Reithian Principles

The BBC has been lecturing me
- and recommending poetry.
I've really had quite enough
(I've already read all this stuff!)
Yes, Beowulf and Milton too
- I don't like them, though others do.
Bravo! So brave! A poetry week:
only spoiled when the actors speak
a line or two of Keats or Donne
and patronise us, every one.
Perhaps a radio's the thing for verse,
you've got to admit, it couldn't be worse.
The pictures are ready in my head
whenever the perfect words are read.
Come on, Tristram, remember one thing,
you don't catch a frog and ask it to sing.