The madness of love is the greatest of heaven's blessings - Plato, ‘Phaedrus’
There are few themes that tie the passage of human literature together as much as love. Since the ancient ‘Song of Songs’, and probably before, we have celebrated the joys of loving and being loved. While the exact details have changed with the passage of time the founding ideas seem to have remained the same. More surprisingly lyric and verse have remained our preferred expression for this tender and caring feeling. Even today we look to poetry and song to capture our innermost feelings on love.
'Gather Ye Rosebuds While Ye May' by Theodore Blake Wirgman, 1905
Last year playwright, author, and poet Deborah Levy continued this tradition of documenting love with the reissuing of her long poem, ‘An Amorous Discourse in the Suburbs of Hell’. Written as a dialogue this poem tells the unlikely love story between an angel and an accountant and the philosophical tug-of-war that rages throughout their relationship.
After being blown off course the angel comes crashing out of the heavens and into the life of the suburb dwelling accountant. He is, understandably, enamoured with the angel’s radiating beauty and falls in love, a feeling she is quick to reciprocate. This blossoming romance between the divine and the human soon begins to display many of the familiar pitfalls of regular relationships. Her energy and adventurousness challenge the accountants settled life in the suburbs and as she tries to whisk him away he clings ever harder to his familiar routine.
This realistic conflict of interests and personalities lends an honest weight and tension to this otherworldly love story. At times this relationship verges on the disastrous and we are reminded of the closing lines of Kavanagh’s ‘On Raglan Road’. Yet the clashing personalities are offset by the tender moments of love that form the bedrock of their relationship and meld the human and the divine.
Join 'Talking Books' as Susan talks with Deborah about her poem on the trials and tribulations of heavenly love as well as her 2012 novel, ‘Swimming Home’. Once again casting an often darkly comic eye on the trials and tribulations of love this novel tells the story of a family on holiday in the hills of Nice and the young, and very naked, Kitty French who is waiting in the pool for them. Listen in as Susan and Deborah talk about the intricacies of love and life and how they shape the people we become.
'An Out-of-Doors Study' by John Singer Sargent, 1889
Rounding off the show we continue to look at the ancient and romantic art of poetry with author and academic Michael Schmidt. A lifelong devotee of poetry Schmidt established the celebrated publishing house Carcanet Press and the ‘PN Review’ as well as writing numerous books; including poetry collections, novels, and literary histories. One of these is the simply named ‘Lives of Poets’.
As the title indicates ‘Lives of Poets’ is a historic work that charts the evolution of English poetry over the past 700 years through the lives and legacies of some the art form’s greatest figures. Beginning in England during the Middle Ages this work transitions from century to century as movements rise and fall, reaching across to new nations and continents as they produced their own writers of note. In this way the book transitions from poet to poet, linking the narrative together as they inspire each other works.
Join Susan and Michael as they journey along the history of English poetry through the ‘Lives of Poets’. What ties ancient poets like Chaucer to modern masters like Philip Larkin? How have poems reached across time and space to shape and mould each other? And how have poetry and the role of the poet changed through the years?
