WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.660 align:middle line:90%


00:00:00.660 --> 00:00:02.820 align:middle line:90%
Let me read some newer poems--

00:00:02.820 --> 00:00:05.622 align:middle line:90%
past, Collecting the Animals.

00:00:05.622 --> 00:00:07.080 align:middle line:84%
I guess some of
these are finished,

00:00:07.080 --> 00:00:08.580 align:middle line:84%
and perhaps some
of them are not.

00:00:08.580 --> 00:00:11.640 align:middle line:90%


00:00:11.640 --> 00:00:13.680 align:middle line:84%
This is a poem called
"The Burden of Decision."

00:00:13.680 --> 00:00:16.730 align:middle line:90%


00:00:16.730 --> 00:00:18.560 align:middle line:84%
I don't quite know
how to describe

00:00:18.560 --> 00:00:20.150 align:middle line:90%
or set up the poem for you.

00:00:20.150 --> 00:00:23.550 align:middle line:90%


00:00:23.550 --> 00:00:30.900 align:middle line:84%
Years ago, because of coercion,
not willingly, I read an essay

00:00:30.900 --> 00:00:35.655 align:middle line:84%
called de Senectute,
an essay on old age.

00:00:35.655 --> 00:00:37.030 align:middle line:84%
And I've forgotten
who wrote it--

00:00:37.030 --> 00:00:39.660 align:middle line:84%
Cicero, one of those,
perhaps Seneca.

00:00:39.660 --> 00:00:40.290 align:middle line:90%
Who knows?

00:00:40.290 --> 00:00:42.810 align:middle line:90%


00:00:42.810 --> 00:00:46.530 align:middle line:84%
But it was an essay
that, in one sense,

00:00:46.530 --> 00:00:49.320 align:middle line:84%
praised the virtues
of growing old.

00:00:49.320 --> 00:00:51.900 align:middle line:84%
It said you grew
wiser and more mature,

00:00:51.900 --> 00:00:55.230 align:middle line:84%
and the passions cooled down,
and people respected you,

00:00:55.230 --> 00:00:59.110 align:middle line:90%
and all sorts of lovely things.

00:00:59.110 --> 00:01:02.587 align:middle line:84%
Well, I don't think he
told too much of the truth,

00:01:02.587 --> 00:01:03.670 align:middle line:90%
but it was a lovely style.

00:01:03.670 --> 00:01:06.220 align:middle line:90%


00:01:06.220 --> 00:01:08.200 align:middle line:84%
And in a sense,
this poem comes back

00:01:08.200 --> 00:01:09.910 align:middle line:84%
to that kind of
preoccupation-- how

00:01:09.910 --> 00:01:11.560 align:middle line:84%
we're supposed to
get older and wiser

00:01:11.560 --> 00:01:14.500 align:middle line:84%
and make all the
right choices and how

00:01:14.500 --> 00:01:18.713 align:middle line:84%
we value that sense of
decision and choice.

00:01:18.713 --> 00:01:20.380 align:middle line:84%
This is called "The
Burden of Decision."

00:01:20.380 --> 00:01:24.710 align:middle line:90%


00:01:24.710 --> 00:01:29.840 align:middle line:84%
"Late night, with my
bundle of new straws,

00:01:29.840 --> 00:01:32.510 align:middle line:84%
weighing each one
with my headaches,

00:01:32.510 --> 00:01:36.605 align:middle line:84%
my inverted stars, my
solemn pencils at their end.

00:01:36.605 --> 00:01:39.330 align:middle line:90%


00:01:39.330 --> 00:01:45.300 align:middle line:84%
in this way, sorting the
'yes' and the 'no,' I arrive.

00:01:45.300 --> 00:01:49.200 align:middle line:84%
My train enters a
snowy region of furs.

00:01:49.200 --> 00:01:50.910 align:middle line:90%
I close my eyes.

00:01:50.910 --> 00:01:54.930 align:middle line:84%
The wheels slow and deepen their
voices over the first bridge.

00:01:54.930 --> 00:01:57.900 align:middle line:90%


00:01:57.900 --> 00:02:02.250 align:middle line:84%
It is then that one
knocks and enters.

00:02:02.250 --> 00:02:08.070 align:middle line:84%
A man puts down his bag and
slaps dust from his coat.

00:02:08.070 --> 00:02:12.000 align:middle line:84%
In silence, he crosses the
room, nods, and holds out

00:02:12.000 --> 00:02:15.730 align:middle line:90%
to me his two closed hands.

00:02:15.730 --> 00:02:19.540 align:middle line:84%
I know him by his
frayed sleeves.

00:02:19.540 --> 00:02:23.860 align:middle line:84%
He knows me by the little
song I start to sing,

00:02:23.860 --> 00:02:27.090 align:middle line:90%
shifting from foot to foot."

00:02:27.090 --> 00:02:28.000 align:middle line:90%