WEBVTT

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Thank you very much.

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I am going to somewhat
redundantly introduced myself

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with and my poetry
and one or two

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of the notions
about poetry, which

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I propose to talk about this
evening with two short poems.

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They are two portraits, and
they are the only two poems

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that I'll be reading
this evening, which

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are of any great antiquity.

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I wrote them quite some
time ago, most of the poems.

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All the rest of them
are quite recent.

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As well as introducing
what I have said,

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they also introduce the kind
of person who I most admire,

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the simple, positive
kind of person

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who is laboring-- as we all
labor under Adam's curse--

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the necessity to earn
our keep and to live out

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our lives under
the course of toil

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and yet who do so
in a selfless way,

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in a positive way,
which, for me, shows

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that they are the custodians of
the meaning of human existence.

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The first is called-- the first
poem is called "The Laundress."

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And the figure in
the launderette

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is one with which
you are familiar

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from countless pictures of
Dutch or Flemish interiors,

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the domestic scene with
the kitchen on show,

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the various utensils, the
dog quietly scratching itself

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in the corner.

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Well, an implication of
something vast and timeless

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is at the same time
brooding over the picture.

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"The Laundress."

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Her chair drawn to the
door, a basket at her feet,

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she sat against the sun
and stitched a linen sheet,

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over harrowed Flanders,
August moved the wheat.

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Poplars sharing the wind
with Saxony and France

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dreamed that her gait soared
in a summer trace, a clock

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in the cobbled yard.

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A shadow changed its stance.

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As a fish disturbs the pond
and thinks without a stain,

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the heels of ripeness
fluttered under her apron.

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Then her heart grew
strained and light

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as the shell that
shields the grain.

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Bluntly through the doorway,
she stared at shed and farm

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at yellow fields unstitching
about the hoarded germ.

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At land that would spread white
when she had reached her term.

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The sower plumps his acre.

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Flanders turns to the heat.

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The winds of heaven winnow,
and the wheels grind the wheat.

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She searched in her basket
and fixed her ruffled sheet.

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