Celebrating 25 years poems

Click on the poem titles above to read the poems

Poems on the Underground celebrates its 25th year with a new set of poems to be displayed in London Underground cars in January and February 2011. A leaflet including these poems and a few others will also be available free at Central London Tube stations during January.

The poems all celebrate in different ways the enduring value of the written word, from the earliest times to the present.

The set includes new poems by two poets featured in the very first set of Poems on the Underground in January 1986: Seamus Heaney and Grace Nichols.

The set also includes the opening lines of ‘Endymion’ by John Keats, (‘A thing of beauty is a joy for ever’ - lines which have inspired the project from its inception); a translation by Tony Harrison of a verse by Palladas, a 4th-century Alexandrian schoolmaster; a ‘Riddle’ with Anglo-Saxon resonance by Gerard Benson; and a poem by Thomas Hardy inspired by Mozart, which coincides with the celebration of Mozart on BBC Radio 3.

The poems

‘Colmcille the Scribe’ by Seamus Heaney, from an 11th-century Irish manuscript, purporting to be by the 6th-century Irish saint Colmcille (St. Columba). Reprinted from Human Chain (Faber 2010).

‘For the Life of This Planet’ by Grace Nichols - a celebration of the natural world under threat. Reprinted from I Have Crossed an Ocean: Selected Poems (Bloodaxe 2010).

‘Riddle’ by Gerard Benson, poet-laureate of Bradford, and a vital member of Poems on the Underground since its inception. Reprinted from A Good Time (Smith/Doorstop 2010).

‘Loving the Rituals’ by Palladas, translated by Tony Harrison. A voice from the distant past speaking to the online generation. Reprinted by permission of Tony Harrison.

‘Lines from Endymion’ by John Keats. The young poet expressing his deepest thoughts about art and poetry and the human imagination.

‘Lines to a Movement in Mozart’s E-flat Symphony’ by Thomas Hardy. The movement is the Minuet of Symphony No. 39, probably in the popular piano arrangement by the Bohemian composer Julius Schulhoff, which is reprinted on the poster. Hardy’s wife Emma was a talented pianist, and the poem, written in 1898 when husband and wife were sadly estranged, may have been intended to remind her of their early love. The poster coincides with ‘The Genius of Mozart’ on BBC Radio 3, in which all of Mozart’s works are being broadcast.

Poems on the Underground is supported by TfL, Arts Council England and the British Council. Poems are selected by writer Judith Chernaik and poets Gerard Benson and Cicely Herbert. Posters, designed by Tom Davidson, can be obtained from the Poetry Society and London Transport Museum. The poems leaflet will be available at Tube stations, the Poetry Library at the Southbank Centre, and the Poetry Society.