Close Readings

Seamus Perry and Mark Ford discuss the life and work of the Saint Lucian poet, playwright and Nobel laureate Derek Walcott.

Seamus Perry and Mark Ford discuss the life and work of Louis MacNeice, the Irish poet of psychic divisions and authoritative fretfulness.

In the latest episode of Close Readings, Seamus Perry and Mark Ford turn to the life and work of Adrienne Rich, the great poetic interrogator of the American family home as a site of trauma for daughters and wives.

In the latest episode in their series of Close Readings, Seamus Perry and Mark Ford look at the life and work of Robert Frost, the great American poet of fences and dark woods.

In the first episode in a new series of Close Readings, Seamus Perry and Mark Ford take on Gerard Manley Hopkins: Victorian literature’s only anti-modern proto-modernist queer-ecologist Jesuit priest.

In the concluding episode of their acclaimed series, Seamus Perry and Mark Ford confront Robert Lowell.

Seamus Perry and Mark Ford discuss the work of Seamus Heaney

Mark Ford, Seamus Perry and Joanna Biggs consider the balance of biography and mythology in Plath’s work, situating her as a transatlantic, expressionist poet of the Cold War.

Seamus Perry and Mark Ford look at that great poet of winter and snow, Wallace Stevens, and the pieces about him in the LRB archive.

Seamus Perry and Mark Ford discuss the life and work of A.E. Housman.

Seamus Perry and Mark Ford discuss the life and work of Stevie Smith.

Seamus Perry and Mark Ford discuss the poetry of Thomas Hardy in the latest in their series of discussions on 20th century poets.

Seamus Perry and Mark Ford discuss the life and work of Elizabeth Bishop, through the lens of the LRB archive.

Seamus Perry and Mark Ford discuss the work of W. H. Auden with reference to pieces from the LRB.

Seamus Perry and Mark Ford discuss the work of Philip Larkin, drawing on articles from our archive by contributors including Alan Bennett, Barbara Everett and John Bayley.