WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.650 align:middle line:90% 00:00:01.650 --> 00:00:03.615 align:middle line:84% I think I'd like to read two more poems. 00:00:03.615 --> 00:00:09.740 align:middle line:90% 00:00:09.740 --> 00:00:11.165 align:middle line:90% This is a poem about vampires. 00:00:11.165 --> 00:00:15.875 align:middle line:90% 00:00:15.875 --> 00:00:23.170 align:middle line:84% The poem is called "Voices Answering Back: The Vampires." 00:00:23.170 --> 00:00:25.870 align:middle line:84% And the poem is spoken by the vampires 00:00:25.870 --> 00:00:30.190 align:middle line:90% as a kind of choral group. 00:00:30.190 --> 00:00:34.270 align:middle line:84% The poem takes place in the present. 00:00:34.270 --> 00:00:37.960 align:middle line:84% In other words, in a time when people generally 00:00:37.960 --> 00:00:41.580 align:middle line:90% no longer believe in vampires. 00:00:41.580 --> 00:00:45.930 align:middle line:84% However, the vampires who are, of course, still 00:00:45.930 --> 00:00:49.320 align:middle line:84% there have banded together in order 00:00:49.320 --> 00:00:52.640 align:middle line:84% to come to terms with this problem of disbelief. 00:00:52.640 --> 00:00:55.300 align:middle line:90% 00:00:55.300 --> 00:00:57.490 align:middle line:84% There are a number of facts about vampires 00:00:57.490 --> 00:01:01.660 align:middle line:84% that the poem touches upon which you may be familiar 00:01:01.660 --> 00:01:05.379 align:middle line:84% with from Bram Stoker's novel or from the many films 00:01:05.379 --> 00:01:07.840 align:middle line:90% about vampires. 00:01:07.840 --> 00:01:12.290 align:middle line:84% Vampires are, of course, the undead, those who live forever, 00:01:12.290 --> 00:01:16.900 align:middle line:84% but only at night, who must sleep 00:01:16.900 --> 00:01:21.650 align:middle line:84% during the day in their coffins on their native soil, 00:01:21.650 --> 00:01:24.550 align:middle line:84% and who at evening rise to seek out 00:01:24.550 --> 00:01:28.360 align:middle line:84% the blood of the living, who themselves 00:01:28.360 --> 00:01:33.370 align:middle line:84% bitten by the vampire may turn into vampires. 00:01:33.370 --> 00:01:36.910 align:middle line:84% Vampires cast no reflection in mirrors. 00:01:36.910 --> 00:01:40.660 align:middle line:84% They may pass through cobwebs without breaking them. 00:01:40.660 --> 00:01:43.420 align:middle line:84% They possess the strength of many mortal men, 00:01:43.420 --> 00:01:47.460 align:middle line:84% but the cross will frighten them. 00:01:47.460 --> 00:01:52.140 align:middle line:84% And of all the ways of disposing of a vampire, 00:01:52.140 --> 00:01:56.640 align:middle line:84% you can drive the stake through his heart, or in some versions 00:01:56.640 --> 00:01:59.970 align:middle line:84% if you expose him to sunlight, his body 00:01:59.970 --> 00:02:01.770 align:middle line:90% returns to its natural age. 00:02:01.770 --> 00:02:05.590 align:middle line:84% And since most vampires are hundreds of years old, 00:02:05.590 --> 00:02:08.780 align:middle line:90% it means that he disintegrates. 00:02:08.780 --> 00:02:12.170 align:middle line:84% This last point, this point about the sunlight 00:02:12.170 --> 00:02:14.240 align:middle line:84% is particularly relevant to the poem 00:02:14.240 --> 00:02:17.720 align:middle line:84% because the vampires in the poem are 00:02:17.720 --> 00:02:21.110 align:middle line:84% trying to come to terms with this problem of the sun, 00:02:21.110 --> 00:02:25.010 align:middle line:84% figuring that if they can go out during the day, 00:02:25.010 --> 00:02:26.840 align:middle line:84% they have a much better chance of survival. 00:02:26.840 --> 00:02:30.930 align:middle line:90% 00:02:30.930 --> 00:02:34.920 align:middle line:84% There's also the theory that vampires can turn into bats, 00:02:34.920 --> 00:02:38.100 align:middle line:84% but Professor Abraham Van Helsing 00:02:38.100 --> 00:02:41.790 align:middle line:84% in Dracula: Prince of Darkness claims that, in fact, that's 00:02:41.790 --> 00:02:42.600 align:middle line:90% only a myth. 00:02:42.600 --> 00:02:51.340 align:middle line:90% 00:02:51.340 --> 00:02:54.540 align:middle line:84% "Voices Answering Back: The Vampires." 00:02:54.540 --> 00:02:58.480 align:middle line:90% 00:02:58.480 --> 00:03:03.070 align:middle line:84% Rising in lamplight, dying at dawn, 00:03:03.070 --> 00:03:06.340 align:middle line:84% grim burials in sheds and cellars, 00:03:06.340 --> 00:03:11.020 align:middle line:84% the rats scuttling through holes, and the days 00:03:11.020 --> 00:03:14.820 align:middle line:90% following in their tracks. 00:03:14.820 --> 00:03:20.430 align:middle line:84% Exiled here, we named the hours since you first 00:03:20.430 --> 00:03:23.720 align:middle line:90% forgot to be afraid. 00:03:23.720 --> 00:03:28.880 align:middle line:84% Once departed, we became only ourselves 00:03:28.880 --> 00:03:34.610 align:middle line:84% with the salt on our tongues and the cold for company. 00:03:34.610 --> 00:03:40.130 align:middle line:84% So deft in escape, so practiced in dying, 00:03:40.130 --> 00:03:42.650 align:middle line:90% you might have learned from us. 00:03:42.650 --> 00:03:46.040 align:middle line:84% But each time the easiest trick worked. 00:03:46.040 --> 00:03:48.860 align:middle line:84% The brandished cross the empty mirror. 00:03:48.860 --> 00:03:52.370 align:middle line:84% You could not see us our steps upon the stairs. 00:03:52.370 --> 00:03:56.870 align:middle line:84% And while you stumbled after bats in the garden, 00:03:56.870 --> 00:04:03.200 align:middle line:84% we climbed quietly from the upstairs window 00:04:03.200 --> 00:04:05.970 align:middle line:90% down the drainpipe. 00:04:05.970 --> 00:04:09.870 align:middle line:84% And through all the parties, you never 00:04:09.870 --> 00:04:13.090 align:middle line:90% heard what we were saying. 00:04:13.090 --> 00:04:17.380 align:middle line:84% It was something about desire, what 00:04:17.380 --> 00:04:22.440 align:middle line:90% we had in common even then. 00:04:22.440 --> 00:04:28.380 align:middle line:84% In your silence, you feared us, always winning at the end, 00:04:28.380 --> 00:04:33.240 align:middle line:84% but do you think nothing lingered past dawn shadowed 00:04:33.240 --> 00:04:36.390 align:middle line:90% among the gathered elms? 00:04:36.390 --> 00:04:39.300 align:middle line:90% Do not be mistaken. 00:04:39.300 --> 00:04:44.070 align:middle line:84% We heard you walking through our dreams. 00:04:44.070 --> 00:04:50.850 align:middle line:84% We felt death moving between your hands. 00:04:50.850 --> 00:04:57.770 align:middle line:84% Now we are waking early, practicing with sunlight. 00:04:57.770 --> 00:05:02.750 align:middle line:84% Now we pass unharmed beneath your terrible star, 00:05:02.750 --> 00:05:07.760 align:middle line:84% eyes covered, hands in our pockets, 00:05:07.760 --> 00:05:15.320 align:middle line:84% for the rules have always said if you stop believing in us, 00:05:15.320 --> 00:05:20.050 align:middle line:90% we inherit everything.