Tuesday Poem: For the Year's Midnight by Alice Oswald

Alice Oswald is a very interesting poet - when she gives a reading she recites all her poetry from memory without a prompt, and she has a particular style that comes from older traditions of oral poetry.  This poem - Tithonus: For the Year's Midnight - is a solstice poem specially commissioned and performed at the South Bank with music on the nykelharp by Griselda Sanderston.  It lasts exactly as long as the midsummer dawn, linking the two solstices, and telling the story of Tithonus who fell in love with Alba (dawn).  Alba begged Zeus to make him immortal so that they could be together for eternity, but she forgot to also ask for eternal youth.   This BBC radio version of the poem is introduced by the poet Paul Farley, who is one of my colleagues at Lancaster University.

This is the link:

Alice Oswald:  The Guardian

The Tuesday Poem is on holiday until January, but if you'd like to have a look at what they've been posting during 2014 please follow this link.