The closing episode of Season 2 is about two giants of late-20th-century poetry: the Poet Laureate Ted Hughes and the Nobel Laureate Seamus Heaney. We’ll read Heaney’s “Punishment,” Hughes’s “Hawk Roosting” and “The Thought-Fox,” and Heaney’s “Digging” — in that order, to draw out shared themes of nature, violence, and the origins of poetry.

This ends Season 2, and the start of the summer sabbatical: a time of pleasure reading planning and reflecting on what's to come in this series. To suggest future topics, particularly on subjects of broad interest (i.e. rather than on particular texts), or to share your thoughts on the show's format and style, please write to [email protected].