Lots of good things in this programme to enjoy: Ian Macmillan (who was my top choice for Poet Laureate, though I am pleased about Carol Ann Duffy), Song of Songs, Marvell, Ben Jonson, Gerard Manley Hopkins and more. On the whole I thought the poems were read well (and I am not a good listener to poems, I like to read them aloud for myself). The discussion about poetry was useful and interesting, though a bit choppy and shallow. Really, it would have been nice for this to have been a three or four part series.
But, since this is TV, it wasn’t. The impression I came away with, to be honest, was that this really should have been a radio programme. This images added almost nothing to the programme, as you’d expect. I suppose I am glad that it was on TV, if only for the sake of reaching a slightly wider audience (though it was up against the episode of the Apprentice where Ben finally got fired, so I don’t know how much bigger the audience will have been).
Anyway, it’s worth watching. Or, better, listening to while you do something else. Ironing, perhaps. Or knitting.
Stumble It!
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Hmm. Or perhaps practising my gold swing in front of a mirror. Or drinking single malt.
Gold swing?
Ha Ha. Golf Swing. Far from golden, as it happens.
Golf swing? Is this an exciting new pastime? Next thing you’ll be reading Lord of the Rings!
Yes it is. And no I won’t!
Poetry matters indeed.
As a staff we are reading through ‘The Contemplative Pastor’ by Eugene Peterson together and the section we read this week had some excellent material on the pastor as a poet.
Poetry matters, Golf matters, and of course Tolkien matters. ;)