World War One Poetry
Dr Santanu Das gives an introduction to the poetry of the First World War, providing fascinating commentary on a range of topics, supported by literary manuscripts and historical footage. How do we define the genre of First World War poetry and what makes it unique? Why is war poetry so powerful and so effective at describing traumatic experiences? What are the limits of language -- can the experiences of war ever properly be communicated? Why do we still read the poetry of the First World War and how has this enduring legacy affected our overall understanding of World War One?
Explore over 500 historical sources from across Europe, together with new expert insights at the British Library's World War One website -
William Blake's radicalism
Iain Sinclair explores the historical background to William Blake's radical writings. Filmed on the South Bank of the River Thames, Vauxhall, London.
Explore more films, together with thousands of Victorian and Romantic literary treasures, at the British Library's Discovering Literature website -
Bernard, Chingonyi, Capildeo & Joseph in conversation. British Library, London. Feb 26th, 2016.
Recorded for the Out of Bounds poetry project tour. Visit for more information.
British library slideshow final.wmv
The Josephine Hart Poetry Hour slideshow
Passion in Practice Live Stream - Late at the Library. British Library, London.
LATE AT THE LIBRARY 23/04/2016
WORLD BOOK NIGHT celebrates SHAKESPEARE - the PEOPLE’S PLAYWRIGHT.
Come and celebrate with the multi-talented Passion in Practice Shakespeare Ensemble, who will be filling the foyer with close-up magic-style scenes and speeches from the plays.
They will be joined by broadcaster Sir Trevor McDonald OBE and actress June Brown MBE reading their favourite Shakespearean Sonnets, the renowned poet John Agard reading a new, specially commissioned work, and live music from the fabulous folk duo The Askew Sisters.
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Line-up
0m20s - Passion in Practice - New sneak peak of Pericles: Recomposed, the Shakespeare Ensemble, the Trondheim Soloists, with Daniel Hope & Max Richter's Four Season's Recomposed
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14m29s - The Big House film
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32m0s - First Introduction & welcome to the party, Ben Crystal
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36m0s - Graeae film
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43m25s-51m06s -People's Playwright
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58m40s - The Askew Sisters
1hr10m27s - Ben Crystal
1hr17m50s - David Crystal - Condell & Hemings' First Folio Dedication, in Original Pronunciation
1hr23m05s - Foan & Fortune's Caliban & the Booke
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43m25s-51m06s - People's Playwright
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1hr25m - Sir Trevor McDonald OBE
1hr33m - Lionheart - Spoken Word Poet **Commission**
1hr40m - June Brown MBE
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1hr58m47 - Graeae film
2hr6m10s - People's Playwright
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2hr32m50s - The Big House Theatre Company **Commission**
2hr46m53s - Graeae Theatre Company
2hr57m10s - John Agard - Poet **Commission**
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3hr17m:15s - Ben Crystal, Caliban & the Booke, Coda
3hr19m20s - DJ Muzz Khan, w Steve Pratt's Shakespeare Mash-up
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For more information visit:
#BL230416 @passionpractice @britishlibrary @worldbooknight
passioninpractice.com
bl.uk/events/late-at-the-library-world-book-night-celebrates-shakespeare
Paul Hawkins - Poem Brut at National Poetry Library
Poem Brut at National Poetry Library - June Wednesday 6th / Southbank Centre
A literary event celebrating of the visual, visceral, messy, handwritten and colourful in poetry with new unique commissions from writers exploring alternate ways of making literature. Each presentation will be different from the last, with readings and performances alongside pop up exhibits, interactions, video poems and interactions.
Funeral Poem Ludwig Steinherr British Library ELN May 2012.wmv
Ludwig Steinherr reads from Before the Invention of Paradise at the European Literature Night May 2012 at the British Library London.
Alice in Wonderland: Ekphrasis at the British Library
An evening of specially commissioned poetry inspired by Alice in Wonderland at the British Library Alice exhibition to commemorate 150 years of the book by Lewis Carroll filmed at the British Library on 7 March 2016
Vahni Capildeo at the British Library, London, England, Feb 26th, 2016
Recorded for the Out of Bounds poetry project tour. Visit for more information.
Monsoon Ragas ZEEJLF British Library 2019
An illustrated version of my talk Monsoon Ragas on 15 June 2019 at ZEEJLF@BL: An evocative session exploring rain-drenched worlds of poetry, songs, paintings, architecture, gardens, festivals and music, Katherine Butler Schofield’s Monsoon Ragas examines the musical history of monsoon feelings in South Asia. In this session, music historian, author and academic Butler Schofield discusses this season of pouring rain and intense emotions and Mughal emperor Shah Alam II’s love of monsoon ragas.
With many quotations from the friends who populated our edited volume Monsoon Feelings: A History of Emotions in the Rain (Niyogi, 2018) with poetry, songs, paintings, gardens and pavilions.
Paintings:
Detail of Krishna and Radha sheltering from the rain, North India 1775–1800. Walters Art Museum.
Prince enjoying the monsoon, Mewar late 18C. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Krishna and Radha under an umbrella, Jaipur 1775. Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
The jharna (waterfall) at Mehrauli, Metcalfe Album, Delhi, 1845. British Library.
Gaund Ragini, Manley Ragamala, Rajput, 1610. British Museum.
Detail of Gaudi Ragini, Bundi 1780–1800. Sold by Sothebys New York, 16/09/10.
Detail of Prince Amar Singh walking in the rain, Mewar 1690. Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M Sackler Gallery.
Recording sample: Rag Gaud Malhar by Shubhra Guha, recorded by Sanjannagar.
Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) license.
Cecil Day Lewis - Wordsworth Poems - Robert Harris - 78 rpm - HMV 109
Here's the late much renowned poet and broadcaster Cecil Day Lewis and Actor Robert Harris reciting poems by William Wordsworth from a 78 rpm shellac record circa 1950's.
recorded around the mid 1950's for the London Library of Recorded English record label which was owned by actor and reciter of poetry on radio and record Victor Clinton Baddeley the brother of Angela Baddeley Mrs Bridges from the TV series Upstairs Downstairs. Later in the sixties the record label was to become Jupiter Records.
Cecil Day-Lewis (or Day Lewis), CBE (27 April 1904 – 22 May 1972) was an Anglo-Irish poet and the Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom from 1968 until his death in 1972.[1][2] He also wrote mystery stories under the pseudonym of Nicholas Blake. He was the father of actor Daniel Day-Lewis and the grandfather of the Harry Potter actor Daniel Radcliffe.
PJ Harvey @Polly reciting poetry and lyrics at The British Library 13-12-13
PJ Harvey reciting poetry and lyrics at The British Library
She's publishing a book of poetry next year, maybe this makes an album less likely.. hope not!
Poetry by Heart Romford Library
Poetry by Heart East London County Contest held at Romford Library.
A poetry night with Sophie Hannah on 25 July 2017
Poetry reading and conversation with Sophie Hannah: internationally acclaimed novelist and one of Britain's best-loved poets. Sophie read from her collection ‘Marrying the Ugly Millionaire’ – a droll yet disarming exploration of modern marriage and everyday experiences – and talked about her life and inspiration when writing in the space between poetry and crime fiction. Sophie was in conversation with SCC Overton of Hong Kong Writers Circle.
Find out more about Hong Kong Book Fair: goo.gl/k5wFaP
For more information about Hong Kong Writers Circle, please visit: hkwriterscircle.
#HongKongBookFair #BritishCouncilHK #HongKongWritersCircle #SophieHannah
British Library Puts the i in iNFO
Just another iphone or iPad app? Yes - but this one has to be good value - allowing users to delve into the huge archive of the British Library. Martin Stanford explores for Tech Talk.
What is Magna Carta?
Why is this old piece of parchment considered to be such a powerful symbol of our rights and freedoms? Narrated by Monty Python’s Terry Jones, this animation takes you back to medieval times, when England under the reign of Bad King John. It asks why Magna Carta was originally created and what it meant to those living in the 13th century.
Find out more about Magna Carta at the British Library’s website –
Why I Love...Libraries
Back filming by the wall because it was bright and sunny today but not enough to illuminate both sides of my face! It would have come out like my first video...
Things mentioned:
The London Libraries Consortium:
Senate House:
The British Library:
Wellcome Library: (a 100% free library with materials relating to medical history, medicine and biomedical science, but reference only)
Wellcome Collection:
The Poetry Library:
My book blog:
Twitter: @ladyjulianne
Instagram: @juliannelefay
Facebook:
And don't forget to follow @bookishbrits on Twitter and Instagram!
Georgian Revealed - Valentin's Ball at the British Library in London
Organised by:
British Library
Lady Greys Productions
Edmonds and Gerrish
Lord Byron (poetry)
Produced by Tessy de Nassau/ De Lux
Christopher Logue Reads from his Poem New Numbers British Library 1999
Here's the late Christopher Logue the celebrated English poet reading from his series of poems New Numbers first published in 1969. He is introduced by Michael Horowitz at the first of six sunday recitals celebrating the 40th anniversary of the English poetry movement New Departures founded by Michael Horowitz in the late 1950's. I was initially invited along by poet Dave Russell and was then invited by Michael Horowitz to video the whole 6 weeks of performances during the hot summer afternoons of the summer of 1999.Most of it took place in the amphitheater outside the British Library building in St Pancras Central London except for one of the Sundays when the theatre was quickly used after it started raining.
Christopher Logue, CBE (23 November 1926 -- 2 December 2011)[1] was an English poet associated with the British Poetry Revival and a pacifist.
Christopher Logue was a playwright and screenwriter as well as a film actor. His screenplays were Savage Messiah and The End of Arthur's Marriage. He was a long-term contributor to Private Eye magazine, as well as writing for Alexander Trocchi's literary journal, Merlin. Logue won the 2005 Whitbread Poetry Award for Cold Calls.[5] His early popularity was marked by the release of a loose adaptation of Pablo Neruda's Twenty Love Poems, later released as an extended play recording, Red Bird: Jazz and Poetry, backed by a jazz group led by the drummer Tony Kinsey.[6]
One of his poems, Be Not Too Hard, was set to music by Donovan and heard in the film Poor Cow (1967), and was made popular by Joan Baez on her eponymous 1967 album, Joan. Another completely different song titled Be Not Too Hard based on the poem was performed by Manfred Mann's Earth Band on their 1974 album The Good Earth. The arrangement was written by Mick Rogers, who had Logue credited as a co-writer on the record sleeve. Another well-known and well-quoted poem by Logue was Come to the Edge, which is often attributed to Guillaume Apollinaire, but is in fact only dedicated to him.[7] It was originally written for a poster advertising an Apollinaire exhibition at the ICA in 1961 or 1962, and was titled Apollinaire Said, hence the misattribution.[8] His last major work was an ongoing project to render Homer's Iliad into a modernist idiom. This work is published in a number of small books, usually equating to two or three books of the original text. (The volume, Homer: War Music, was shortlisted for the 2002 International Griffin Poetry Prize.)[9] He published an autobiography, Prince Charming (1999).
Michael Horovitz (born 1935) is an English poet, artist and translator.In 1959 he founded the New Departures publications while still a student, publishing William S. Burroughs, Samuel Beckett, and Stevie Smith. He continued to edit it for fifty years, coordinating many Live New Departures, Jazz Poetry SuperJams and Poetry Olympics festivals. Though initially associated with the British Poetry Revival, Horovitz became widely known on his appearance at the International Poetry Incarnation at the Royal Albert Hall on June 11, 1965, alongside Allen Ginsberg and Alexander Trocchi. In 1969 Penguin Books published his Children of Albion anthology. Introducing him to New York in 1970, Allen Ginsberg characterized him as a Popular, experienced, experimental, New Jerusalem, Jazz Generation, Sensitive Bard.
POETRY, MUSIC & SONG IN THE BRITISH LIBRARY PIAZZA
A series of poetry and music events to celebrate the 40th anniversary
of New Departures publications and arts circuses. Michael Horovitz
will perform and MC at each event, which will pick up the major themes
of the Post Impressions exhibition, opening at the library on 3 August
1999.
Free entry; no tickets will be issued Limited seating; under cover if
wet
Further details in our leaflet, available on request from 0171 412
7332.
Sunday 18 July, 13.00-15.30
Dick Heckstall-Smith (saxes)
Bernard Kops
Christopher Logue
Dave Russell (guitar)
Ifigenija Simonovic
Michael Horovitz
Sunday 25 July, 13.00-15.30
Patience Agbabi
Valerie Bloom
Fran Landesman
Miles Landesman (guitar)
Keith Waithe (flute)
Michael Horovitz
Sunday 1 August, 13.00-15.30
Attila the Stockbroker (fiddle, mandola, bass recorder, crumhorns)
Jeni Couzyn
Hanif Kureishi
Peter Lemer (piano)
Michael Horovitz
Sunday 8 August, 13.00-15.30
Clive Bell (flute and oriental wind instruments) Libby Houston
Roger McGough
Jah Wobble/William Blake
Michael Horovitz
Sunday 15 August, 13.00-15.30
Jean `Binta' Breeze
Frieda Hughes
Mahmood Jamal
Keith Waithe (flute)
Michael Horovitz
Sunday 22 August, 13.00-15.30
Adam Horovitz
Inge Elsa Laird
Grace Nichols
Ruth Vaughn (violin)
Michael Horovitz
Achilles & Diomedes - Two Poems by Adam Horovitz - British Library 1999
Here's the British poet and journalist Adam Horovitz son of the celebrated jazz poet Michael Horovitz reciting two of his poems based on the Trojan Wars,but with a modern slant Achilles & Diomedes. The video comes from my archive recording made at the 40th anniversary celebrations at The British Library in the summer of 1999 with the exception of one of the six Sundays the event was held outside in the British Libraries Amphitheater hence the traffic noise from the very hectic Kings Cross Road .
In Greek mythology, Achilles (/əˈkɪliːz/; Ancient Greek: Ἀχιλλεύς, Akhilleus, pronounced [akʰilːéu̯s]) was a Greek hero of the Trojan War and the central character and greatest warrior of Homer's Iliad. His mother was the nymph Thetis, and his father, Peleus, was the king of the Myrmidons.
Achilles’ most notable feat during the Trojan War was the slaying of the Trojan hero Hector outside the gates of Troy. Although the death of Achilles is not presented in the Iliad, other sources concur that he was killed near the end of the Trojan War by Paris, who shot him in the heel with an arrow. Later legends (beginning with a poem by Statius in the 1st century AD) state that Achilles was invulnerable in all of his body except for his heel. Because of his death from a small wound in the heel, the term Achilles' heel has come to mean a person's point of weakness.
Diomedes (/ˌdaɪəˈmiːdiːz/ or /ˌdaɪˈɒmɪdiːz/[1]) or Diomede (/ˈdaɪəmiːd/;[2] Greek: Διομήδης Diomēdēs God-like cunning, advised by Zeus) is a hero in Greek mythology, known for his participation in the Trojan War.
He was born to Tydeus and Deipyle and later became King of Argos, succeeding his maternal grandfather, Adrastus. In Homer's Iliad Diomedes is regarded alongside Ajax as one of the best warriors of all the Achaeans (behind only Achilles in prowess). Later, he founded ten or more Italian cities. After his death, Diomedes was worshipped as a divine being under various names in Italy and also in Greece.
Born in London in 1971, he moved with his parents to Stroud, Gloucestershire the same year.[2] He has been active as a poet since the 1990s[3] but has been writing since childhood.[4] He released his first pamphlet, Next Year in Jerusalem, in 2004[5] and a second, The Great Unlearning,[6] in 2009. He was the poet in residence for Glastonbury Festival's official website in 2009[7] and was voted onto the Hospital Club 100[8] in 2010 as an emerging talent.[9] His debut collection, Turning, was released by Headland in 2011.[10] He was awarded a Hawthornden Fellowship in 2012.[11] His next book, to be released by the History Press in June 2014 to coincide with the Laurie Lee centenary celebrations, is A Thousand Laurie Lees, which draws on memoir, myth and literature inspired by Cider with Rosie country.