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Inebriate of the Air

Samira Ahmed celebrates the bright, airy pleasures of midsummer, with texts by Emily Dickinson and Tove Jansson.

Samira Ahmed celebrates the bright, airy pleasures of Midsummer.

"Inebriate of air am I,
And debauchee of dew,
Reeling, through endless summer days,
From inns of molten blue."

The longest day of the year has been marked, especially in Northern climes, with bonfires, games and songs. Many of these rituals have faded over time but the sense of exhilaration of light and air and richness of the natural world still resonates. In literature this time of year is often an associated with magic and love: think of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. There's a sense of possibility and optimism that might extend us beyond the mundane and, in the poem from which the title of this programme is taken, Emily Dickinson describes it as a kind of spiritual intoxication.

The programme also includes readings from the work of Tove Jansson and RS Thomas as well as a new commission from the poet Jen Hadfield who sends us a postcard from the "Simmer Dim" of Shetland inspired, in part, by the Nikolai Astrup painting, VÃ¥rnatt i hagen. It is the image used for this programme page and is provided by Kode Art Museums of Bergen (DAG FOSSE/KODE/SPAREBANKSTIFTELSEN DNB).

The readers are Samuel Barnett, Natasha Gordon and Jen Hadfield.

Producer: Natalie Steed
A Whistledown production for Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radio 4.

30 minutes

Last on

Sun 21 Jun 2015 23:30

Music Played

  • Hannah Sanders

    Pleasant and Delightful

    • Charms Against Sorrow.
    • Sungrazing Records.
  • George Gershwin

    Summertime

    Performer: The Zombies.
    • The Best Of The Zombies.
    • Music Club International Records.
  • Henry Purcell

    Second Music: Air

    Performer: The Sixteen.
    • The Indian Queen.
    • CORO.
  • Zoë Keating

    Forest

    • Into the Trees.
    • No publisher.
  • µþÂáö°ù°ì

    Moon

    • Biophilia.
    • One Little Indian Records.
  • Benjamin Britten

    On the ground, sleep sound

    Performer: Choirs Of Downside And Emanuel Schools, London Symphony Orchestra.
    • A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
    • London.
  • Chris Stout & Catriona McKay

    White Nights

    • White Nights.
    • McKay Stout Music.

Readings

Title: The Light of Fruits
Author: John Agard
Publisher: Bloodaxe

Title: I taste a liquor never brewed
Author: Emily Dickinson 
Publisher: Faber and Faber

Title: Summer
Author: Katri Vala, translated by Herbert Lomas
Publisher: Books from Finland, issue 4, 2001

Title: Moonise
Author: Gerard Manley Hopkins
Publisher: OUP Oxford

Title: extract from The Summer Book
Author: Tove Jansson
Publisher: Sortof Books

Title: A Postcard from the Simmer Dim
Author: Jen Hadfield
Synopsis: A specially commissioned piece of new writing from the award winning poet, who lives in Shetland, Jen Hadfield.

Title: Swifts
Author: RS Thomas
Publisher: W&N

Fairy Wasp

Fairy Wasp

The so-called fairy wasps are parasitoids that develop in the eggs of other insects and they among the smallest insects. This one is shown next to the tip of a pin for scale.

Parasitoid Wasp

Parasitoid Wasp
Parasitoid wasps are staggeringly diverse and often very beautiful, but they're typically very small and completely overlooked by most people. The entomologist AA Girault captured the beauty and mystery of these insects with the following: "Some gem-like or marvellous inhabitants of the woodlands heretofore unknown and by most never seen nor dreamt of." 

Featherwing Beetle

Featherwing Beetle
Featherwing beetles are among the smallest beetles. The individual in this photograph is a mere 0.5mm long. On their large, feather-like wings they can take to the air with ease.

Links

The painting Vårnatt i Hagen by Nikolai Astrup mentioned in Jen Hadfield’s Postcard from the Simmer Dim and other works featured at  in Bergen  

The entomologist 

The poet 

The self-publishing cellist 

Broadcasts

  • Sun 21 Jun 2015 06:05
  • Sun 21 Jun 2015 23:30

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