WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.710 align:middle line:90% 00:00:00.710 --> 00:00:07.880 align:middle line:84% Well, I'm going to come on again and read one or two straighter 00:00:07.880 --> 00:00:12.270 align:middle line:90% and perhaps more intense poems. 00:00:12.270 --> 00:00:15.080 align:middle line:90% 00:00:15.080 --> 00:00:19.070 align:middle line:84% I began writing some years ago that whole thing 00:00:19.070 --> 00:00:21.260 align:middle line:90% of dramatic monologues. 00:00:21.260 --> 00:00:25.490 align:middle line:84% I'd wanted to be able to project myself 00:00:25.490 --> 00:00:31.430 align:middle line:84% into a number of attitudes very far from my own in particular 00:00:31.430 --> 00:00:34.160 align:middle line:84% as absorbed by the idea of what one might call for want 00:00:34.160 --> 00:00:36.800 align:middle line:84% of a better phrase fascist psychology, 00:00:36.800 --> 00:00:39.410 align:middle line:84% and particularly Nazi psychology. 00:00:39.410 --> 00:00:43.190 align:middle line:84% And I wrote several poems which were monologues spoken 00:00:43.190 --> 00:00:46.640 align:middle line:84% by Nazis, in which the object was 00:00:46.640 --> 00:00:49.250 align:middle line:84% to avoid if possible pulling any punches 00:00:49.250 --> 00:00:52.820 align:middle line:84% or introducing any liberal comment to it. 00:00:52.820 --> 00:00:55.070 align:middle line:84% In other words, I wanted to produce a poem 00:00:55.070 --> 00:00:58.040 align:middle line:84% that if listened to by the Nazis would strike him 00:00:58.040 --> 00:00:59.990 align:middle line:84% as far as possible as a faithful expression 00:00:59.990 --> 00:01:01.830 align:middle line:90% of his own attitudes. 00:01:01.830 --> 00:01:04.310 align:middle line:84% The object of this being to enable the reader 00:01:04.310 --> 00:01:07.760 align:middle line:90% to make his own judgments. 00:01:07.760 --> 00:01:11.060 align:middle line:84% This technique of course, was I suppose the main one behind all 00:01:11.060 --> 00:01:14.510 align:middle line:84% of Browning's poetry, and it's been extensively used 00:01:14.510 --> 00:01:17.000 align:middle line:84% since by people like Lowell, [? O'Hara ?] 00:01:17.000 --> 00:01:20.360 align:middle line:90% and many other poets. 00:01:20.360 --> 00:01:23.870 align:middle line:84% This poem is called "The Disciple," very long one 00:01:23.870 --> 00:01:27.560 align:middle line:84% and it's about a man who worked in a concentration camp. 00:01:27.560 --> 00:01:30.680 align:middle line:90% 00:01:30.680 --> 00:01:33.950 align:middle line:90% I wore a black band. 00:01:33.950 --> 00:01:37.760 align:middle line:84% I thought they would crucify him in jail. 00:01:37.760 --> 00:01:42.710 align:middle line:84% The word broke from his agony in the cells. 00:01:42.710 --> 00:01:46.910 align:middle line:84% I worked transfigured by incarnate will. 00:01:46.910 --> 00:01:52.970 align:middle line:84% When he walked out alive I knew that he was our savior. 00:01:52.970 --> 00:01:56.690 align:middle line:84% I remember his burned face sharp in a nimbus 00:01:56.690 --> 00:01:59.630 align:middle line:84% of blood light against the taut flags 00:01:59.630 --> 00:02:04.820 align:middle line:84% when he spoke to our mass lifted hands at the rally. 00:02:04.820 --> 00:02:07.460 align:middle line:84% And knelt chilled by the bare marble 00:02:07.460 --> 00:02:12.530 align:middle line:84% before the fed flame for his dead martyrs. 00:02:12.530 --> 00:02:17.420 align:middle line:84% I knew in my court heart we must all repeat his suffering. 00:02:17.420 --> 00:02:20.090 align:middle line:90% I wept the oath. 00:02:20.090 --> 00:02:25.550 align:middle line:84% I was dedicated to the stern commitments of a snapped order. 00:02:25.550 --> 00:02:30.500 align:middle line:84% I swore to purify my blood of evil. 00:02:30.500 --> 00:02:34.700 align:middle line:84% I accepted the fires of hell on Earth. 00:02:34.700 --> 00:02:38.840 align:middle line:84% Each uniform I wore was as my flesh. 00:02:38.840 --> 00:02:44.000 align:middle line:84% Its coarse fibers were burned by evil, stripped bare 00:02:44.000 --> 00:02:49.490 align:middle line:84% of dust of evil, encrusted with excrement of evil. 00:02:49.490 --> 00:02:52.760 align:middle line:84% I believe the evil and the stench of the bean soup 00:02:52.760 --> 00:02:53.870 align:middle line:90% we drank. 00:02:53.870 --> 00:02:57.680 align:middle line:84% The bags of charcoal I unheaped for the furnaces. 00:02:57.680 --> 00:03:01.250 align:middle line:90% The pit of my soul. 00:03:01.250 --> 00:03:08.660 align:middle line:84% When I raked the ovens or even touched a spade I felt sick. 00:03:08.660 --> 00:03:11.420 align:middle line:84% I vomited when I saw the pyramid of their bodies 00:03:11.420 --> 00:03:14.360 align:middle line:90% for the first time. 00:03:14.360 --> 00:03:18.710 align:middle line:84% When a crying child stretched out her arms to me 00:03:18.710 --> 00:03:23.700 align:middle line:84% I was moved to sweep her clear of the doors. 00:03:23.700 --> 00:03:27.230 align:middle line:90% I was not a strong willed man. 00:03:27.230 --> 00:03:31.340 align:middle line:84% I fought to do the hard thing well but the evil within me 00:03:31.340 --> 00:03:34.130 align:middle line:90% fought back. 00:03:34.130 --> 00:03:38.210 align:middle line:90% I lay awake hearing them scream. 00:03:38.210 --> 00:03:40.730 align:middle line:84% I committed the sin of pity for evil 00:03:40.730 --> 00:03:45.260 align:middle line:84% every time I touch their brittle limbs. 00:03:45.260 --> 00:03:51.260 align:middle line:84% In my dreams I was watching my infant sister crawled 00:03:51.260 --> 00:03:56.030 align:middle line:84% on by stick insects with human faces. 00:03:56.030 --> 00:04:02.210 align:middle line:84% Gas was like incense, it drowned corruption. 00:04:02.210 --> 00:04:06.590 align:middle line:84% In the wind on in cylinders to be raised and used, 00:04:06.590 --> 00:04:10.940 align:middle line:84% it became a presence more real than his. 00:04:10.940 --> 00:04:14.840 align:middle line:84% Above my bed his tense eyes looked down 00:04:14.840 --> 00:04:19.339 align:middle line:84% while I slept and forgave or condemned. 00:04:19.339 --> 00:04:22.610 align:middle line:84% His enormous words on the air proved that he still 00:04:22.610 --> 00:04:24.335 align:middle line:90% existed and surely cared. 00:04:24.335 --> 00:04:27.150 align:middle line:90% 00:04:27.150 --> 00:04:31.260 align:middle line:84% But I held a scarred image close to my heart, 00:04:31.260 --> 00:04:33.860 align:middle line:84% which showed him massacred in the streets 00:04:33.860 --> 00:04:36.950 align:middle line:90% by the blood of evil. 00:04:36.950 --> 00:04:41.450 align:middle line:84% I walked in the foul heresy of admiring his weakness more 00:04:41.450 --> 00:04:44.820 align:middle line:90% than his rise to power. 00:04:44.820 --> 00:04:48.770 align:middle line:90% But I groped my way back. 00:04:48.770 --> 00:04:53.990 align:middle line:84% The laceration of conscience began to ease, 00:04:53.990 --> 00:04:56.720 align:middle line:84% and the toil of confronting the evil and others 00:04:56.720 --> 00:05:00.950 align:middle line:84% began to confront the evil in me. 00:05:00.950 --> 00:05:03.290 align:middle line:90% I was helped. 00:05:03.290 --> 00:05:06.330 align:middle line:90% I confessed my doubts. 00:05:06.330 --> 00:05:09.470 align:middle line:84% I endured the controlling speech and hands of those 00:05:09.470 --> 00:05:13.400 align:middle line:90% more sure in their faith than I. 00:05:13.400 --> 00:05:16.520 align:middle line:84% And by grace I recovered my sanity 00:05:16.520 --> 00:05:21.230 align:middle line:84% and was purified and body and spirit. 00:05:21.230 --> 00:05:25.640 align:middle line:84% Behind a locked door in a blaze of light on a plain slate 00:05:25.640 --> 00:05:27.140 align:middle line:90% floor, 00:05:27.140 --> 00:05:32.180 align:middle line:84% my schism was healed by the salt of fear. 00:05:32.180 --> 00:05:35.300 align:middle line:90% I have no stain left to scour. 00:05:35.300 --> 00:05:38.630 align:middle line:84% I cut into your wire a saved man. 00:05:38.630 --> 00:05:42.890 align:middle line:84% I'm freed from sin by the mechanism of holy justice. 00:05:42.890 --> 00:05:45.620 align:middle line:84% I heard of his death as if the meaning of life 00:05:45.620 --> 00:05:51.320 align:middle line:84% had been for a moment suspended but felt no grief. 00:05:51.320 --> 00:05:55.340 align:middle line:84% I have shed my heavy cross and abide my end 00:05:55.340 --> 00:05:56.675 align:middle line:90% in peace of spirit. 00:05:56.675 --> 00:06:01.265 align:middle line:90% 00:06:01.265 --> 00:06:03.730 align:middle line:90% A nasty man.