Staff and students celebrate National Poetry Day with moving online performances

The poems – from past and present, from Andrew Marvell to self-penned work and verses from France, China, Italy and Germany, have been recorded and shared online as a way of marking the power of language to bring everyone together.

Other staff and students can share their own recordings online through the Flipgrid pages.

At the Department of English, students in the English Society led the process of recording the 65 videos from staff and students. Poems recorded range from a 1,000 year-old verse from the Exeter Book to contemporary poems and original work by students. They include work from John Keats, Allen Ginsberg, Wendy Cope, Thom Gunn, Robert Browning, Charles Causley, Carol Anne Duffy, Bertolt Brecht, Sarojini Naidu and Giacomo Leopardi.

Modern Languages and Cultures staff at the University of Exeter have recorded their own videos of poems in all seven languages taught in the department, including Chinese, Russian and Portuguese, including work from Noémia de Sousa and Luis de Góngora.

Senior lecturer Dr Andrew Rudd said: “This project has helped remind us all what poetry is for – to bring people together so they can share their thoughts and feelings. The practice of using verse in this way is as old as time.

“We have all been moved and touched by this outpouring of creativity while recording our videos and watching those produced by others. We’ve enjoyed using the technology and we feel it’s brought us all together at a time when we can’t be physically present.”