WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.510 align:middle line:90%


00:00:00.510 --> 00:00:04.350 align:middle line:90%
These poems are so grim.

00:00:04.350 --> 00:00:12.190 align:middle line:84%
Now to read in light of
our survey of literature.

00:00:12.190 --> 00:00:16.610 align:middle line:90%


00:00:16.610 --> 00:00:22.670 align:middle line:84%
I-- this was an
early composition.

00:00:22.670 --> 00:00:24.820 align:middle line:90%
There I was.

00:00:24.820 --> 00:00:28.570 align:middle line:84%
I'd been given a job
teaching English.

00:00:28.570 --> 00:00:34.670 align:middle line:84%
And to the big sophomore
class, at course which--

00:00:34.670 --> 00:00:36.580 align:middle line:90%
it's covered all English.

00:00:36.580 --> 00:00:43.120 align:middle line:90%
And it was, all was given.

00:00:43.120 --> 00:00:45.880 align:middle line:84%
And I had to keep
ahead of my class.

00:00:45.880 --> 00:00:48.040 align:middle line:90%
And I had not--

00:00:48.040 --> 00:00:54.250 align:middle line:84%
either at my native University
in Oxford, in England--

00:00:54.250 --> 00:00:56.320 align:middle line:90%
taken any literary course.

00:00:56.320 --> 00:01:01.090 align:middle line:84%
Except the required freshman
course in composition.

00:01:01.090 --> 00:01:04.489 align:middle line:84%
And I had audited the
Shakespeare course.

00:01:04.489 --> 00:01:10.480 align:middle line:84%
So I had to take the
Chaucer, middle English,

00:01:10.480 --> 00:01:13.180 align:middle line:90%
and old English.

00:01:13.180 --> 00:01:17.500 align:middle line:84%
That's Anglo-Saxon-- from
two of my colleagues.

00:01:17.500 --> 00:01:22.600 align:middle line:90%
And read with all my might.

00:01:22.600 --> 00:01:27.130 align:middle line:84%
And I had a little
mental indigestion

00:01:27.130 --> 00:01:32.150 align:middle line:84%
out of that experience,
even more than my students.

00:01:32.150 --> 00:01:35.470 align:middle line:84%
And so I began making
fun of these old birds,

00:01:35.470 --> 00:01:37.750 align:middle line:90%
whether they're good or bad.

00:01:37.750 --> 00:01:42.850 align:middle line:84%
And I fell into the habit
of rhyming their names

00:01:42.850 --> 00:01:47.110 align:middle line:84%
with something to eat,
something on the bill of fare,

00:01:47.110 --> 00:01:47.680 align:middle line:90%
for example.

00:01:47.680 --> 00:01:51.190 align:middle line:84%
In all the good Greek of
Plato, I lacked my roast beef

00:01:51.190 --> 00:01:54.160 align:middle line:90%
and potato.

00:01:54.160 --> 00:01:56.410 align:middle line:84%
And after I'd done that
three or four times,

00:01:56.410 --> 00:02:02.560 align:middle line:84%
I decided that there was
a little method in that.

00:02:02.560 --> 00:02:08.500 align:middle line:84%
This was now not like
Karl Marx, saying

00:02:08.500 --> 00:02:14.770 align:middle line:84%
that the culture was determined
by the prevailing economy.

00:02:14.770 --> 00:02:18.430 align:middle line:84%
But this was saying
that what we know,

00:02:18.430 --> 00:02:24.670 align:middle line:84%
our culture is determined
by the dietary.

00:02:24.670 --> 00:02:28.480 align:middle line:90%
It's a dietetic principle.

00:02:28.480 --> 00:02:30.520 align:middle line:90%
And so here it is.

00:02:30.520 --> 00:02:34.240 align:middle line:84%
In all the good Greek of
Plato, I lacked my roast beef

00:02:34.240 --> 00:02:36.640 align:middle line:90%
and potato.

00:02:36.640 --> 00:02:39.910 align:middle line:84%
The better man was Aristotle,
pulling steady on the bottle.

00:02:39.910 --> 00:02:42.460 align:middle line:90%


00:02:42.460 --> 00:02:47.980 align:middle line:84%
And I dip my hat to Chaucer,
swilling soup from his saucer.

00:02:47.980 --> 00:02:53.440 align:middle line:84%
And the master Shakespeare,
who wrote big on small beer.

00:02:53.440 --> 00:02:59.170 align:middle line:84%
The abstemious Wordsworth
subsisted on a curd's worth.

00:02:59.170 --> 00:03:05.170 align:middle line:84%
But a slick one was Tennyson,
putting gravy on his venison.

00:03:05.170 --> 00:03:09.160 align:middle line:84%
But these men had to eat
and drink, is what we say

00:03:09.160 --> 00:03:11.290 align:middle line:90%
and what we think.

00:03:11.290 --> 00:03:16.690 align:middle line:84%
The influence of Milton
came, rye out of Stilton.

00:03:16.690 --> 00:03:23.400 align:middle line:84%
Sing the song for Percy Shelley,
drowned in pale lemon jelly.

00:03:23.400 --> 00:03:26.110 align:middle line:84%
Then for precious
John Keats, dripping

00:03:26.110 --> 00:03:28.870 align:middle line:90%
blood of pickled beets.

00:03:28.870 --> 00:03:31.480 align:middle line:84%
Then there was
poor Willie Blake,

00:03:31.480 --> 00:03:34.780 align:middle line:90%
he foundered on sweet cake.

00:03:34.780 --> 00:03:39.460 align:middle line:84%
God have mercy on the sinner,
who must write with no dinner.

00:03:39.460 --> 00:03:42.070 align:middle line:90%
No gravy, and no grub.

00:03:42.070 --> 00:03:44.530 align:middle line:90%
No pewter, and no pub.

00:03:44.530 --> 00:03:46.630 align:middle line:90%
No belly, and no bowels.

00:03:46.630 --> 00:03:48.670 align:middle line:90%
Only consonants and vowels.

00:03:48.670 --> 00:03:50.520 align:middle line:90%
[APPLAUSE]

00:03:50.520 --> 00:03:59.256 align:middle line:90%