Programme 3

Eden Rock

Charles Causley, (1917- )

Causley's gentle and intensely personal visualisation of idyllic life has an endearing, nostalgic warmth. His simplicity of language and powerful sensory appeals wistfully evoke an angelic, childlike vision of a life beyond death. Like the haunting situation and mood described, the lyric drifts 'slowly … leisurely' through its astonishingly beautiful detail.

'I think as well as being about death, 'Eden Rock' is very much a poem about memory', argues poet Roddie Lumsden. 'It's a poem about moving on past death into another life but also a poem about wanting to move backwards in time towards childhood again.' Reflecting on 'Eden Rock' in the present programme are Kate Clanchy, Wendy Cope, PJ Kavanagh and Matthew Sweeney.