Not Just the Tudors How Poets Spoke Truth to Power
Dec 4, 2025
In this enlightening discussion, historian Catherine Clarke delves into the power of poetry throughout English history. She explores how poems have ignited change, celebrated triumphs, and critiqued authority. The conversation includes the selection of 25 significant poems, from Thomas Wyatt's complex translations to the bold political commentary of Anne Askew. Clarke also examines the evolution of the 'island' metaphor in Shakespeare's work and how poetry has shaped national identity and resistance against tyranny.
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Poetry As Time Travel
- Poetry creates intimate emotional links across time that let us 'time travel' into past lives and feelings.
- Catherine Clarke argues poems reveal both grand events and marginal voices, offering a different route into history.
Curating A People's Literary History
- Clarke chose 25 poems to trace English identity from the 8th century to 2022 and across varied places and voices.
- She prioritises diversity of social status, gender, geography, and surprising perspectives to tell England's story.
Poetry's Deliberate Doubleness
- Wyatt's 'Whoso List to Hunt' cloaks possible political meaning in Petrarchan translation and first-person desire.
- Clarke emphasises poetry's doubleness: personal longing, imitation, and potential political disguise.
