Episode 1 - Spring, a 'Dairy Ode' and Leicestershire Poetry

As March draws to a close, host Dr Oli Tearle is accompanied by guests Dr Sarah Parker and Dr Kerry Featherstone to contemplate the theme of spring.

Kicking off with a reading of ‘Spring’ by Edna St. Vincent Millay, our experts discuss an interesting ‘Dairy Ode’ that is So Bad It’s Good, when you should read aloud to your cat, and the modern poetry of Leicestershire.

Featured poem:

To what purpose, April, do you return again?
Beauty is not enough.
You can no longer quiet me with the redness
Of little leaves opening stickily.
I know what I know.
The sun is hot on my neck as I observe
The spikes of the crocus.
The smell of the earth is good.
It is apparent that there is no death.
But what does that signify?
Not only under ground are the brains of men
Eaten by maggots.
Life in itself
Is nothing,
An empty cup, a flight of uncarpeted stairs.
It is not enough that yearly, down this hill,
April
Comes like an idiot, babbling and strewing flowers.

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