RGS Lecture Series – Joe Nutt and The Point of Poetry

The latest instalment in the RGS Lecture Series was a fascinating journey through poetry with the critic, writer and educational consultant Joe Nutt. Joe has written extensively on Donne, Milton and a wide range of educational issues with poetry being his natural home.

He took us on a journey through English poetry and offered us a range of strategies to help cure metrophobia, or, the fear of poetry. A love of poetry and language was central to his voyage and he was ably assisted by William Wordsworth, Robert Browning and Edward Thomas to illustrate the great power of words. As Joe says,

“(Poetry) is the only real language laboratory, the place where words can change lives.”

Joe finished with an in-depth analysis of Adlestrop by Edward Thomas; his original analysis focused on how the poem is not only mellifluous and phonoaesthtcially pleasing, but also gives us a real insight into our own notion of Englishness as part of our identity.

Joe’s latest book The Point of Poetry is out in 2019 and is available from the crowdfunding publisher Unbound.