Readings

Joyce Chen's Senbazuru won 2020's Young Romantic Poetry Prize.
The poem was read by Dinah Roe, Reader in 19th Century Literature at Oxford Brookes University, as part of our online awards ceremony.

Pascale Petit's Indian Paradise Flycatcher won 2020's Keats-Shelley Poetry Prize. The poem was read by Will Kemp, one of the Poetry Prize Judges, as part of our online announcement.

Bestselling sports journalist and nature writer Simon Barnes ponders one of Romantic poetry’s big questions: what’s the big deal with poets and nightingales? Reading from his book The Meaning of Birds, Simon examines nightingales in the poetry of John Keats and John Clare – and asks another question: which poet doesn’t know his nightingale from his nightshirt?

Simon Barnes describes the joy of birdwatching, reading in a post from his own blog.

Poetry Reading by Heart: John Keats' To Autumn
Seven years ago, Keats-Shelley Twitter (aka James Kidd) was challenged to learn and read John Keats' great ode To Autumn by heart. After days, and even weeks of work, of trying and failing, we eventually got from A to B, or from Seasons of mists and mellow fruitfulness to gathering swallows tweeting. Phew.