Bernard Lamb: 'Great poems and lyrics'

Bernard Lamb will present an eclectic choice of poems and lyrics which he considers great and hopes that members will enjoy. Some are well known while others are rarities.

The wide range of topics will include love, war, cricket, drink, fickleness, hell, beauty, human nature, trains, parody, the press, bones, music and poetry. There will be translations from Latin, Greek, Spanish, Somali, Persian, German and French.

The authors honoured will be selected from Lord Beginner, Lord Byron, Lord Tennyson, A E Housman, William Shakespeare, W S Gilbert, Noel Coward, Oscar Wilde, W H Auden, Rudyard Kipling, Adelaide Proctor, Henry Longfellow, Dr Isaac Watts, Henry Work, George Sims, John Betjeman, Heinrich Hoffmann, Heinrich Heine, Robert Burns, Juan Ruiz, ‘Gaarriye’, Christopher Marlowe, Edmond Waller, Catullus, Asclepiades, Andrew Marvell, William Blake, Firdausi, Paul Verlaine, Anonymous and King’s English Society members.

Poems will range from the eighth century to 2026.