Poetry and the Turning World: Food
About this episode
This episode explores how food in poetry reflects intimate relationships and broader societal themes such as alienation and displacement.
The most popular modern food poem is probably William Carlos Williams’s ‘This Is Just to Say’, in which the speaker confesses to eating the plums his wife was saving for breakfast. Food has often been a means for poetry to represent intimate relationships, but, as Sarah and Sandeep explore in this episode, it has also provided ways of thinking about alienation, societal change, survival and displacement. In Tony Harrison’s 'V.', supermarkets and food providers become central motifs in a discussion of Britain’s changing landscapes; Bhanu Kapil’s How to Wash a Heart uses the memory of a grandfather planting yogurt under a tree as a means of understanding the aftermath of Partition; and in Yousif M. Qasmiyeh’s ‘Communion’, set in the Beddawi refugee camp in Lebanon, lentils become part of a living archive through which experiences are transmitted across generations. Read Tony Harrison's 'V.' in the LRB: https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v07/n01/tony-harrison/v Get 25% off a 12-month subscription to Close Readings with the code ’POETRY25’ at checkout here: https://lrb.me/crpoetry Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Sponsors
Close Readings
More episodes of The LRB Podcast
- On Politics: The US at 250
- Poetry and the Turning World: Money
- Among the Private Spies
- On Politics: The Andy Burnham Show
- Poetry and the Turning World: Weather
- World Cup Cupidity
Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the The LRB Podcast podcast page.