A Voice Like This

Some houses seem to hold on to the people who once lived in them. In this episode of A Voice Like This , we leave the darker hauntings of Halloween behind and consider a gentler kind of ghost: the memories, familiar objects and quiet traces of those who came before us. Through two poems by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Thomas Hardy, we explore the way the past remains part of the present, sometim...

For Halloween, A Voice Like This has one more tale to tell. In this special bonus episode, we step into the unsettling world of Thomas Hood's The Haunted House , a poem filled with empty rooms, lingering shadows and the uneasy feeling that something remains long after everyone has gone. There's no need to rush through a house like this. Some things are best discovered slowly. So find yourself some...

A Voice Like This | Season 2, Episode 5 As Halloween approaches and the nights grow longer, A Voice Like This ventures into the shadows for a special collection of haunting poetry. In this episode, three classic poems explore the darker corners of imagination, from witches and supernatural visitors to the unsettling mysteries of the human mind. We begin with Robert Herrick's The Hag , a wild, eeri...

Masks and Mirrors How much of ourselves do we really show to the world? In this episode of A Voice Like This , three poets explore the distance between the face others see and the life being lived beneath it. In “We Wear the Mask” , Paul Laurence Dunbar writes of the smiling face worn to conceal suffering, in words shaped by the particular experience of Black Americans living in a society marked b...

A Quiet Mind Where do we find stillness when the mind itself is full of noise? Marking World Mental Health Day, this episode of A Voice Like This brings together two poems written almost eighty years apart, each finding its own way through uncertainty, isolation and the restless noise of life. In “I Am!” , John Clare writes from a place of profound loneliness and confusion, yet beneath it all rema...

Lessons What does it really mean to teach? Marking World Teachers’ Day, this episode of A Voice Like This looks beyond lessons, books and classrooms to explore where understanding really comes from. In “On Teaching” , Kahlil Gibran suggests that a teacher cannot simply give us wisdom. At best, they can lead us to the threshold of our own understanding. William Wordsworth takes us somewhere rather...

The Turning Year Season Two of A Voice Like This begins with autumn. In “To Autumn” , John Keats finds the season at its fullest: heavy with fruit, warmth and ripeness, lingering in the last abundance of the year. Gerard Manley Hopkins looks at the same turning of the seasons from a very different place. In “Spring and Fall: to a young child” , falling leaves become something deeper: a child's fir...

A Voice Like This returns for Season Two on Monday, 28 September. A new collection of poetry from voices past and present, brought off the page and into the spoken word. There’ll be familiar names, unexpected discoveries and a few special episodes along the way. Just a few quiet minutes each week. A poem, a voice, and a chance to simply listen. Subscribe or follow now, and Season Two will be waiti...

For the final episode of the year, A Voice Like This presents a complete reading of A Child’s Christmas in Wales by Dylan Thomas . A seasonal favourite, Thomas’s lyrical memoir captures the sights, sounds, and small moments of a Welsh childhood at Christmas; snow-filled streets, family rituals, and voices that linger long after the season has passed. This episode is offered simply and in full, wit...

A Visit from St. Nicholas As Christmas approaches, this special bonus episode invites a quiet moment of calm amid the winter bustle. Phil offers a gentle reflection on the season before reading 'A Visit from St. Nicholas', the beloved poem more commonly known as ’Twas the Night Before Christmas. A festive pause, a breath of stillness, and a timeless story that continues to shape the magic of Chris...

What does it mean for love to last? Not the rush of feeling, or the drama of declaration, but the quieter, steadier work of trust. The kind that’s built carefully, tested over time, and strong enough to stand without constant reassurance. In this episode, we explore love as something enduring and unshaken, through two poems that speak across centuries. Seamus Heaney’s Scaffolding offers a grounded...

Featuring “I Dream a World” by Langston Hughes and “The Human Family” by Maya Angelou In this uplifting episode of A Voice Like This , we explore two poems that imagine a gentler world and celebrate the ties that bind us together. Langston Hughes dreams of a future shaped by justice, kindness, and shared humanity. Maya Angelou reminds us that in all our differences, we are still deeply alike. Toge...

In this deeply personal episode, we pause to reflect on the quiet power of a life well lived — and the everyday moments that shape who we become. At the request of my niece Joanne, and in loving memory of my sister Tracy, I read The Dash — a poem that reminds us how profoundly the small choices of our days define the legacy we leave behind. To accompany it, I share Mary Oliver’s The Summer Day , a...

Poems featured: “Dust of Snow” by Robert Frost “The Orange” by Wendy Cope “The Laughing Heart” by Charles Bukowski In this lighter, brighter episode of A Voice Like This , we turn our attention to the small joys -the sparks, glimmers, and brief flashes of warmth that can shift an entire day. Robert Frost offers a tiny moment of unexpected wonder. Wendy Cope celebrates the quiet delight found in so...

This episode marks a time of remembrance. We pause to honour those who gave their lives in war — and to reflect on the truth that lies behind the words honour and glory . John McCrae’s “In Flanders Fields” has become almost inseparable from remembrance itself — a poem of beauty and resolve, written in the shadow of the Great War. Wilfred Owen’s “Dulce et Decorum Est” answers that call with the voi...

As autumn deepens and the light fades earlier each day, we begin to measure time in quieter ways. Light & Time brings together two voices - Shakespeare and Vaughan - who, across centuries, reflect on what it means to age, and what lies beyond the boundaries of time itself. In Sonnet 73 , Shakespeare offers one of the most intimate meditations on aging ever written - not in fear, but with accep...

Bonfire Night — the spark of rebellion, and the quiet wonder that follows. Every November, the night sky in Britain crackles with memory; a celebration of rebellion and the light that follows it. Fire & Freedom explores both sides of that spark: the defiant blaze of revolution, and the quiet wonder of beauty born from fire. We begin with Percy Bysshe Shelley’s The Masque of Anarchy, a thundero...

This Halloween season, A Voice Like This takes a seat by the fire — and invites in two unquiet guests. From the rhythmic unease of a ghost that isn’t there , to a love so still it defies life itself, this special episode explores the shadowed edge of the human mind — where affection becomes obsession, and absence feels almost alive. Featuring readings of: “Antigonish” by Hughes Mearns “Porphyria’s...

In this episode, Phil Rowe explores two timeless reflections on the passage of life — Dylan Thomas’s nostalgic “Fern Hill” and Robert Herrick’s carpe diem classic “To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time.” Thomas’s lyrical remembrance of childhood radiates joy and innocence — until time itself steps forward, gently reclaiming that golden youth. Herrick’s poem, written three centuries earlier, looks i...

Episode 15: Fears and Fire Poems: When I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be — John Keats & Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night — Dylan Thomas There’s a shadow that walks beside us all — the quiet reminder that our time is finite. Some poets choose to face that truth with trembling hands; others meet it with clenched fists and flame in their hearts. In this episode, Fears and Fire , two voices...

 Some poems are written in fire — words that refuse to bow, even in the darkest of moments. Others remind us that life isn’t just about endurance, but about pausing, noticing, and letting stillness in. In this episode of A Voice Like This, I read two poems that seem to stand at opposite ends of the spectrum, yet together find a perfect balance. Strength and stillness. Grit and grace. Perhaps...

Not every poem has to be serious. Sometimes, it’s enough for the words to rattle, bounce, and carry us along for the ride. In this episode of A Voice Like This , I start with Robert Louis Stevenson’s Windy Nights — a short, stormy gallop through the dark. Then we turn to Edward Lear’s The Jumblies , where nonsense reigns and adventure begins with the simple idea of sailing off in a sieve. There’s...

Podcast: A Voice Like This Hosted by Phil Rowe In this episode, Phil explores two very different – but equally powerful – expressions of love in poetry. From Shakespeare’s immortalised summer’s day to Carol Ann Duffy’s brutally honest onion, we discover how love can be idealised, subverted, celebrated… and sliced open. These poems remind us that love isn’t just a feeling — it’s a form, a voice, an...

Two poems, two very different takes on what love looks and feels like. From Shakespeare’s immortal “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” to Carol Ann Duffy’s onion-wrapped metaphor in Valentine , this episode unwraps the poetic layers of romance, tenderness, and truth. Whether you’re a lover, a cynic, or somewhere in between, this one’s for you.

In this episode, Phil Rowe explores two quiet yet profound reflections on death — and what it means to those left behind. We begin with Because I could not stop for Death by Emily Dickinson, a poem that invites us to consider death not as something to fear, but as a calm and curious companion. Then we move to Song (When I am dead, my dearest) by Christina Rossetti, whose measured tenderness offers...