his opinion, be a household name. The poems referenced are ‘The Farmer’s Bride’ and ‘Sea Love’.
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42:2103/05/2023
Sinéad Morrisey
This week, Frank screams the praises of Sinéad Morrissey’s Beatlemania poems. The book referenced is ‘On Balance’. The poems referenced are ‘The Millihelen’ and ‘Perfume’.
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45:5026/04/2023
Thomas Hardy
This week: Thomas Hardy’s poetry, featuring love, death and men that look like holly bushes. The poems referenced are ‘Exeunt Omnes’, ‘A Light Snow-Fall After Frost’ and ‘A Countenance’.
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41:2419/04/2023
Selima Hill
This week, Frank enters the funny but unsettling world of Selima Hill. The collection referenced is ‘Men Who Feed Pigeons’.
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32:0712/04/2023
John Keats
This week, John Keats talks to pottery. The poem referenced is ‘Ode on A Grecian Urn’.
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46:2605/04/2023
John Masefield
This week, we look at a John Masefield poem from 1911, in which a naked drunk runs through a town at midnight, threatening firefighters with their own hose-nozzles. The poems referenced are ‘Sea-Fever’, ‘The Everlasting Mercy’, ‘Dauber’ and ‘Partridges’.
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36:4329/03/2023
Kay Ryan
This week: why do so many of us stagger through life leaving a trail of chaos and confusion? American poet, Kay Ryan, reveals it’s because we are carrying an invisible ladder. The poems referenced are ‘We’re Building the Ship As We Sail It’, ‘Carrying A Ladder’ and ‘Blandeur’.
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34:4522/03/2023
Richard Wilbur
This week, American poet, Richard Wilbur, explains why stones aren’t very ambitious. The poems referenced are ‘A Dubious Night’ and ‘Two Voices in A Meadow’.
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42:5215/03/2023
Ada Limón
This week, American Poet Laureate, Ada Limón heads for the safe haven of the parental raincoat. The poems referenced are ‘The Contract Says: We’d Like the Conversation to be Bilingual’, ‘The Raincoat’ and ‘Before’.
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33:1608/03/2023
Ted Hughes
This week, Ted Hughes shows us that writing a poem is like a stinking fox walking across a snow-covered field. The poem referenced are ‘The Thought Fox’ and ‘The Jaguar’.
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43:0901/03/2023
Simon Armitage
This week, our Poet Laureate, Simon Armitage, writes a brilliant poem about what some might think is an unlikely subject. The poem referenced is ‘The Patriarchs – An Elegy’.
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35:4322/02/2023
Carol Ann Duffy
This week, Carol Ann Duffy considers the profound, prayer-like quality of the Shipping Forecast. The poems referenced are ‘Death of a Teacher’ and ‘Prayer’.
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33:0215/02/2023
John Betjeman
This week, John Betjeman gets a tennis-based humiliation from the girl of his dreams. The poem referenced is ‘A Subaltern’s Love Song’.
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43:5608/02/2023
Sir Thomas Wyatt
At last, our first jousting poet - Frank meets Sir Thomas Wyatt, head-on. The poems referenced are They Flee From Me and Farewell Love and All Thy Laws For Ever by Sir Thomas Wyatt.
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35:4306/07/2022
Emily Dickinson
Frank went on holiday with Emily Dickinson and came back in love with her poetry. The poems referenced are ‘After great pain, a formal feeling comes’, ‘One need not be a Chamber — to be Haunted’ and ‘A Wind That Rose’ by Emily Dickinson.
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42:1829/06/2022
Clare Pollard
Vampires and mermaids - Frank falls under the spell of Clare Pollard’s fabulous poetry. The collection referenced is Changeling by Clare Pollard and the individual poems referenced are Zennor and Whitby.
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43:0322/06/2022
Alfred Lord Tennyson
Frank meets Alfred Lord Tennyson’s Lady of Shalott and finds out why Camelot is a bit of a lottery. The poems referenced are The Charge Of The Light Brigade and The Lady Of Shalott both by Tennyson.
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37:0915/06/2022
Leontia Flynn
Drunken nights and floppy discs - Frank gets excited about the poetry of Leontia Flynn. The collection referenced is Profit and Loss by Leontia Flynn and the individual poems referenced are Anecdote and The Floppy Disk.
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35:1508/06/2022
The Mersey Sound
Frank explains why the first poetry book he ever bought, The Mersey Sound, changed his life forever. The poems referenced are Without You and The New ‘Our Times’ by Adrian Henri, Where Are You Now, Batman, Party Piece and After Breakfast by Brian Patten, and On Picnics, Café Portraits and Let Me Die A Youngman’s Death by Roger McGough.
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36:4301/06/2022
Robert Hayden
Frank shares a cold, sad Sunday morning with Robert Hayden. The poems referenced are Those Winter Sundays and The Whipping by Robert Hayden.
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30:1502/03/2022
Michael Symmons Roberts
Frank explores the poetic treasure-trove that is Michael Symmons Roberts’ collection, Drysalter. The poems referenced are Face to Face, Through a Glass Darkly and Discoverers by Michael Symmons Roberts.
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30:3823/02/2022
Wordsworth Revisited: The Leech-Gatherer
Wordsworth revisited: the leech-gatherer. The poem referenced is Resolution and Independence by William Wordsworth.
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30:0716/02/2022
Nick Laird
Frank loves Nick Laird’s poetry. And manual typewriters. The collection referenced is On Purpose by Nick Laird and the poem referenced is The Underwood No. 4.
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44:1009/02/2022
Walt Whitman
Frank loves Walt Whitman, right down to his comfortable shoes… The poems referenced are Poets to Come, To You, Song of the Universal and Song of Myself by Walt Whitman.
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39:4002/02/2022
Jen Hadfield
Frank heads North with the amazing Jen Hadfield. The collection referenced is The Stone Age by Jen Hadfield. The individual poems referenced are Hardanger Fiddle & Nyckelharpa, (Lighthouse) and (Erratic) by Jen Hadfield.
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49:5926/01/2022
John Milton
Batman, Captain America and Milton’s Paradise Lost.
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46:2619/01/2022
Caroline Bird
Frank celebrates Caroline Bird and wonders if he should have saved this one for Valentine’s Day. The collection referenced is The Air Year by Caroline Bird. The individual poems discussed are Temporary Vows and I Am Not a Falconer, both by Caroline Bird.
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36:0612/01/2022
WH Auden
Frank meets WH Auden in an art gallery and falls in love all over again.
Poems referenced:
Musée des Beaux Arts - WH Auden
Funeral Blues - WH Auden
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44:0807/07/2021
Ellen Hinsey
Frank finds out when the Illegal Age began, with Ellen Hinsey.
Please note this podcast has some disturbing content.
Poem referenced:
The Illegal Age - Ellen Hinsey
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32:3630/06/2021
Matthew Arnold
Frank spends a dark night on Dover Beach with Matthew Arnold and, hold on, isn’t that Sophocles over there?
Poems referenced:
Dover Beach - Matthew Arnold
Stanzas from the Grande Chartreuse - Matthew Arnold
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37:0723/06/2021
Tracy K Smith
Frank reads Tracy K Smith and finally gets his priorities right.
Collections referenced:
Wade in the Water - Tracy K Smith
Leaves of Grass – Walt Whitman
Poems referenced:
Political Poem – Tracy K Smith
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39:1716/06/2021