New Celebrations Mark 40 years of Poems on the Underground
Seamus Heaney's The Railway Children in a London tube carriage
Transport for London (TfL) has announced a series of special events and publications to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Poems on the Underground project which has brought some of the world's finest poetry to millions of London Underground users since 1986.
TfL will host a special commemorative event on January 30 at Bank Tube station to officially mark the milestone. London poets whose work has featured in the scheme will attend the event, alongside poetry readings from staff poets and other poetry lovers.
A special revised edition of 100 Poems on the Underground has also been published. The new edition adds poems by Sappho and Jean Binta Breeze to the poems displayed during the first five years of Poems on the Underground.
A new set of winter Poems on the Underground will launch on February 9, including poems by British contemporary poets, Syzygy by Rachel Boast, A Short Piece of Choral Music by Jonathan Davidson, and Narcissus by Blake Morrison. It also features a haiku by Kobayahsi Issa with original calligraphy by Yukki Yaura, and verses by the Romanian poet Mircea Dinescu and the American Jane Hirshfield.
In addition to the new collection, TfL will be featuring some of the first 100 poems at five selected stations, continuing the expansion of the project beyond train carriages:
- Aldgate East: London Bells by Anonymous, and The Uncertainty of the Poet by Wendy Cope
- Heathrow: London Airport by Christopher Logue
- Seven Sisters: Like a Beacon by Grace Nichols, Sonnet from the Portuguese by Elizabeth Barret Browning, Benediction by James Berry, and Prelude I by T. S. Eliot
- St. John's Wood: At Lord's by Francis Thompson
- Westminster: Composed Upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802 by William Wordsworth
Later this year, TfL will publish a leaflet with 40 poems which have appeared in the scheme available at London Underground stations.
"For the past 40 years, Poems on the Underground has given us moments of reflection, joy, solace and so much more as we make our way through the hustle and bustle of the Tube," said Justine Simons, London's Deputy Mayor for Culture and the Creative Industries. "Much loved by Londoners as part of the familiar furniture of our city, they are incredibly popular with visitors too. Art and culture are for everyone and Poems on the Underground brings creative inspiration to millions every day."
Judith Chernaik, the founder of Poems on the Underground, added: "We start the new year with poems of widely different times and places, all offering hope for better times as Winter gives way to Spring."
All poems displayed on the Tube network since Poems on the Underground was founded in 1986 can be found in their original poster form on the Poems on the Underground website.
