If we must do this let's remember that poets are people (even us),
unlike, say, Paris Hilton. One man or woman's anecdote is another's
violation of dignity or privacy. How about we restrict it to the dead?
Mark
At 12:31 PM 2/12/2007, you wrote:
>The poet anecdote project could be worthwhile. My first suggestion is
>that it should have its own subject heading on pect if it's going to
>be discussed further. I could contribute a Basil Bunting encounter
>which might have some interest.
>
>I believe the romantic view of pronouns in poetry is that they all
>mean "I". The classic view would be that they are all masks in the
>interiors of which, because they are empty, "I" and "you" and "we" can
>fuse.
>
>I also met Jon Silken once and talked with him a little.
>
>A friend of mine knew Frost at Amherst. One interesting thing he told
>me was that when Frost made his recording of "Birches," he was first
>offered a bolstering shot of whiskey, which he accepted.
>
>Some people may find my interpretations of Keats's sounds fanciful,
>but a lifetime of reading poetry convinces me that the greatest poets
>can achieve things like that. Of course I can't prove it, but I've
>long felt that the things you can prove in poetry aren't really what
>you should be paying attention to.
>
>My own feeling is that T. S. Eliot's reading voice was effective for
>his poetry. Someone once described it as "suitably sepulchral." The
>disappointment for me was Robert Graves, a poet I admire greatly but
>who read (on the recordings I've heard) in a flat, restrained,
>expressionless voice.
>
>Pound on the other hand is outrageously expressive. In his recording
>of Canto I, he reads English as if it were Provencal.
>
>There exists a brief recording of Walt Whitman (made by Thomas Edison
>on wax cylinder; its authenticity has been questioned but I tend to
>think it's real.) My reaction on first hearing it was, absurdly, "He
>sounds so American."
>
>
>===================================
>
> Jon Corelis www.geocities.com/jgcorelis/
>
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