Poems on the Underground started life in January 1986 as an experiment by three friends, the writer Judith Chernaik and the poets Cicely Herbert and Gerard Benson. They persuaded London Underground to post a few poems on its trains, to the delight of bemused commuters.
With a grant from the Compton Poetry Fund and generous support from the publishers Faber and Faber we presented the first group of poems to an unsuspecting public.
On Wednesday, 29th January 1986, ‘Poems on the Underground’ was officially launched at Aldwych station
London Underground has supported the programme ever since, enabling us to offer poetry old and new, familiar and unfamiliar, to three million daily travellers on London’s Underground system.
After five years on the tube, we returned the poems to the printed page as 100 Poems on the Underground, which quickly became a best-seller. A revised Edition of 100 Poems on the Underground will be published by Smith/Doorstop in January and will be available from all good booksellers.
This month we feature Poems from the first year of Poems on the Underground along with recordings of the poems.
Listen to all the poems from the first year of Poems on the Underground
Set 1 January 1986
Up in the Morning early by Robert Burns read by Gerard Benson
Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley read by Gavin Ewart
This is Just to Say by William Carlos Williams read by Christopher Logue
The Railway Children by Seamus Heaney read by Seamus Heaney
Like a Beacon by Grace Nichols read by Merle Collins
Set 2 April 1986
Sonnet 29 by William Shakespeare read by James Berry
Her Anxiety by W.B. Yeats read by Cicely Herbert
Lady Rogue Singleton by Stevie Smith read by Adrian Mitchell
The Trees by Philip Larkin read by Wendy Cope
Benediction by James Berry read by James Berry
Set 3 July 1986
The Sick Rose by William Blake read by Adrian Mitchell
Much Madness is divinest Sense by Emily Dickinson read by George Szirtes
At Lord’s by Francis Thompson read by George Szirtes
Rainforest by Judith Wright read by Roger McGough
Encounter at St Martin’s by Ken Smith read by George Szirtes
Set 4 October 1986
Western wind when wilt thou blow by Anonymous read by Gerard Benson
Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802 by William Wordsworth read by Gerard Benson
Everyone Sang by Siegfried Sassoon read by Adrian Mitchell
The Loch Ness Monster’s Song by Edwin Morgan read by Gerard Benson
Living by Denise Levertov read by Ruth Fainlight
