WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:09.000 align:middle line:84% I'd like to read now three poems that are narrative poems spoken 00:00:09.000 --> 00:00:10.860 align:middle line:90% in different voices. 00:00:10.860 --> 00:00:16.020 align:middle line:84% My new collection of poems would have a section of seven poems 00:00:16.020 --> 00:00:19.950 align:middle line:90% or so like these. 00:00:19.950 --> 00:00:21.660 align:middle line:84% And before I read these, I'd like 00:00:21.660 --> 00:00:26.160 align:middle line:84% to read you a short quotation which I use as a sense 00:00:26.160 --> 00:00:29.460 align:middle line:84% an epigraph to these seven poems as a group. 00:00:29.460 --> 00:00:33.870 align:middle line:84% It would be printed on the divider page. 00:00:33.870 --> 00:00:35.550 align:middle line:90% It's a very strange quotation. 00:00:35.550 --> 00:00:39.060 align:middle line:84% It's from Arthur Conan Doyle from one of the Sherlock Holmes 00:00:39.060 --> 00:00:42.420 align:middle line:84% stories called The problem of Thor bridge. 00:00:42.420 --> 00:00:45.390 align:middle line:84% And in fact I encountered it not in the story, 00:00:45.390 --> 00:00:49.890 align:middle line:84% but in WH Auden's Commonplace Book. 00:00:49.890 --> 00:00:52.770 align:middle line:84% It's a lovely-- lovely little piece. 00:00:52.770 --> 00:00:58.020 align:middle line:84% It goes, among these unfinished tales 00:00:58.020 --> 00:01:02.940 align:middle line:84% is that of Mr James Villamor who stepping back 00:01:02.940 --> 00:01:08.220 align:middle line:84% into his own house to get his umbrella was never more seen 00:01:08.220 --> 00:01:11.310 align:middle line:90% in this world. 00:01:11.310 --> 00:01:15.240 align:middle line:84% No less remarkable is that of the cutter Alicia 00:01:15.240 --> 00:01:19.230 align:middle line:84% which sailed one spring morning into a small patch of mist 00:01:19.230 --> 00:01:22.710 align:middle line:84% from where she never again emerged nor was 00:01:22.710 --> 00:01:28.650 align:middle line:84% anything further ever heard of herself and her crew. 00:01:28.650 --> 00:01:32.400 align:middle line:84% A third case worthy of note is that 00:01:32.400 --> 00:01:35.910 align:middle line:84% of Isidore Persana the well-known journalist 00:01:35.910 --> 00:01:42.150 align:middle line:84% and duelist who was found stark staring mad with a matchbox 00:01:42.150 --> 00:01:48.600 align:middle line:84% in front of him which contained a remarkable worm said 00:01:48.600 --> 00:01:51.555 align:middle line:90% to be unknown to science. 00:01:51.555 --> 00:02:04.410 align:middle line:90% 00:02:04.410 --> 00:02:10.530 align:middle line:84% This group of poems draws for its subjects on films and books 00:02:10.530 --> 00:02:16.770 align:middle line:84% there is a Sherlock Holmes poem and other novels popular-- 00:02:16.770 --> 00:02:20.850 align:middle line:84% in a sense popular images that you are probably familiar with. 00:02:20.850 --> 00:02:24.330 align:middle line:84% The first poem is called attack of the crab monsters 00:02:24.330 --> 00:02:29.970 align:middle line:84% and it's taken directly from a film also called 00:02:29.970 --> 00:02:31.170 align:middle line:90% attack of the crab monsters. 00:02:31.170 --> 00:02:34.110 align:middle line:90% 00:02:34.110 --> 00:02:39.490 align:middle line:84% It's a wonderfully typical science fiction horror movie. 00:02:39.490 --> 00:02:46.770 align:middle line:84% But if you haven't seen it on some late night horror show, 00:02:46.770 --> 00:02:50.110 align:middle line:84% nevertheless I imagine that the story will be familiar to you. 00:02:50.110 --> 00:02:52.530 align:middle line:84% It's the story of the research team 00:02:52.530 --> 00:02:55.050 align:middle line:84% that goes to the radioactive island 00:02:55.050 --> 00:03:00.000 align:middle line:84% where they encounter giant monsters, 00:03:00.000 --> 00:03:05.580 align:middle line:84% tarantulas snakes, praying mantises, lizards whatever. 00:03:05.580 --> 00:03:12.370 align:middle line:84% I saw a film last semester on television called night 00:03:12.370 --> 00:03:16.780 align:middle line:84% of the lipase which featured perhaps the most 00:03:16.780 --> 00:03:18.910 align:middle line:90% unlikely gigantic monsters. 00:03:18.910 --> 00:03:21.985 align:middle line:84% In this case they were huge rampaging bunnies. 00:03:21.985 --> 00:03:26.590 align:middle line:90% 00:03:26.590 --> 00:03:28.540 align:middle line:84% They would come out and hop people to death. 00:03:28.540 --> 00:03:31.740 align:middle line:90% 00:03:31.740 --> 00:03:33.930 align:middle line:84% Have close ups of their noses wrinkling. 00:03:33.930 --> 00:03:37.170 align:middle line:90% It's supposed to be horrible. 00:03:37.170 --> 00:03:41.710 align:middle line:84% The poem is spoken by a character in the story, 00:03:41.710 --> 00:03:44.520 align:middle line:90% but not by the hero. 00:03:44.520 --> 00:03:50.040 align:middle line:84% I imagine the poem as spoken by a minor character, perhaps one 00:03:50.040 --> 00:03:55.080 align:middle line:84% of the sailors on the ship that brought the scientific team 00:03:55.080 --> 00:03:55.680 align:middle line:90% to the island. 00:03:55.680 --> 00:03:58.510 align:middle line:90% 00:03:58.510 --> 00:03:59.995 align:middle line:90% Attack of the crab monsters. 00:03:59.995 --> 00:04:03.160 align:middle line:90% 00:04:03.160 --> 00:04:07.480 align:middle line:84% Even from the beach I could sense it. 00:04:07.480 --> 00:04:12.310 align:middle line:84% Lack of welcome, lack of abiding life. 00:04:12.310 --> 00:04:18.790 align:middle line:84% Like something in the air, a certain lack of sound. 00:04:18.790 --> 00:04:22.660 align:middle line:84% Yesterday there was a mountain out there. 00:04:22.660 --> 00:04:23.485 align:middle line:90% Now it's gone. 00:04:23.485 --> 00:04:26.050 align:middle line:90% 00:04:26.050 --> 00:04:32.440 align:middle line:84% And look at this radio, each tube neatly sliced in half. 00:04:32.440 --> 00:04:36.610 align:middle line:84% Blow the place up, that was my advice. 00:04:36.610 --> 00:04:39.970 align:middle line:84% But after the storm and the earthquake, 00:04:39.970 --> 00:04:42.010 align:middle line:84% after the tactic of the exploding 00:04:42.010 --> 00:04:45.160 align:middle line:84% plane and the strategy of the sinking boat, 00:04:45.160 --> 00:04:46.930 align:middle line:90% it looked like fate. 00:04:46.930 --> 00:04:50.230 align:middle line:84% And I wanted to say, don't you see? 00:04:50.230 --> 00:04:54.460 align:middle line:84% So what if you're a famous biochemist? 00:04:54.460 --> 00:04:59.590 align:middle line:84% Lost with all hands is an old story. 00:04:59.590 --> 00:05:03.730 align:middle line:84% Sure, we are on the edge of an important breakthrough. 00:05:03.730 --> 00:05:08.140 align:middle line:84% Everyone hearing voices, everyone falling into caves, 00:05:08.140 --> 00:05:12.520 align:middle line:84% and you're out wandering through the jungle in the middle 00:05:12.520 --> 00:05:14.590 align:middle line:90% of the night in your negligee. 00:05:14.590 --> 00:05:17.260 align:middle line:90% 00:05:17.260 --> 00:05:22.720 align:middle line:84% Yes, we are way out there on the edge of science. 00:05:22.720 --> 00:05:25.030 align:middle line:84% While the rest of the island continues 00:05:25.030 --> 00:05:27.790 align:middle line:84% to disappear until nothing's left 00:05:27.790 --> 00:05:31.520 align:middle line:84% except this cliff in the middle of the ocean, 00:05:31.520 --> 00:05:35.500 align:middle line:84% and you in your bathing suit crouched 00:05:35.500 --> 00:05:39.370 align:middle line:90% behind the scuba tanks. 00:05:39.370 --> 00:05:46.960 align:middle line:84% I'd like to tell you not to be afraid, but I've lost my voice. 00:05:46.960 --> 00:05:54.670 align:middle line:84% I'm not used to all these legs, these claws, these feelers. 00:05:54.670 --> 00:05:59.230 align:middle line:84% It's the old story, predictable as fallout, 00:05:59.230 --> 00:06:02.530 align:middle line:90% the rearrangement of molecules. 00:06:02.530 --> 00:06:05.020 align:middle line:84% And everyone is surprised and no one 00:06:05.020 --> 00:06:10.990 align:middle line:84% understands why each man tries to kill the thing he loves 00:06:10.990 --> 00:06:14.320 align:middle line:90% when the change comes over him. 00:06:14.320 --> 00:06:20.740 align:middle line:84% So now you know what I never found the time to say. 00:06:20.740 --> 00:06:26.200 align:middle line:84% Sweetheart, put down your flamethrower. 00:06:26.200 --> 00:06:31.020 align:middle line:90% You know I always loved you. 00:06:31.020 --> 00:06:39.000 align:middle line:90%