WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.780 align:middle line:90% 00:00:00.780 --> 00:00:03.240 align:middle line:84% I want to read another poem from Kicking the Leaves now, 00:00:03.240 --> 00:00:06.420 align:middle line:84% but one that has nothing to do with New Hampshire. 00:00:06.420 --> 00:00:11.880 align:middle line:84% What it has to do with is perhaps a little mysterious 00:00:11.880 --> 00:00:12.660 align:middle line:90% even to me. 00:00:12.660 --> 00:00:13.650 align:middle line:90% It's a narrative poem. 00:00:13.650 --> 00:00:15.233 align:middle line:84% I've written very few narrative poems. 00:00:15.233 --> 00:00:16.770 align:middle line:90% It's a dramatic monologue. 00:00:16.770 --> 00:00:20.290 align:middle line:84% I've written a few of those over my life. 00:00:20.290 --> 00:00:21.180 align:middle line:90% But this is one. 00:00:21.180 --> 00:00:23.580 align:middle line:84% It came, and it came in, for me, what 00:00:23.580 --> 00:00:25.710 align:middle line:90% was almost an impetuous rush. 00:00:25.710 --> 00:00:27.660 align:middle line:84% It was written in two or three months. 00:00:27.660 --> 00:00:30.120 align:middle line:90% Incredible. 00:00:30.120 --> 00:00:32.790 align:middle line:84% It's called Wolf Knife, and it's a narrative 00:00:32.790 --> 00:00:34.590 align:middle line:90% of an Arctic explorer. 00:00:34.590 --> 00:00:36.060 align:middle line:90% Essentially, it's made up. 00:00:36.060 --> 00:00:40.470 align:middle line:84% I have an epigraph for whatever it is under the title saying 00:00:40.470 --> 00:00:42.510 align:middle line:84% from the journals of Sea of Hoyt, 00:00:42.510 --> 00:00:44.070 align:middle line:90% and then give dates, and so on. 00:00:44.070 --> 00:00:45.170 align:middle line:90% And I made it up. 00:00:45.170 --> 00:00:47.670 align:middle line:84% I was delighted then when the reviewer in the New York Times 00:00:47.670 --> 00:00:49.880 align:middle line:90% called it a found poem. 00:00:49.880 --> 00:00:56.730 align:middle line:84% Well, it is true that I took the possibility 00:00:56.730 --> 00:00:59.070 align:middle line:84% of the story, the suggestion of the story, 00:00:59.070 --> 00:01:01.710 align:middle line:84% from the journals of an Arctic explorer. 00:01:01.710 --> 00:01:04.080 align:middle line:84% Someone named Hall actually, but I'm not 00:01:04.080 --> 00:01:06.480 align:middle line:90% related as far as I know. 00:01:06.480 --> 00:01:09.240 align:middle line:84% So this is entirely spoken by a man-- 00:01:09.240 --> 00:01:13.230 align:middle line:84% by a Victorian man, mid to late 19th century man. 00:01:13.230 --> 00:01:16.230 align:middle line:90% Not me at all. 00:01:16.230 --> 00:01:21.180 align:middle line:84% Sometimes I wish I didn't know I did make it up. 00:01:21.180 --> 00:01:23.880 align:middle line:90% It's a bit grim. 00:01:23.880 --> 00:01:26.400 align:middle line:84% In mid-august, in the second year 00:01:26.400 --> 00:01:30.690 align:middle line:84% of my first polar expedition, the snows and ice of winter 00:01:30.690 --> 00:01:32.370 align:middle line:90% almost upon us. 00:01:32.370 --> 00:01:35.060 align:middle line:84% Kantiuk and I-- I'm sorry, Kantiuk 00:01:35.060 --> 00:01:37.560 align:middle line:90% is to be an Eskimo name. 00:01:37.560 --> 00:01:39.390 align:middle line:84% There are a couple of other Eskimo words 00:01:39.390 --> 00:01:43.320 align:middle line:84% which I think are explained by their context. 00:01:43.320 --> 00:01:46.620 align:middle line:84% Kantiuk and I attempted to dash by sledge 00:01:46.620 --> 00:01:49.680 align:middle line:84% along Crispin Bay searching again for relics 00:01:49.680 --> 00:01:51.990 align:middle line:90% of the Franklin expedition. 00:01:51.990 --> 00:01:54.600 align:middle line:84% Now a storm blew, and we turned back. 00:01:54.600 --> 00:01:59.040 align:middle line:84% And we struggled slowly in snow lest we depart land and venture 00:01:59.040 --> 00:02:03.930 align:middle line:84% onto ice, from which a sudden fog and thaw would abandon us 00:02:03.930 --> 00:02:07.830 align:middle line:90% to the providence of the sea. 00:02:07.830 --> 00:02:11.390 align:middle line:84% Near nightfall, I thought I heard snarling behind us. 00:02:11.390 --> 00:02:14.580 align:middle line:84% Kantiuk told me that two wolves lean 00:02:14.580 --> 00:02:17.500 align:middle line:84% as the bones of a wrecked ship had followed us 00:02:17.500 --> 00:02:20.700 align:middle line:84% for the last hour and snapped their teeth 00:02:20.700 --> 00:02:23.070 align:middle line:90% as if already feasting. 00:02:23.070 --> 00:02:25.530 align:middle line:84% I carried but the one charge in my rifle, 00:02:25.530 --> 00:02:30.690 align:middle line:84% since approaching the second winter we ration stores. 00:02:30.690 --> 00:02:33.210 align:middle line:84% As it turned dark, we could push no further. 00:02:33.210 --> 00:02:36.060 align:middle line:84% And made camp in a corner of ice hammocks. 00:02:36.060 --> 00:02:39.180 align:middle line:84% And the wolves stopped, also, growling just 00:02:39.180 --> 00:02:41.220 align:middle line:84% past the limits of vision, coming 00:02:41.220 --> 00:02:47.470 align:middle line:84% closer until I could hear the click of their feet on ice. 00:02:47.470 --> 00:02:50.790 align:middle line:84% Kantiuk laughed and remarked that the wolves appeared 00:02:50.790 --> 00:02:53.310 align:middle line:90% to be most hungry. 00:02:53.310 --> 00:02:54.990 align:middle line:84% I raised my rifle prepared to shoot 00:02:54.990 --> 00:02:58.860 align:middle line:84% the first that ventured close, hoping to frighten the other. 00:02:58.860 --> 00:03:01.560 align:middle line:84% Kantiuk struck my rifle down, and said again 00:03:01.560 --> 00:03:04.860 align:middle line:84% that the wolves were hungry and laughed. 00:03:04.860 --> 00:03:07.620 align:middle line:84% I feared that my old companion was mad, 00:03:07.620 --> 00:03:11.700 align:middle line:84% here in the storm among ice hammocks stalked by wolves. 00:03:11.700 --> 00:03:17.160 align:middle line:84% Now Kantiuk searched in his pack and extricated two knives. 00:03:17.160 --> 00:03:20.610 align:middle line:84% Turnoks, the Innuits called them, which by great labor 00:03:20.610 --> 00:03:23.940 align:middle line:84% were sharpened on both sides to a sharpness like the edge 00:03:23.940 --> 00:03:25.710 align:middle line:90% of a barber's razor. 00:03:25.710 --> 00:03:30.450 align:middle line:84% And approached our dogs, and plunged both knives 00:03:30.450 --> 00:03:35.820 align:middle line:84% into the body of our youngest dog who had limped all day. 00:03:35.820 --> 00:03:39.240 align:middle line:84% I remember that I considered turning my rifle on Kantiuk 00:03:39.240 --> 00:03:41.460 align:middle line:84% as he approached, then passed me, 00:03:41.460 --> 00:03:45.180 align:middle line:84% carrying knives red with the gore of our dog. 00:03:45.180 --> 00:03:48.210 align:middle line:84% Who had yowled, moaned, and now lay 00:03:48.210 --> 00:03:51.600 align:middle line:84% expiring, surrounded by curious cousins and uncles 00:03:51.600 --> 00:03:53.520 align:middle line:90% possibly hungry. 00:03:53.520 --> 00:03:59.910 align:middle line:84% And thrust the knives handle down into the snow, 00:03:59.910 --> 00:04:02.010 align:middle line:90% immediately he left the knives. 00:04:02.010 --> 00:04:05.370 align:middle line:84% The vague gray shapes of the wolves 00:04:05.370 --> 00:04:08.280 align:middle line:84% turned solid out of the darkness and the snow, 00:04:08.280 --> 00:04:12.330 align:middle line:84% and said ravenously to licking blood from the honed steel. 00:04:12.330 --> 00:04:15.480 align:middle line:84% The double edge of the knives so lacerated the tongues 00:04:15.480 --> 00:04:18.660 align:middle line:84% of the starved beasts, that their own blood poured 00:04:18.660 --> 00:04:21.839 align:middle line:84% copiously forth to replenish the dog's blood, 00:04:21.839 --> 00:04:26.760 align:middle line:84% and they ate more furiously than before while Kantiuk laughed, 00:04:26.760 --> 00:04:28.980 align:middle line:90% and held his sides laughing. 00:04:28.980 --> 00:04:31.890 align:middle line:90% 00:04:31.890 --> 00:04:34.050 align:middle line:90% And I laughed also. 00:04:34.050 --> 00:04:35.760 align:middle line:84% Perhaps in relief that providence 00:04:35.760 --> 00:04:38.070 align:middle line:90% had delivered us, yet again. 00:04:38.070 --> 00:04:40.740 align:middle line:84% Or perhaps, under conditions of extremity 00:04:40.740 --> 00:04:44.700 align:middle line:84% far from Connecticut, finding these creatures acutely 00:04:44.700 --> 00:04:46.020 align:middle line:90% ridiculous. 00:04:46.020 --> 00:04:49.950 align:middle line:84% So avid to swallow their own blood. 00:04:49.950 --> 00:04:52.020 align:middle line:84% First one and then the other collapsed 00:04:52.020 --> 00:04:55.830 align:middle line:84% dying, bloodless in the snow, black with their own blood. 00:04:55.830 --> 00:05:00.570 align:middle line:84% And Kantiuk retrieved his turnoks and hacked lean meat 00:05:00.570 --> 00:05:05.340 align:middle line:84% from the thigh of the larger wolf, which we ate, gratefully, 00:05:05.340 --> 00:05:09.357 align:middle line:84% blessing the Creator, for we were hungry. 00:05:09.357 --> 00:05:11.802 align:middle line:90% [CLAPPING] 00:05:11.802 --> 00:05:18.160 align:middle line:90% 00:05:18.160 --> 00:05:22.030 align:middle line:84% I'm on record as saying someplace or other that the-- 00:05:22.030 --> 00:05:24.280 align:middle line:84% a great theme of lyric poetry almost never 00:05:24.280 --> 00:05:27.190 align:middle line:90% acknowledged is cannibalism. 00:05:27.190 --> 00:05:28.150 align:middle line:90% I find it in Eliot. 00:05:28.150 --> 00:05:29.410 align:middle line:90% I find it in Robert Frost. 00:05:29.410 --> 00:05:30.940 align:middle line:90% I find it everywhere. 00:05:30.940 --> 00:05:33.340 align:middle line:90% I find it in me. 00:05:33.340 --> 00:05:36.850 align:middle line:84% Not that I mean that's the be all and end all of that poem. 00:05:36.850 --> 00:05:39.280 align:middle line:84% Sometime after I had written it and was still 00:05:39.280 --> 00:05:44.770 align:middle line:84% quite puzzled by it, Robert Bly explained to me what it meant. 00:05:44.770 --> 00:05:50.190 align:middle line:84% And I have never told anybody, because I'm afraid he's right.