WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.070 align:middle line:90% 00:00:01.070 --> 00:00:06.220 align:middle line:90% And here's a more recent poem. 00:00:06.220 --> 00:00:10.050 align:middle line:90% I began writing it last summer. 00:00:10.050 --> 00:00:12.990 align:middle line:84% And about halfway through, I realized 00:00:12.990 --> 00:00:16.268 align:middle line:84% that it was too late to be writing the poem. 00:00:16.268 --> 00:00:18.060 align:middle line:84% It's called "In Memory of Wallace Stevens." 00:00:18.060 --> 00:00:19.890 align:middle line:84% And he had been dead 14 years already. 00:00:19.890 --> 00:00:24.750 align:middle line:84% I was just getting around to paying my tribute. 00:00:24.750 --> 00:00:26.700 align:middle line:90% But I went ahead anyhow. 00:00:26.700 --> 00:00:30.960 align:middle line:90% And him being slow and ancient-- 00:00:30.960 --> 00:00:38.300 align:middle line:90% 00:00:38.300 --> 00:00:41.690 align:middle line:84% Well, no, I won't say anything more about it. 00:00:41.690 --> 00:00:46.070 align:middle line:84% "In Memory of Wallace Stevens," part one, 00:00:46.070 --> 00:00:52.160 align:middle line:84% "Hartford is cold today but no colder for your absence. 00:00:52.160 --> 00:00:56.000 align:middle line:84% The rain is green over Avon and since your death, 00:00:56.000 --> 00:01:00.020 align:middle line:84% the sky has been blue many times with a blue you did not 00:01:00.020 --> 00:01:02.240 align:middle line:90% imagine. 00:01:02.240 --> 00:01:07.520 align:middle line:84% The judges of Key West sit soberly in black but only 00:01:07.520 --> 00:01:11.090 align:middle line:84% because it is their accustomed garb. 00:01:11.090 --> 00:01:14.060 align:middle line:84% And to see things with the same voice still 00:01:14.060 --> 00:01:18.200 align:middle line:84% neither serious nor sorry, the walls past 00:01:18.200 --> 00:01:22.610 align:middle line:84% which you walked in your white suit ponderous, 00:01:22.610 --> 00:01:27.830 align:middle line:84% pondering French pictures, are no less vivid now. 00:01:27.830 --> 00:01:32.060 align:middle line:90% Not one is turned to the wall. 00:01:32.060 --> 00:01:35.870 align:middle line:84% The actuarial tables are not upset. 00:01:35.870 --> 00:01:41.870 align:middle line:84% The mail travels back and forth to Ceylon as before. 00:01:41.870 --> 00:01:47.420 align:middle line:84% The gold leaf peels in season and is renewed. 00:01:47.420 --> 00:01:53.030 align:middle line:84% And there are heroes who falter but do not fall or fall 00:01:53.030 --> 00:01:56.330 align:middle line:84% without faltering and without fault. 00:01:56.330 --> 00:01:59.570 align:middle line:90% But you were not one of them. 00:01:59.570 --> 00:02:04.340 align:middle line:84% Nevertheless, the poet practicing his scales 00:02:04.340 --> 00:02:10.699 align:middle line:84% thinks of you as his thumbs slip clumsily under and under, 00:02:10.699 --> 00:02:15.140 align:middle line:90% avoiding the darker notes." 00:02:15.140 --> 00:02:22.490 align:middle line:84% Part two, "The 'the' has become an 'a'. 00:02:22.490 --> 00:02:30.440 align:middle line:84% The dictionary closed at dusk along with the zoo in the park 00:02:30.440 --> 00:02:32.720 align:middle line:84% and the wings of the swans are folded now 00:02:32.720 --> 00:02:35.810 align:middle line:84% like the sheets of a long ladder. 00:02:35.810 --> 00:02:40.850 align:middle line:84% Who borrows your French words and postures now?" 00:02:40.850 --> 00:02:46.220 align:middle line:84% Part three, "The opera of the gods is finished 00:02:46.220 --> 00:02:49.190 align:middle line:90% and the applause is dying. 00:02:49.190 --> 00:02:53.750 align:middle line:84% The chorus will soon be coming down from the clouds. 00:02:53.750 --> 00:02:58.160 align:middle line:84% Even their silence may be understood as a final platitude 00:02:58.160 --> 00:03:02.990 align:middle line:90% of sorts, a summing up. 00:03:02.990 --> 00:03:06.170 align:middle line:84% The tireless dancers have retired at last 00:03:06.170 --> 00:03:10.310 align:middle line:84% to a small apartment on a treeless street. 00:03:10.310 --> 00:03:13.850 align:middle line:84% But, oh, the pas de deux of Eden begins again 00:03:13.850 --> 00:03:18.380 align:middle line:84% on cot springs creaking like the sun and moon. 00:03:18.380 --> 00:03:24.200 align:middle line:84% The operation of the universe is temporarily suspended. 00:03:24.200 --> 00:03:26.030 align:middle line:90% What has been good? 00:03:26.030 --> 00:03:28.880 align:middle line:84% What has been beautiful, the tuning 00:03:28.880 --> 00:03:32.390 align:middle line:90% up or the being put away? 00:03:32.390 --> 00:03:35.420 align:middle line:84% The instruments have nothing more to say. 00:03:35.420 --> 00:03:39.290 align:middle line:84% On plush and velvet they will sleep 00:03:39.290 --> 00:03:44.990 align:middle line:84% until our breath revives them to new flutterings, new adieux. 00:03:44.990 --> 00:03:48.050 align:middle line:84% And to the picnic, all the singers 00:03:48.050 --> 00:03:54.680 align:middle line:84% come minus their golden costumes but no less gods for that. 00:03:54.680 --> 00:04:00.200 align:middle line:84% Now all quotations from the text apply, including the laughter, 00:04:00.200 --> 00:04:05.480 align:middle line:84% including the offstage thunder, including even this almost 00:04:05.480 --> 00:04:07.600 align:middle line:90% human cry." 00:04:07.600 --> 00:04:09.000 align:middle line:90%