on 6/1/05 1:06 AM, Ken Wolman at [log in to unmask] wrote:
> old Mapleson wax cylinder
> recording of the poet himself reading "The Charge of The Light
> Brigade." Set aside the primitive sound quality, and put by such
> descriptors as "jingoistic tub-thumper," and the experience itself is
> eerie, of hearing this old man reciting in a sort of elevated monotone
Max Beerbohm's cartoon comes to mind, showing a gesticulating poet laureate
in a big room alone with the widow of Windsor...
'elevated monotone' might apply also to the voice of Yeats intoning
I will arise and go now,
a manner he presumably maintained through to his BBC 1930s broadcasting...
contrast: April is the cruellest month...
depressed monotone...
and:
for him it was his lasst affternoon as himself...
midatlantic monotone...
Our tv is about to run Melvyn Bragg's 'Adventure of English'. He is quoted
as saying that as a boy he spoke the Cumbrian dialect 'very rough' with a
lot of non-standard words. 'Aahs gaan yem' for I'm going home. Does he
exaggerate?
Max at Cooee
[voice unelevated kiwi]
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