Storyline

Sir John Gielgud is joined by an outstanding repertory of actors in this pioneering, imaginative series demonstrating the immense variety and emotional impact of English-language poetry, from the fourteenth century to the contemporary era.

First Aired

1984-05-02
Last Aired

1984-12-09
Creator
Genre

Drama
Seasons

1
Episodes

16
Status

Ended
Language

English, Latin
Network

Channel 4

Keywords:

poetry

Stream and watch Six Centuries of Verse

Season 1

1. Chaucer - Ted Hughes

This introductory programme establishes the continuity and variety of poetry over six centuries, touch...More

This introductory programme establishes the continuity and variety of poetry over six centuries, touching on different genres by using extracts from some of the many poems featured in the series - from Chaucer to Ted Hughes.Less

400mins 1984-05-02

2. Old English

A look at the poetry composed between the mid-seventh century and the Norman Conquest, including Julia...More

A look at the poetry composed between the mid-seventh century and the Norman Conquest, including Julian Glover's reading of part of his own adaptation of the heroic epic Beowulf.Less

400mins 1984-05-09

3. Chaucer 1340-1400

Chaucer was the first great named poet in English. This programme focuses on The Canterbury Tales, wit...More

Chaucer was the first great named poet in English. This programme focuses on The Canterbury Tales, with a reading of the introduction by Gary Watson and a detailed exploration of The Pardoner's Tale.Less

400mins 1984-05-16

4. Medieval - Elizabethan 1400-1600

This programme explores the late Medieval period leading into the Renaissance, discussing poems dealin...More

This programme explores the late Medieval period leading into the Renaissance, discussing poems dealing with love, death and ambition by Skelton, Wyatt, Raleigh, Marlowe and Shakespeare.Less

400mins 1984-05-23

5. Shakespeare 1564-1616

A chronological look at Shakespeare's dramatic genius, using extracts from eight plays: Romeo and Juli...More

A chronological look at Shakespeare's dramatic genius, using extracts from eight plays: Romeo and Juliet, Henry V, Twelfth Night, Hamlet, King Lear, Antony and Cleopatra, Cymbeline and The Tempest.Less

400mins 1984-05-30

6. Metaphysical and Devotional 1590-1670

The vigour and audacity of John Donne's love poetry is contrasted with his equally powerful devotional...More

The vigour and audacity of John Donne's love poetry is contrasted with his equally powerful devotional works. The programme then explores the work of Donne's disciple George Herbert, and Andrew Marvell.Less

400mins 1984-06-06

7. Milton 1608-1674

Milton's dedication, his humanity and his blindness are all given illustration in Ian Richardson's rea...More

Milton's dedication, his humanity and his blindness are all given illustration in Ian Richardson's reading of the sonnet to his dead wife, Katharine, while his eloquence is highlighted in Richardson's spectacular readings from Paradise Lost.Less

400mins 1984-06-13

8. Restoration and Augustan 1660-1745

An overview of the great age of satire: among the works featured are Rochester's 'A Satire Against Rea...More

An overview of the great age of satire: among the works featured are Rochester's 'A Satire Against Reason and Mankind', Dryden's 'Absalom and Achitophel' and the mock-heroic 'MacFlecknoe', and Pope's masterpiece of mordant wit, 'The Dunciad'.Less

400mins 1984-06-20

9. Romantic Pioneers 1750-1805

This programme features excerpts from Jonathan Smart's 'Jubilate Agno', written in Bedlam, five poems ...More

This programme features excerpts from Jonathan Smart's 'Jubilate Agno', written in Bedlam, five poems by Blake, Coleridge's 'Kubla Khan', and Wordsworth's 'The Solitary Reaper' - a fine example of "emotion recollected in tranquillity".Less

400mins 1984-10-21

10. Wordsworth 1770-1850

'Upon Westminster Bridge', 'Daffodils', 'A Slumber Did My Spirit Steal', and an extract from Book I of...More

'Upon Westminster Bridge', 'Daffodils', 'A Slumber Did My Spirit Steal', and an extract from Book I of 'The Prelude' are among the poems read by Julian Glover; all were filmed in Wordsworth's native Lake District.Less

400mins 1984-10-28

11. Younger Romantics

Among the poems featured are Shelly's 'Ozymandias', 'The Mask of Anarchy' and 'Adonais'; Keats' 'La Be...More

Among the poems featured are Shelly's 'Ozymandias', 'The Mask of Anarchy' and 'Adonais'; Keats' 'La Belle Dame sans Merci' and 'To Autumn'; and part of Byron's 'Don Juan'.Less

400mins 1984-11-04

12. Victorians 1837-1901

The Victorian period of richly represented with extracts of poems by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Emily Bron...More

The Victorian period of richly represented with extracts of poems by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Emily Bronte, Christina Rossetti, Robert Browning, Matthew Arnold and Agernon Charles Swinburne.Less

400mins 1984-11-11

13. American Pioneers 1855-1910

Lee Remick reads Julia Ward Howe's 'The Battle Hymn of the Republic' along with poems by Edgar Allen P...More

Lee Remick reads Julia Ward Howe's 'The Battle Hymn of the Republic' along with poems by Edgar Allen Poe and Emily Dickinson; Stacy Keach reads poems by Walt Whitman and Herman Melville; John Gielgud recites Robinson's 'Miniver Cheevy'.Less

400mins 1984-11-18

14. Romantics and Realists

This programme covers verse of the late Victorian period and the early twentieth century, with poems b...More

This programme covers verse of the late Victorian period and the early twentieth century, with poems by Thomas Hardy, Gerard Manley, A.E. Houseman and Rudyard Kipling.Less

400mins 1984-11-25

15. Early Twentieth Century 1914-1939

Wilfred Owen's 'Anthem for Doomed Youth' and Edward Thomas' 'Old Man' are among the featured poems, wh...More

Wilfred Owen's 'Anthem for Doomed Youth' and Edward Thomas' 'Old Man' are among the featured poems, while Cyril Cusack reads a selection of poems by W.B. Yeats, and Ian Richardson and Isla Blair give voices to an excerpt from Eliot's 'The Waste Land'.Less

400mins 1984-12-02

16. Towards the Present 1934-1984

Anthony Hopkins reads two of Dylan Thomas' most widely known poems, and Stacy Keach reads Robert Lowel...More

Anthony Hopkins reads two of Dylan Thomas' most widely known poems, and Stacy Keach reads Robert Lowell's 'For the Union Dead'; poetry by Philip Larkin and Ted Hughes close the series.Less