'Where the Picnic Was' with a Musical Accompaniment by Gary Cunliffe

A sublime poetry reading experience

“WHERE THE PICNIC WAS” By Thomas Hardy
(2 June 1840 – 11 January 1928)

This is an invitation to spend time reading just one poem by Thomas Hardy whilst a piece of music attempts to tell its story. Sometimes we read poems too quickly and judge wrongly that they have nothing much to say…  

More than 10 years ago I arranged a piece of classical music intended to reflect the mood of this poem, one of my favourites amongst many where Thomas is concerned. Here I share it for Hardy's 180th birthday.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3I4uTf9-Cl4

© Gary Cunliffe 2020

• Associated pages
• Visiting the Sick Tree at St. Pancras Old Church Cemetery
• 'Great Things' and 'The Oxen'
• Desperate Remedies
• A Laodicean - Part of the Novels of Ingenuity Trilogy
• The Withered Arm
• The Heaths of Hardy
• Best and Worst Poems of Thomas Hardy
• Tess (No Angel Wings)
• The Darkling Heart
• Great Things
• The Hand of Ethelberta - A New Play
• The Lepidopterist's Tragedy
• The Destruction of My England
• Henchard's Last Will and Testament
• The Gabriel Oak Tree
• The Three Wayfarers (Opera)
• Settings for Baritone and Piano by John Whittaker
• Hardy Perennials by Brenda Sharp
• Neutral Tones: Song Settings of the Poetry of Thomas Hardy
• Penpethy Souls
• A History of English Poesy
• The Coppice Gate
• Where the Picnic Was with a Musical Accompaniment by Gary Cunliffe
• In Praise
• Thomas Hardy Songs
• 'Bathsheba' by Izzy Rees
• The Three Strangers
• 'Interlopers at the Knap'
• 'What the Shepherd Saw'
• 'The Superstitious Man'
• Thomas Hardy's The Hand of Ethelberta
• Thomas Hardy Poems to Music

Dates for your Diary

From 14/09/2024 until 01/08/2026
Starts 09:00 until 18:00

Ring Out Christmas Bells!

From 06/12/2024 until 19/12/2024
Starts 19:30 until 22:00

Thomas Hardy London Lecture 2024

On 07/12/2024
Starts 15:00

Christmas at Athelhampton

On 21/12/2024
Starts 12:00 until 17:00

Andrew Norman Discusses Latest Book

Nov2024

Help Raise A Statue for Sylvia Townsend Warner

Nov2024

Thomas Hardy: A Haunted Man

Oct2024

The Manor House, Places to Stay

Oct2024