The Poetry of History

In this BBC Radio 4 series, eminent biographer and broadcaster Sir Jonathan Bate looks at major historical events through the poems they inspired, exploring how history influences poetry, and how poetry shapes the way we regard history. 

Bate interviews historians, scholars and writers to investigate the genesis of eight classic works. Works included: WB Yeats' Easter 1916, Shelley's The Mask of Anarchy, Marvell's An Horatian Ode, TS Eliot's Four Quartets, The Battle of Maldon, Linton Kwesi Johnson’s poem Di Great Insohreckshan, John Dryden’s Annus Mirabilis and John Betjeman's Death of King George V.