Apparently, this is “an authentic wax cylinder recording of Whitman reading from his late poem ‘America’ that appeared in 1888 …”
Introducing The Straddler
A quick heads up: The first issue of The Straddler, a new quarterly online magazine, has just been launched. If the editors have their way, it will be the “anti-magazine of our day.” In the first issue, you’ll find:
- an essay exploring the relationship between an Emily Dickinson poem, the New Testament’s Book of Matthew, the Gettysburg Address, and George Bush’s 2007 Memorial Day speech.
- a consideration of the American gangster film in light of the American economic system;
- a meditation on works by Anne Carson and recent Nobelist Doris Lessing; and also
- some original artwork, poetry, and fiction.
Thanks Elaine for the heads up.
Edgar Allan Poe’s Raven Read by 18 YouTubers (or Christopher Walken)
Can you bear it? If not, here’s a version by Christopher Walken.
(This video has not been added to our YouTube playlist.)
Interview with Pulitzer Prize Winning Poet, Robert Hass
This week, the Pulitzer Prize for poetry went to Robert Hass, a UC Berkeley professor and former U.S. poet laureate. To mark the occasion, we’re posting here Sierra Club Radio’s interview with Hass. The interview, recorded this past Saturday (mp3 — iTunes — web site), delves into Hass’ “thoughts on the intersection between language and our environment, how he decided to use his position as Poet Laureate for advocacy, and has him reading selections from his new book of poetry Time and Materials — winner of the 2008 Pulitzer Prize. He also gives some insights into the collection and stories behind some of the poems.”
Related Content:
101 Early Wallace Stevens Poems on Free Audio
Listening to Famous Poets Reading Their Own Work
The Art of Reading a Poem (According to Harold Bloom)
100 Best Last Lines from Modern Novels
Put together by the American Book Review, this list (which comes in PDF format) serves up some of the great last lines from modern literature. Ranking number six on the list is a passage that I happened to read just yesterday: “Yes,” I said. “Isn’t it pretty to think so?” –Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises (1926).
Listening to Famous Poets Reading Their Own Work
Today, we have a guest feature by Don from Classic Poetry Aloud (iTunes — Feed — Web Site), a place where you can find a great lineup of poetry podcasts. We welcome other guest contributors. So, if you’re interested, just email us. Take it away (and thanks) Don…
The internet has given poetry new scope and a new freshness. It’s almost like the ‘70s, when punk fanzine readers were famously told ‘Here are three chords, now form a band’. Today, the injunction could be: ‘Here are three web sites, now perform some poetry’.
And the emphasis would very much be on performance, with readings taking place on blogs (individually) and at poetry slams (collectively).
But an interest in poetry readings is not confined to new work. My own daily poetry podcast, Classic Poetry Aloud, is dedicated to anything in the English language that is out of copyright, and attracts listeners on every continent.
While podcasts such as Classic Poetry Aloud (see a November Open Culture posting for a listing of poetry podcasts) feature a range of poets, the internet also offers a wealth of recordings of celebrated authors reading from their own work.
The BBC has a wonderful series of such recordings at Poetry Out Loud. My favourites include: Men and their Boring Arguments by contemporary British poet Wendy Cope, and an excerpt from Tennyson’s celebrated Charge of the Light Brigade, originally recorded in 1890 on a wax cylinder by Edison. In addition, the BBC has a series of interviews with poets discussing their work.
The Academy of American Poets’ listening booth offers more than 150 original readings. As well as the rolling tones of Dylan Thomas reading Do not go Gentle into that Good Night, there is Robert Frost’s The Road not Taken, and Gwendolyn Brooks’ We Real Cool – complete with an illuminating, humorous, wry introduction. This is an unashamed show stopper reading of a poem that runs to just 24 words.
Indeed, one of the joys of listening to poets reading from their own work is often the comments and insights that they offer. T.S. Eliot does this in introducing The Journey of the Magi, one of three of his poems to feature on the Poetry Archive. On this site, there are over 200 poems that feature some form of introduction by the poet.
The Poetry Archive is an ambitious project set up by British poet laureate Andrew Motion to capture poetry readings. The range here is so vast that it is impossible to say how many poems are featured on the site, but it makes for an invaluable resource, with poems accessible by theme as well as by form.
Among British poets is former laureate John Betjeman, apparently unable to remember the title of the poem he is best remembered for – A Subaltern’s Love Song – and he jokes with his audience before launching into a characteristically brisk and warm rendition. Not all of the Poetry Archive comes from the UK, though, and Allen Ginsberg reads three poems, including A Supermarket in California.
Author Andrew Keen has claimed that the internet is ‘killing culture’. That’s a good, alliterative tag line to sell books, but the growing popularity of poetry on the net shows that it’s also far from the truth.
A New Media Scholar’s Dilemma
For a graduate student in an English Ph.D. program, one of the big milestones on the road to the dissertation is the Oral Exam. In my case this involves five professors, a list of 60–80 books, and two hours in a (rhetorically) smoke-filled room. Since I’m working on contemporary literature and new media, one of the challenges I have to deal with is how to address novels, films, television shows, video games and more as part of the same “list.” How does one put these things together? How can a video game be read as a text alongside Gravity’s Rainbow or Brave New World?
One way to approach this question is to include the work of literary and cultural critics who are already looking at new and traditional media side by side. Following that line, I try to keep up with the academic blog Grand Text Auto, which covers “computer narrative, games, poetry and art.” One of its contributors, Noah Wardrip-Fruin, is working on a book about digital fictions and computer games that looks perfect for my Orals list—and he’s publishing it, chapter by chapter, on Grand Text Auto for blog-based peer review. It will come out next year with MIT Press, but for now, it’s a work in progress.
All fine so far—I could list it as “forthcoming” and direct my professors to the link. But what happens when I start commenting on this book as I read it? What are we to do with the knowledge that this “text” will most likely change between now and next year? Does this item on my Orals list signify a draft of the book, the blog and its comments, or the experience of reading and writing into the MS myself (including, perhaps, responses from the author)?
I find the dilemma particularly interesting because it touches on a central conflict in humanities scholarship. Are we passive observers of the literary scene or active participants in it? It’s a rare academic critic who thinks of calling up a poet to ask her what she meant in a particular line, but that’s exactly the kind of connection that our hyper-conscious, digitally mediated world offers up.
P.S. After all of this hand-wringing, it’s obvious I’m not going to have time to read Noah’s book before I take my exam, so it’s off the list. But I can’t wait to dig in next month!
Harold Bloom on the Ghastly Decline of the Humanities (and on Obama’s Poetry)
Open Source (iTunes Feed Web Site) is back. The radio show hosted by Christopher Lydon hit some financial snags last summer and went off-air. Now, thanks to the Watson Institute at Brown University, the program has found new life, and it’s already regaining some of its old momentum.
Right before the New Year, the show aired a three-part interview with Harold Bloom, America’s most well known literary critic. As always, Bloom doesn’t hesitate to share his views here. But he saves his sharpest remarks for when he addresses the state of the humanities in the American academy (MP3 — iTunes — Feed — Web Site). For Bloom, a longtime professor at Yale, it’s not a pretty picture. The humanities, particularly the study of literature, has “committed suicide” by “going in for political correctness to a simply sickening degree” and “getting away from canonical standards [and] cognitive and aesthetic standards.” The humanities, Bloom summarily says, “are not worth celebrating until they establish themselves as a discipline again,” and, until some resurrection takes place, they won’t have the institutional standing of the social sciences. These are strong words, but frankly they’re among his milder comments. Have a listen, and find the comments mentioned above about 13 minutes in.
Fortunately, the conversation does end on a positive note (at least sort of). Bloom gives a kind nod to the poetry written by the young Barack Obama (read it here), likening his poems to the work of Carl Sandburg and Langston Hughes. It’s fairly high praise, especially when you consider that he’s willing to call Jimmy Carter the “worst poet in North America.”
Below find the two other segments of the recorded interview with Harold Bloom.
1) On Walt Whitman (MP3 — iTunes — Feed — Web Site)
2) The Jazz Bridge (MP3 — iTunes — Feed — Web Site)
And also see our earlier piece: The Art of Reading a Poem (According to Harold Bloom). Here you get to listen to a class where Bloom gives a critical reading of a Wallace Stevens poem. This one is long on straightforward scholarship and short on polemics.
Support Us
We're hoping to rely on loyal readers, rather than erratic ads. Please click the Donate button and support Open Culture. You can use Paypal, Venmo, Patreon, even Crypto! We thank you!
Receive our Daily Email
About Us
Open Culture scours the web for the best educational media. We find the free courses and audio books you need, the language lessons & educational videos you want, and plenty of enlightenment in between.
Advertise With Us
