The Oxford Professor of Poetry holds a public lecture each term. The current Professor of Poetry is A.E.Stallings. The Professor of Poetry lectures were conceived in 1708 by Berkshire landowner Henry Birkhead and began after he bequeathed some money so it could be a valuable supplement to the curriculum. He believed ‘the reading of the ancient poets gave keenness and polish to the minds of young men as well as to the advancement of more serious literature both sacred and human’. The first poetry professor, Joseph Trapp, took as his subject poetry in general. He was mainly concerned with the...
Latest episodes
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50 min
Counterblast! (a manifesto for poetry)
Alice Oswald's final lecture as the English Faculty's Professor of Poetry.
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57 min
Anonymous and Onymous
A professor of poetry talk by Alice Oswald - Hillary Term 2023
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57 min
Anonymous and Onymous
A professor of poetry talk by Alice Oswald - Hilary Term 2023
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47 min
Meandering Fortune-Graphs
A professor of poetry talk by Alice Oswald - Michaelmas 2022. The title of the talk is: Meandering Fortune-graphs – a conversation between the Book of Job and David Jones’ In Paren…
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48 min
The Life and Death of Poetry
A distracted walkabout with T.S Eliot and others.
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48 min
A Lament for the Earth
This episode will address the challenge to nature poetry.
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48 min
A Lament for the Earth
This episode will address the challenge to nature poetry.
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50 min ↗
In Sleep a King
This is a sleep-talk on the subject of waking up with Sonnet 87 (by Shakespeare) in the background. This talk was given by Alice Oswald on the 25th November 2021.
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50 min
In Sleep a King
This is a sleep-talk on the subject of waking up with Sonnet 87 (by Shakespeare) in the background. This talk was given by Alice Oswald on the 25th November 2021.
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1 h 05 ↗
Lines by Alice Oswald
It's fifty years since the publication of From the Life and Songs of the Crow (by Ted Hughes). This is a lecture about lines and other sound barriers and how Crow flies straight th…
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1 h 05
Lines by Alice Oswald
It's fifty years since the publication of From the Life and Songs of the Crow (by Ted Hughes). This is a lecture about lines and other sound barriers and how Crow flies straight th…
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1 h 04 ↗
Interview with Water
This is the first ever online lecture by a Professor of Poetry at Oxford. In the lecture, Alice Oswald explores the strange connection between water and grief.
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1 h 04
Interview with Water
This is the first ever online lecture by a Professor of Poetry at Oxford. In the lecture, Alice Oswald explores the strange connection between water and grief.
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43 min ↗
The Art of Erosion
Inaugural Lecture of Alice Oswald, Professor of Poetry, held at the University of Oxford Exam Schools.
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43 min
The Art of Erosion
Inaugural Lecture of Alice Oswald, Professor of Poetry, held at the University of Oxford Exam Schools.