If you heard yesterday's Clubland Q&A, you'll know that Johnny in Mid-Ulster requested a reprise of one of our Sunday Poems:

Hi Mark.

Would you consider rerunning your rendition of 'The Ballad of Claudy' by James Simmons on tonight's programme?

[Today] is the 53rd anniversary of that atrocity and no one has yet been held to account.

John

As Mark said on yesterday's show, this was a vicious and blood-soaked atrocity that too many people in these islands have forgotten. So, in this encore presentation from three years ago, Steyn commemorates the fiftieth anniversary of the Claudy bombing in July 1972 with a very direct and powerful poem.

Later in the show, there are also contrasting takes on the same female name, and Mary Shelley in the depths of her widowhood. Plus musical accompaniment drawn from the last three-quarters of a millennium.

We hope these forty minutes of words and music provide a respite from the current scene. To listen, simply click above.

If you'd like to catch up with earlier poems in the series, you can find them on our Sunday Poems home page. As with Tales for Our Time and our music specials and The Mark Steyn Show, we've archived Mark's poetry picks in an easy-to-access Netflix-style tile format that we hope makes it the work of moments to prowl around and alight on something that piques your interest of a weekend, whether Blake or Browning.

Steyn's Sunday Poems is a special presentation of The Mark Steyn Club. Mark launched the Steyn Club over eight years ago, and we're immensely heartened by all the longtime SteynOnline regulars - from Fargo to Fiji, Madrid to Malaysia, West Virginia to Witless Bay - who've signed up to be a part of it. To become a member of The Mark Steyn Club, please click here. And for our special Gift Membership see here. Oh, and by the way, Mark's live appearances often include a live performance of a Sunday Poem.