Main content
This programme will be available shortly after broadcast

The Shipping Forecast: Poetry Please

In celebration of 100 years of the Shipping Forecast on our airwaves, Roger McGough is joined by Paul Farley to share the poems it has inspired.

Poetry Please celebrates 100 years on our airwaves for the Shipping Forecast, or what could also be considered that little slice of accidental nonsense poetry we get to tune into four times a day.

Roger McGough is joined by fellow poet and Liverpudlian Paul Farley to share poems inspired by, reminiscent of or relating to the Shipping Forecast. The pair chat about what makes those gale warnings and sea area names so poetic, and why the Forecast's mantra-like quality lends itself to being a muse. Featuring well-loved classics by Seamus Heaney and Carol Ann Duffy, evocative works from Sylvia Plath, AC Bevan and Wendy Cope, and a couple from Paul and Roger.

Produced by Eliza Lomas in Bristol.

Release date:

28 minutes

On radio

New Year's Day 2025 15:30

This Week's Poems

Ìý

Glanmore Sonnet VII

by Seamus Heaney

From Seamus Heaney – Opened Ground – Poems 1966-1996

Published by Faber & Faber

Ìý

Prayer

by Carol Ann Duffy

From Carol Ann Duffy – Selected Poems

Published by Penguin

Ìý

Finisterre

by Sylvia Plath

From Sylvia Plath – Collected Poems

Published by Faber & Faber

Ìý

Relic

By Paul Farley

From The Ice Age

Published by Picador

Ìý

Rockall

by Michael Roberts

From Orion Marches

Published by Faber & Faber

Ìý

The Shipping Forecast

By John O'Donnell

From Sunlight: New and Selected Poems

Published by Dedalus Press

Ìý

Malin

By A C Bevan

From Of Sea-Graves & Sand Shrines

Published by Arc Publications

Ìý

The Shipping Forecast

By Roger McGough

Ìý

This Is A Low

By Blur

From Parklife

Label: Parlophone UK

Ìý

The People's Shipping Forecast

by Murray Lachlan YoungÌý

From Â鶹Éç Radio 4 - We British

Ìý

Closedown (for Alice Arnold)

By Wendy Cope

From Family Values

Published by Faber & Faber

Ìý


Broadcast

  • New Year's Day 2025 15:30