When you listen to Poetry on Air, you will notice that we play different music each time to reflect the mood of the poems we're reading.
This emphasises the close link between music and poetry - both of which can express feelings and change the mood of those listening.
Shakespeare understood this very well when he wrote 'If music be the food of love, play on . . .' In today's Poetry on Air (RTHK Radio 4 at 10.05 am today, repeated at 6.30 pm tomorrow), we will read and discuss two pieces of poetry about the power of music to influence human emotions, and even to affect the natural world.
The first of these is Orpheus with His Lute by John Fletcher, a popular and successful playwright who lived at the same time as Shakespeare.
So, who was Orpheus? According to ancient Greek myth, he was a musician who played and sang so wonderfully that even nature responded.
Orpheus played a stringed instrument - a lyre (hence 'lyric poetry').
