Unveiling of the poem on the sea walls at the Theatre of the Sea

The News, Portsmouth

On Friday 11 April at 11am we will be near the 'Theatre of the Sea' on the prom at Southsea Castle for the unveiling of a poem on the sea walls by the Poet Laureate, including Cllr Pitt and the Lord Mayor. The poem is titled 'Theatre of the Sea'

Transcript

00:00The performance is never the same one day to the next.

00:04A cruise ship enters stage left, or a gull swoops down and steals the sea.

00:10What song the weather will sing is anyone's guess.

00:14The moon's reflection understudies the full moon,

00:18and at noon the sun delivers its big speech,

00:22costumed in flowy robes, and still gets outshun

00:26by the extras and bit parts of the yachts and clouds.

00:32Beyond the orchestra pit of the seawall, the hovercraft sashays in for its curtain call.

00:39But maybe you're the real star of the show,

00:43playing your true self, watched from a balcony sky,

00:47lit by the footlights of coast and shore.

00:51You stand to leave, and the waves rise to the floor.

00:56A lot's changed in the forty years since I was a student,

01:00and I've changed a lot as well.

01:03So it felt like something of a reunion, really, coming back to the city.

01:08And I used to spend a lot of time down here as a student,

01:11playing football on the common and walking along the seafront here.

01:15But I hadn't seen the poem in situ until I got here today.

01:20And I just think they've done a really amazing job.

01:23It looks really professional.

01:25It looks as if it's a natural part of the furniture of this area.

01:30It's made out of ship's brass, which is very fitting.

01:33And it looks like it's built to last.

01:35So I'm really pleased with it.

01:37For more future generations to come and see it.

01:40And so how does that make you feel to be part of that course of history?

01:45So I was studying geography when I was a student here,

01:49but secretly I was reading poetry.

01:51And I think what's nice about this is that I've come back to the city,

01:57and I've put poetry into the geography.

02:00So it feels like the coming together of two things that were,

02:05you know, for a while quite separate.

02:07It's a huge honour to be asked to write a poem,

02:12especially if that poem is being put into the landscape

02:16in front of people who might just be strolling along.

02:19And I sort of think that's where poetry works best,

02:23when it's unexpected, when you're not anticipating it.

02:27So I hope that people will get enjoyment from the poem.

02:32And it's been arranged to face this amphitheatre

02:36where people can sit and look and read it or not read it

02:40if they don't want to, just stare at the sea.

02:42So, yeah, it really feels like it's found a natural home here.

02:47Excellent.

02:48And I understand that there was a lot of preparations

02:50behind the film as well.

02:51Could you tell us a little bit about that in regards to how you've played it?

02:55What?

02:56A little bit about the tonic itself?

02:58Yeah, these things don't write themselves.

03:01I came for a look around, well, I came two or three times,

03:05and as soon as I saw the location, I knew what I wanted to talk about.

03:10People have been using this phrase, the theatre of the sea,

03:13in connection with that bank of stone benches behind.

03:17And I think straight away I just had the idea that, you know,

03:21there's something very dramatic going on out there that changes every hour.

03:25And I wanted to write about that.

03:27But then I wanted to flip the poem over at the end,

03:30so that the sea and the landscape became the audience,

03:34and you were on stage.

03:35You became the star of the show.

03:37And I suppose there's something in the poem about self-worth,

03:42value in yourself, especially if you're, you know,

03:45connecting with nature and the outdoors.

03:48So, yeah, and also I noticed when I was here that there were 14 sections of wall

03:54that could be read from the amphitheatre,

03:56so straight away I was thinking that that'll be a sonnet.

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