Poems to get you through the change of season
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How do the hosts introduce poetry as comfort for the changing season?
I know there are still touches of an Indian summer here and there, but we are all kind of settling into autumn or unsettling into autumn, as a lot of us find it. So for those of us who are having trouble coping with the turn in the season, we're going to get some consolation from poetry. Now, poet Enda Wiley, welcome back. Hello,
Brandon. It's great to be here. You always
have just the medicine.
Well, I hope I do today.
So you've got some poems to kind of ease the passage into autumn. You say poets love this time of year,
yeah? I think they do. I think they love kind of the coming of darkness and the hunkering down. And, you know, it's a lovely lush season full of colour. And it's transitioning. I think that's what they love. And it's a time of kind of emotional renewal. So that's what the poets like. So I've got a whole regular... It's because
they're depressed. depressed introverts.
They don't like the
summer. They find all that cheerfulness.
What is the story behind Rue Borson’s poem “Autumn” and its chandelier inspiration?
That's true. They want the darkness. They want the darkness.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Irish people, if we had good weather in this country, an Irish person would never have written a poem.
Exactly. There'd be no poetry at all. You're dead right.
Okay. And I suppose, yeah, you see, when you say it like that, And you see the poetry in autumn. It does kind of reframe it, doesn't
it? Yeah, it really does. As
a time of richness, as against coming into a time of bleakness. So your first poem. Tell me first about the poet. This is a Canadian poet you only discovered recently yourself.
Yeah, it's actually great, I think, when you come across a poet you've never met before. And I actually found her on this site called Lifesaving Poems by Anthony Wilson. If anyone's interested, there are a really great collection of poems there.
Why is John Keats’s “To Autumn” considered a classic celebration of abundance?
Her name is...
Lifesaving Poems
by
Anthony Wilson.
Exactly, yeah. And
it's a collection of various poems.
You can look it up on, you know, he's got a website and there's a book about it as well. So they're really great. And I love that I came across this poet. First of all, I loved her name, Rue Borson, kind of cool name. And she's written a poem called Autumn. And it's quirky, I think. And she's kind of, as we were just saying there, saying bye bye, goodbye marigolds, goodbye insects. I'm leaving the summertime and I'm heading into a darkness. And she was inspired by an heirloom chandelier that she had. And she said, when we put it on, it means we're in a new season with darkness hurtling towards us, that darkness again, like grief, like a rigged election, like a pandemic, like a train. So this is this amazing chandelier set her off on this poem, which I'll read for you now, actually.
Yeah,
you see, there are there are rituals involved. like even ones we don't notice in everyone's life as the time of year changes. Yeah,
that's right. It
can be something like as much a light fitting like.
Yeah, and she turns on the chandelier and then it came.
OK,
so it's Autumn by Rue Borson.
How does personal family transition (sending a daughter abroad) shape the episode’s autumn theme?
One night goes on longer than the rest. never so long wild away then dawn goodbye insects hollow casings on the windowsill a dainty leg among the spice jars goodbye marigolds the earth will not wait for you trains hurtle by at the edge of cities the taste of bourbon a mouthful of leaves Above everyone's dining room table, a chandelier burns. Now the luxurious old wine can be uncorked. The slicing of meat and bread uncorked. And in the black panes, life goes on.
Love it. Autumn by Ru Borson. So you've gone for an old classic next. This is like over 200 years old, yeah?
Yeah, I sure did. I went for, can you imagine, on September the 19th, 1819, which is 207 years ago. John Keats was walking along by the River Itchen in Hampshire and suddenly one of the most famous poems about autumn was written and composed and I was reading a letter that he wrote to his best friend around that time and he was so excited about writing this poem he said how beautiful the season is now how fine the air this struck me on my Sunday walk and I composed upon it now remind me how old he was So he was only 24, actually, and he had a very good year for that year because he's written Ode on a Grecian Urn, Ode to a Nightingale.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
How do the hosts introduce poetry as comfort for the changing season?
0:00–0:48
2
What is the story behind Rue Borson’s poem “Autumn” and its chandelier inspiration?
0:48–1:28
3
Why is John Keats’s “To Autumn” considered a classic celebration of abundance?
1:28–2:31
4
How does personal family transition (sending a daughter abroad) shape the episode’s autumn theme?
2:31–4:15
5
What emotions does Cecil Day‑Lewis’s “Walking Away” evoke about loss and new beginnings?
4:15–5:40
6
Who is Vona Groarke and what vivid seasonal moments do her short vignettes capture?
5:40–7:16
7
How does Seamus Heaney’s “Postscript” reflect nature, change, and an after‑thought of wonder?
7:16–9:00
8
What final reflections and thanks wrap up the autumn poetry journey?
9:00–10:55