Broken Oars University Summer Shorts Series: Thomas Hardy: Poet, Peasant, Writer, Social Climber, Shagbag. - a podcast by brokenoarspodcast

from 2023-05-10T17:00

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Welcome back to Broken Oars Podcast - and the first in what we (I, Northern One, oppressed ... ) am calling our Summer Poetry Series ...

What is it, I hear you cry (perhaps very faintly).

Well, it's me, taking a whistle-stop tour through some poets, their lives and works - perfect listening for long summer evenings, lazy holidays, long drives, rambles through the countryside, mornings sleeping in, getting the barbeque going, or chilling in the garden with a glass of something ...

Why are you doing it I hear you ask, and will there be any rowing in it? (rather more pertinently).

Well, perhaps I'm doing it because your Northern Correspondent is a bowsider by training, nature and temperament - you always find the wilder, freer spirits on the oar to the left. Perhaps I'm doing it because I'm a seven-man for the same reasons - all sevens are essentially stroke but with a brain. But mostly it's because I fancy using that brain again to see what's left of it after Covid and Long Covid.

What better way of doing that than seeing what I can remember about dead people who used to write stuff?

Exactly. Think of it like a book group for rowers.

(Really, I'm doing it because I love talking about stuff and learning. Unless we're in a boat, where our steering is impeccable, we are, like the GB Tokyo Four, a rowing podcast determined not to stay in our lane ... ).

Unlike the episodes on the Romantics, which was heavy on the theory and light on how much smack Coleridge actually did, this will be a user-friendly whirl through lives, works, loves, foibles, themes and the odd reading of a decent poem or two.

So, pull up a chair, pour a glass, and let's start with Thomas Hardy, the peasant who ended being buried in Westminster Abbey but who sent his heart to Dorset. Hardy was as famous in his age as Kim Kardashian was in hers, but unlike Kim he turned to poetry later in life after the savaging of his novel 'Jude the Obscure.' No, Kim's bum does not qualify as poetry, and although reams have been written about it, nor does it qualify as timeless prose (although the implants will probably outlive us all). We'll take a turn around Hardy's life and work, and I'll probably throw in some contrarian observations about why English Literature is a bust; why you should read what you like to read; and answer the question 'can we still enjoy the art when we know that the artist was a twat?'

(No, in case you're wondering).

And there'll be some rowing along shortly ...

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GET SOME (POETRY)!

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