Background
Arrows of Desire (a phrase taken from William
Blake's Jerusalem) has been a three-year project, yielding nearly
50 modules, ranging in length from about three to eight minutes.
The modules are grouped together to form twelve 25-minute programmes, consisting of four different poems, each in a 6-minute module.
The poems were chosen both for their visual and dramatic potential and because they represent a range of period, theme, style, subject and tone of voice. Some unarguably represent a canon of 'great poems'.
The poems have been put together to encourage teachers and students to regard the series as discrete modules, which may be studied in isolation or in combination with any of the others.
Within each of the three series there has been a policy of starting with the simplest modules and working through to the more difficult ones.
Each of the film modules deals with the work of a single writer, usually concentrating on just one poem. A poet reads one of the poems in voiceover and alongside other contemporary poets, answers a number of core questions and shares points of interest and personal views about the poem with the viewing audience.
