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Landmark: Andrew Marvell's To His Coy Mistress

Poets Michael Symmons Roberts and Helen Mort and academic Stewart Mottram join Matthew Sweet in Hull to discuss the language of love and the politics underpinning Marvell's poem.

Poets Michael Symmons Roberts and Helen Mort and academic Stewart Mottram join Matthew Sweet in Hull to discuss the language of love and the politics underpinning Marvell's poem in a special recording for National Poetry Day. Readings are performed by Matt Sutton.

Published posthumously in 1861, the poem has been seen as following traditions of carpe diem love poetry exhorting the female reader to seize the day and respond more quickly to the poet/lover but it has also been argued that the metaphors are ambiguous and the poem can be read as an ironic version of sexual seduction. Many of the phrases and ideas about time in the poem have inspired other authors and been re-used as book titles and lines in films including within A Matter of Life and Death, The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock and the writing of Ursula K Le Guin.

Recorded with an audience at the University of Hull as part of the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s festival Contains Strong Language.

Producer: Fiona McLean.

Available now

45 minutes

Credits

Role Contributor
Presenter Matthew Sweet
Interviewed Guest Michael Symmons Roberts
Interviewed Guest Helen Mort
Interviewed Guest Stewart Mottram
Producer Fiona McLean

Broadcast

  • Thu 28 Sep 2017 22:00

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Contains Strong Language

Contains Strong Language

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