A Child’s Christmas in Wales by Dylan Thomas.

A seasonal favourite, Thomas’s lyrical memoir captures the sights, sounds, and small moments of a Welsh childhood at Christmas; snow-filled streets, family rituals, and voices that linger long after the season has passed.

This episode is offered simply and in full, without interruption.

A Voice Like This will return in mid-January with new episodes and new poetry.

Until then, Merry Christmas, and take care.

As Christmas approaches, this special bonus episode invites a quiet moment of calm amid the winter bustle. Phil offers a gentle reflection on the season before reading 'A Visit from St. Nicholas', the beloved poem more commonly known as ’Twas the Night Before Christmas.

A festive pause, a breath of stillness, and a timeless story that continues to shape the magic of Christmas for generations.

Poem featured: A Visit from St. Nicholas by Clement Clarke Moore

Thank you for listening.

Wishing you a peaceful, gentle, and truly joyful Christmas.

Not the rush of feeling, or the drama of declaration, but the quieter, steadier work of trust. The kind that’s built carefully, tested over time, and strong enough to stand without constant reassurance.

In this episode, we explore love as something enduring and unshaken, through two poems that speak across centuries.

Seamus Heaney’s Scaffolding offers a grounded, human image of commitment; practical, patient, and earned. William Shakespeare’s Sonnet 116 follows, affirming love as a constant force: unchanged by time, untouched by circumstance, and steadfast in the face of all that seeks to alter it.

Together, these poems remind us that the strongest bonds are often the quietest - built with care, and trusted to hold.

Poems featured:

• Scaffolding – Seamus Heaney
• Sonnet 116 – William Shakespeare

In this uplifting episode of A Voice Like This, we explore two poems that imagine a gentler world and celebrate the ties that bind us together.

Langston Hughes dreams of a future shaped by justice, kindness, and shared humanity.

Maya Angelou reminds us that in all our differences, we are still deeply alike.

Together, these poems offer a hopeful vision - a reminder that peace and love are not distant ideals, but possibilities that begin with us.

Poems featured:

• "I Dream a World" by Langston Hughes
• "The Human Family" by Maya Angelou

Available wherever you get your podcast

At the request of my niece Joanne, and in loving memory of my sister Tracy, I read The Dash — a poem that reminds us how profoundly the small choices of our days define the legacy we leave behind.

To accompany it, I share Mary Oliver’s The Summer Day, a poem full of wonder, stillness, and gentle curiosity. Oliver invites us to slow down, to notice beauty in the ordinary… and to choose, with intention, how we spend the time we’re given.

Together, these poems form a meditation on gratitude:

gratitude for each breath, for each moment of kindness, for each connection that shapes us, and for the lives that leave an imprint long after they’re gone.

“Dust of Snow” by Robert Frost

“The Orange” by Wendy Cope

“The Laughing Heart” by Charles Bukowski

In this lighter, brighter episode of A Voice Like This, we turn our attention to the small joys -the sparks, glimmers, and brief flashes of warmth that can shift an entire day.

Robert Frost offers a tiny moment of unexpected wonder.

Wendy Cope celebrates the quiet delight found in something as simple as an orange.

And Charles Bukowski closes with a call to embrace your own life and keep the light within you burning.

Together, these poems remind us that joy isn’t always grand or dramatic. Sometimes it’s soft, sometimes it’s ordinary -but it’s always worth noticing.

We pause to honour those who gave their lives in war — and to reflect on the truth that lies behind the words honour and glory.

John McCrae’s “In Flanders Fields” has become almost inseparable from remembrance itself — a poem of beauty and resolve, written in the shadow of the Great War.

Wilfred Owen’s “Dulce et Decorum Est” answers that call with the voice of experience, stripped of illusion, confronting the human cost behind the patriotic ideal.

Together, these two poems remind us that remembrance is not only about pride, but about understanding.

The silence we keep each November is more than an act of memory — it is an act of truth.

In Sonnet 73, Shakespeare offers one of the most intimate meditations on aging ever written - not in fear, but with acceptance. He imagines himself as a fading fire, a tree stripped of its leaves, a twilight sky at rest. Yet from that awareness grows something stronger: love deepened by the knowledge of its fragility.

Henry Vaughan’s The World, written a generation later, lifts that same reflection into the cosmic. He sees eternity as a “great ring of pure and endless light,” with human life - its passions, wealth, and worry - whirling beneath it like shadows.

Where Shakespeare finds meaning in mortality, Vaughan finds it in what never dies.

Together, they remind us that the light within and the light beyond are not so different - both glimpsed most clearly when the world grows still.

Every November, the night sky in Britain crackles with memory; a celebration of rebellion and the light that follows it. Fire & Freedom explores both sides of that spark: the defiant blaze of revolution, and the quiet wonder of beauty born from fire.

We begin with Percy Bysshe Shelley’s The Masque of Anarchy, a thunderous call to awaken, written in response to the Peterloo Massacre of 1819. Shelley’s words rise like flames from the page, demanding justice not through violence, but through courage and unity. His famous line “Ye are many – they are few” still burns with urgency two centuries on.

From there, the episode softens into James Reeves’ Fireworks, a gentle counterpoint to Shelley’s storm. Reeves paints the night sky as an orchard of light: fiery flowers that bloom and fade, each a fleeting miracle. It’s a reminder that freedom can be found not only in struggle, but also in wonder.

Between the roar of revolution and the hush of colour, Fire & Freedom invites you to reflect on what burns within us — and what we choose to ignite.

From the rhythmic unease of a ghost that isn’t there, to a love so still it defies life itself, this special episode explores the shadowed edge of the human mind — where affection becomes obsession, and absence feels almost alive.

Featuring readings of:

“Antigonish” by Hughes Mearns

“Porphyria’s Lover” by Robert Browning

🎧 A Halloween special — best listened to after dark.

Thomas’s lyrical remembrance of childhood radiates joy and innocence — until time itself steps forward, gently reclaiming that golden youth. Herrick’s poem, written three centuries earlier, looks in the opposite direction, urging us to seize the day before it slips away.

Together, they form a perfect circle: one remembering what was, the other reminding us what still can be.

🎧 Featuring readings of:

“Fern Hill” — Dylan Thomas

“To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time” — Robert Herrick

🎵 Theme music: “Clair de Lune” by Claude Debussy

Poems: When I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be — John Keats

& Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night — Dylan Thomas

There’s a shadow that walks beside us all — the quiet reminder that our time is finite. Some poets choose to face that truth with trembling hands; others meet it with clenched fists and flame in their hearts.

In this episode, Fears and Fire, two voices speak across the centuries.

John Keats, the doomed Romantic, writes of life’s unfinished symphony — the love he may never know, the words he may never write. His verse is fragile, luminous, resigned.

Then, from the dark hills of Wales, Dylan Thomas answers.

His poem is no lament, but a roar — a plea for passion, for resistance, for the fire that refuses to fade quietly into night.

Together, they form a conversation between fear and defiance… the stillness before the storm, and the storm itself.

🎧 Listen now on A Voice Like This — where poetry finds its voice.

even in the darkest of moments. Others remind us that life isn’t just about

endurance, but about pausing, noticing, and letting stillness in.

In this episode of A Voice Like This, I read two

poems that seem to stand at opposite ends of the spectrum, yet together find a

perfect balance.

Strength and stillness. Grit and grace. Perhaps the art of

living is knowing when we need each.

📖 Poems featured:

• 
  
• “Invictus” by William Ernest Henley
• “Leisure” by W. H. Davies

🎧 Listen now and take a

moment to breathe it in.

In this episode of A Voice Like This, I start with Robert Louis Stevenson’s Windy Nights — a short, stormy gallop through the dark. Then we turn to Edward Lear’s The Jumblies, where nonsense reigns and adventure begins with the simple idea of sailing off in a sieve.

There’s a joy in poems like these: they don’t try to explain themselves, and maybe that’s the point. They just invite us to smile, to join the rhythm, and to remember that not everything in life needs to make sense to be worth enjoying.

So, if you fancy a few minutes of storm and silliness, settle in and let’s rattle along together.

Hosted by Phil Rowe

In this episode, Phil explores two very different – but equally powerful – expressions of love in poetry. From Shakespeare’s immortalised summer’s day to Carol Ann Duffy’s brutally honest onion, we discover how love can be idealised, subverted, celebrated… and sliced open.

These poems remind us that love isn’t just a feeling — it’s a form, a voice, and sometimes a sharp edge in the dark.

Featured Poems:

• Sonnet 18 by William Shakespeare
• Valentine by Carol Ann Duffy

Listen Now on all major platforms, or visit listen.philrowevoice.com

And don’t forget to leave a review if you’re enjoying the series.

From Shakespeare’s immortal “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” to Carol Ann Duffy’s onion-wrapped metaphor in Valentine, this episode unwraps the poetic layers of romance, tenderness, and truth.

Whether you’re a lover, a cynic, or somewhere in between, this one’s for you.

We begin with Because I could not stop for Death by Emily Dickinson, a poem that invites us to consider death not as something to fear, but as a calm and curious companion. Then we move to Song (When I am dead, my dearest) by Christina Rossetti, whose measured tenderness offers us a different kind of comfort — and a gentle release from grief.

Both poems speak with the hush of still rooms and the weight of what remains unsaid. Together, they form a quietly powerful meditation on memory, legacy, and letting go.

Featured Poems:

– Because I could not stop for Death by Emily Dickinson

– Song (When I am dead, my dearest) by Christina Rossetti

New episodes of A Voice Like This are released every Monday, with occasional bonus episodes exploring the darker edges of poetry’s world.

• “Nothing Gold Can Stay” by Robert Frost
• “Ozymandias” by Percy Bysshe Shelley
• “Dirge Without Music” by Edna St. Vincent Millay

Whether it’s a season, a statue, or someone dearly loved, these poems hold a mirror to the ways we remember and the traces we leave behind.

📩 Got a favourite poem you’d like to hear? Let Phil know — listener requests are always welcome. Email avoicelikethis@gmail.com

New episodes every Monday. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

In the next episode of A Voice Like This, we reflect on change, memory, and the quiet traces we leave in the world around us. Three short but stirring poems guide us through the ache of farewell, the transience of pride, and the defiance of grief.

🎧 Listen Monday: Episode 10 – What We Leave Behind

Wherever you get your podcasts.

Two poems exploring the quiet refuge we carry within.

Featuring:

Sonnet 29 by William Shakespeare – a listener request

The Lake Isle of Innisfree by W.B. Yeats

A reminder that love, stillness, and self-worth can be found not in far-off places, but deep within us.

New episodes every Monday.

One poem is beloved. The other, more quietly known.

One, fierce with instruction. The other, still with truth.

Together, they offer a reflection on how we carry ourselves through the world — and what we pass on.

Join Phil as he explores the unspoken tension between advice and acceptance, striving and surrender.

—

Poems:

If by Rudyard Kipling

Shoulders by Naomi Shihab Nye

Performed by: Phil Rowe

Subscribe to A Voice Like This for thoughtful weekly readings of timeless poetry — and the occasional bonus journey into the shadowy corners of verse.

Until then, take care.

First, Derek Walcott’s Love After Love offers a tender invitation to reconnect with the self we’ve lost sight of.

Then, Dylan Thomas’s In My Craft or Sullen Art reflects on the solitary work of the poet — creating not for recognition, but for love, for mystery, and for the unnamed listener.

Two quiet poems. Two enduring acts of care.

—

Poems:

Love After Love by Derek Walcott

In My Craft or Sullen Art by Dylan Thomas

Themes:

Self-reclamation, poetic purpose, quiet persistence

Performed by: Phil Rowe

Subscribe to A Voice Like This for new episodes every Monday — and the occasional bonus journey into the world of verse.

I'm always happy to hear from listeners on avoicelikethis@gmail.com

First, Derek Walcott’s Love After Love offers a tender invitation to reconnect with the self we’ve lost sight of.

Then, Dylan Thomas’s In My Craft or Sullen Art reflects on the solitary work of the poet — creating not for recognition, but for love, for mystery, and for the unnamed listener.

Two quiet poems. Two enduring acts of care.

Wendell Berry offers stillness — a moment away from the noise, where the natural world holds us gently.

Then Yeats pulls us back into chaos — his apocalyptic vision of a world unravelled, where the centre cannot hold.

New episodes every Monday, each just a few minutes — just the poems, spoken with care.

Listen now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get

your podcasts.

If a line lingers, share it — or let me know on avoicelikethis@gmail.com

New episodes every Monday, each just a few minutes long, just the poems, and a little time to chill.

Listen now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Poem: The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe

Episode Theme: Grief, longing, supernatural horror

For more poetry and reflections, subscribe to A Voice Like This.

Poems featured:

She Walks in Beauty – Lord Byron

The Voice – Thomas Hardy

In this episode, two voices — separated by a century — speak across love’s distance.

Lord Byron offers admiration in its purest form with She Walks in Beauty: a brief, bright vision of someone seen, not claimed.

Then Thomas Hardy answers with The Voice, where love lingers in grief, and absence becomes almost audible.

New episodes every Monday, with the occasional bonus when the moment calls.

You can listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

And if a line or image stays with you — share it on.

To get in touch, contact me at avoicelikethis@gmail.com

Lord Byron offers admiration in its purest form: a brief, bright vision of someone seen, not claimed.

Then Thomas Hardy answers, where love lingers in grief, and absence becomes almost audible.

New episodes every Monday, with the occasional bonus when the moment calls.

You can listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

And if a line or image stays with you — share it on.

• Music, When Soft Voices Die – Percy Bysshe Shelley
• Requiem – Robert Louis Stevenson

This episode brings together two quiet reflections on what remains after we go.

Shelley’s Music, When Soft Voices Die is a brief and delicate meditation — a few lines that linger like perfume in a room just left.

Then Stevenson’s Requiem — steady, resolved, and ready. A farewell written with peace in its bones.

New episodes every Monday, each one a small moment to breathe and listen.

Find A Voice Like This on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you prefer to listen.

If something resonates, feel free to share it — or share the quiet - with me on avoicelikethis@gmail.com

One lingers like a memory… the other accepts its end with calm resolve.

Shelley and Stevenson.

Two voices. One final breath.

Listen Monday, wherever you get your podcasts.

Poets featured: John Keats and W. B. Yeats

In this episode, we hear from two poets separated by time — but connected by something quieter. Stillness, memory, longing.

Keats reaches toward the stars with Bright Star, his voice full of yearning for something that won’t change.

Yeats, in contrast, looks back — with tenderness, and perhaps regret — in When You Are Old.

New episodes every Monday, with the occasional bonus when the mood calls.

You can follow A Voice Like This on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen.

If something in the episode speaks to you, feel free to share it — or drop me a line and let me know on avoicelikethis@gmail.com

space between love and time.

One looks up — full of longing and stillness.

The other looks back — with tenderness and

something left unsaid.

Keats and Yeats. Two voices, speaking across

the years.

Listen Monday, wherever you get your podcasts.

• A Dream Within a Dream – Edgar Allan Poe
• I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud – William Wordsworth

In this episode, we move from shadow to sunlight — pairing two iconic poems that look at time, memory, and how the world shifts around us.

We begin with Poe’s A Dream Within a Dream, a haunting piece about illusion and loss — and then return to earth with Wordsworth’s beloved I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud, where a single moment of beauty lingers long after it's passed.

New episodes every Monday, with the occasional bonus when the mood strikes.

Find A Voice Like This on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen — and if a line or a moment speaks to you, feel free to share it on.

We begin with Poe’s A Dream Within a Dream, a haunting piece about illusion and loss — and then return to earth with Wordsworth’s beloved I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud, where a single moment of beauty lingers long after it's passed.

New episodes every Monday, with the occasional bonus when the mood strikes.

Find A Voice Like This on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen — and if a line or a moment speaks to you, feel free to share it on.

In this opening episode, I begin with a pairing that moves from gentleness to something far more fierce: the quiet resilience of Emily Dickinson, followed by the fiery awe of William Blake.

In this episode:

• Why Hope still sings in the storm
• A note on the archaic pronunciation of symmetry
• What happens when a poem doesn't give you answers — only wonder

New episodes every Monday, with the occasional bonus when the mood strikes.

Follow A Voice Like This on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen — and if something here speaks to you, I’d love it if you shared it with someone who might enjoy a quiet moment of poetry in their day.

'A Voice Like This'

Sometimes, the right words — spoken aloud — can land in a way the page alone never quite manages.

I’m Phil Rowe, and this is A Voice Like This — a podcast for people who still believe that good poetry is meant to be spoken.

I’ve spent years working as a voice actor, but I began as a singer — and I’ve always believed that language carries its own kind of music. This show brings together some of my favourite poems — old, timeless, and beautifully crafted — read aloud, with care.

Every Monday, I'll release a short episode — usually just a few minutes long — featuring one or two carefully chosen poems, a little context, and space to let them breathe.

It’s not academic. It’s not analytical. Just a quiet corner of your week for language that stirs something.

You’ll find A Voice Like This wherever you get your podcasts — on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon, or through your favourite app.

And if you’d like a moment of stillness, rhythm, or reflection… I hope you’ll join me.