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The Poet Laureate Simon Armitage meets different animals (he looks into a tiger’s eyes, holds a giant African land snail in the palm of his hand, and visits an equine therapy centre) as he drafts a brand new poem.

Simon’s written a lot about animals in the past, but always at a distance. He wants that to change, and to feel that he has captured the spirit of an animal, and done it justice. In this series, across different creaturely encounters, meetings with poets, and some of the most vivid poems about animals ever written (including Ted Hughes’ ‘The Thought-Fox’ William Blake’s ‘The Tyger’, Sharon Olds’ ‘The Connoisseuse of Slugs’ , and Imtiaz Dharker’s ‘The Host’) Simon asks whether a poem can bring an animal closer to us, and if poetry can help us grasp what other animals really mean to us, in an age when so many species are under threat.

Produced by Faith Lawrence
Mixed by Sue Stonestreet

Foxes - Audio archive sources:
Listening and Writing: Two Talks By Ted Hughes’ – ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ - 1961
‘Ted Hughes: Force of Nature' - ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½2 - 1988 ('Thames extract - ITV )
Interview with Ted Hughes at New York's 92nd Street Y - Unterberg Center – 1986

Tigers - actors (reading lines from William Blake's 'The Tyger')
John Nettles
Angela Thorne
Sir Michael Tippett

Horses - 'The Horses' by Edwin Muir is read by John McKay