On ABC Poetica This Saturday: Gull in a Green Storm Part One: The poetry and letters of Francis Webb

Francis Webb and his bird George, 1950

 

Broadcast: ABC Radio National Saturday 23 March 2013 3:05PM

(view full episode)

 

Born in Adelaide in 1925, Francis Webb achieved early fame in the 1940s with A Drum for Ben Boyd and Leichhardt in Theatre, but later succumbed to mental illness and was hospitalised for much of the rest of his life. His increasingly anguished and ecstatic poetry continued to be published but until recently had long been out of print. The English poet and critic Sir Herbert Read called him "one of the greatest poets of our time" and "one of the most unjustly neglected poets of this century". This special two-part broadcast on Poetica features readings from his poems and letters.

List of poems:
'Night Swimming'
'The Gunner'
'Cap and Bells'
'Middle Harbour'
'An Old Record'
'This Runner'
'A Drum for Ben Boyd'
'Leichhardt in Theatre'
'For My Grandfather'
(All poems from Francis Webb: Collected Poems, UWA Publishing, February 2011)