Pelé's Poetry Podcast

Christopher Nolan’s take on Homer’s Odyssey is certainly a blockbuster. But, argue Pele Cox and Rich Uridge in the second part of their Odyssey odyssey, it’s also a flockbuster with opinion splitting into two distinct herds. In this bonus episode they also explore whether movie soundtracks can spoil the way our imagination “hears” poetry and […]

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The FIFA World Cup gives your hosts, Pele Cox and Rich Uridge, a golden opportunity to explore oral tradition and other strong but less obvious links between football and poetry. All in about the time it takes to get to a hydration break. The perfect warm up for England v Ghana and Scotland v Brazil. […]

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Choosing John Clare, John Keats, Emily Dickinson and Sylvia Plath to explore whether poetry can make you happy isn’t an obvious starting point. All four experienced the very opposite of happiness in their variously and famously tragic lives. So perhaps it was a trick question? But maybe, on reflection, it’s the perfect choice. Make up […]

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Great art begets great art. That’s certainly the case with the Greek poet, Constantine P Cavafy, whose poetry inspired a young British artist – now a household name – as Pele Cox and Rich Uridge reveal as they explore forbidden love as a source of inspiration for poets from Gunn to Whitman. Konstantinos Petrou Kavafis […]

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On the 90th anniversary of his death, Shropshire lad, Richard Uridge and Shropshire lass, Pele Cox, discuss the life and works of the poet, A E Housman. They agree that his poetry is every bit as relevant today as when it was first written at the turn of the 20th century. And they discover that […]

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With Margot Robbie as Cathy in the latest iteration of Wuthering Heights, your hosts argue that without poetry Emily Brontë’s book wouldn’t have been written. So no roles for Robbie and her Heathcliff, Jacob Elordi. No Kate Bush song. No poems of the same name by Sylvia Plath or Ted Hughes. The evidence? Well, Pele […]

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Who first wrote roses are red, violets are blue, honey is sweet and so are you? Who were the lines written for? And when? Plus is poetry the language of love? Just some of the questions Pele Cox and Rich Uridge answer in this special lovers’ edition. Oh and which poet would you take to […]

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What is poetic voice? Is it synonymous with style? Or something else? Perhaps the poet’s “take” on the world? Pele Cox and Rich Uridge seek answers from a range of greats including Emily Dickinson, Edna St Vincent Millay and Vernon Watkins who, with a drunken Dylan Thomas, tripped over a feather! Poets Further reading You can hear […]

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Pele Cox and her co-host Rich Uridge ask: what is the purpose of poetry? With the help of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Sir Philip Sidney and Sir Thomas Wyatt, they conclude that, in part, poetry’s job is to move readers to virtuous action or “well doing and not well knowing only” as Sidney put it.      Along […]

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