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.
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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
Author: John Agard
Publisher: Bloodaxe
Title: I taste a liquor never brewed
Author: Emily DickinsonÂ
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
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
Featherwing Beetle
Links
The entomologistÂ
The poetÂ
The self-publishing cellistÂ
Broadcasts
- Sun 21 Jun 2015 06:05Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radio 4
- Sun 21 Jun 2015 23:30Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radio 4
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