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Episode details

Radio 4,04 Oct 2026,42 mins

Poems that shake up autumn from Contains Strong Language

The Verb

Available for 29 days

Ian McMillan brings you poems and poets to shake up autumn from the Contains Strong Language Festival. Ian's guests, Alice Oswald, Paul Farley, Karen McCarthy Woolf and Liz Berry tread through the mellow fruit of John Keats' Ode to Autumn, but then turn their eyes and ears towards other surprising ways to write about this season of falling leaves, as well as exploring the art of poetry itself. Paul Farley's latest book is his virtuosic poetry collection 'When it Rained for a Million Years' , Liz Berry's verse novel about forced child emigration is called 'The Home Child', Alice Oswald reads from 'Rhapsody- a manifesto' - a new book that looks at the origins (and the future) of poetry, Karen McCarthy Woolf's 'Unsafe' looks at nature, land and who has permission to walk it freely. Presented by Ian McMillan Produced by Faith Lawrence

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