WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.550 align:middle line:90% 00:00:02.550 --> 00:00:07.950 align:middle line:84% When I was in school, I believe I was induced to feel that-- 00:00:07.950 --> 00:00:10.890 align:middle line:90% 00:00:10.890 --> 00:00:12.570 align:middle line:84% well, somehow the whole situation 00:00:12.570 --> 00:00:16.679 align:middle line:84% induced me to feel that in books, 00:00:16.679 --> 00:00:22.620 align:middle line:84% that there were things written by means of skills. 00:00:22.620 --> 00:00:26.160 align:middle line:84% Learned and then added together, in order 00:00:26.160 --> 00:00:29.820 align:middle line:90% to bring about literature. 00:00:29.820 --> 00:00:33.960 align:middle line:84% I'm just sort of sliding into purposely-- 00:00:33.960 --> 00:00:36.540 align:middle line:84% not trying to formulate this beforehand, 00:00:36.540 --> 00:00:39.810 align:middle line:84% but just trying to slide into doing the witness. 00:00:39.810 --> 00:00:44.100 align:middle line:84% That I've come to believe that surely, the language we 00:00:44.100 --> 00:00:48.780 align:middle line:84% all use every day, we can use by little increments 00:00:48.780 --> 00:00:52.350 align:middle line:84% and enhancements in all kinds of ways. 00:00:52.350 --> 00:00:54.930 align:middle line:84% And sometimes if you would get lucky, 00:00:54.930 --> 00:00:57.810 align:middle line:84% you would be saying something or writing something 00:00:57.810 --> 00:01:00.720 align:middle line:84% with so much resonance, human resonance 00:01:00.720 --> 00:01:05.850 align:middle line:84% that it would be like literature maybe. 00:01:05.850 --> 00:01:08.130 align:middle line:84% Well, I'll retreat from that and read 00:01:08.130 --> 00:01:09.840 align:middle line:90% something called "Old Dog." 00:01:09.840 --> 00:01:12.880 align:middle line:90% 00:01:12.880 --> 00:01:15.910 align:middle line:84% "Toward the last, in the morning, 00:01:15.910 --> 00:01:22.060 align:middle line:84% she could not get up, even when I rattled her pan. 00:01:22.060 --> 00:01:27.850 align:middle line:84% I helped her into the yard, but she stumbled and fell. 00:01:27.850 --> 00:01:31.090 align:middle line:90% I knew it was time. 00:01:31.090 --> 00:01:35.170 align:middle line:84% The last night a mist drifted over the fields. 00:01:35.170 --> 00:01:39.880 align:middle line:84% In the morning, she would not raise her head. 00:01:39.880 --> 00:01:46.780 align:middle line:84% The far clear mountains we had walked, surged back to mind. 00:01:46.780 --> 00:01:50.080 align:middle line:90% We looked at slow bargain. 00:01:50.080 --> 00:01:56.290 align:middle line:84% Our days together were the ones we'd already had. 00:01:56.290 --> 00:02:02.380 align:middle line:84% I gave her something the vet had given, and patted her still, 00:02:02.380 --> 00:02:03.670 align:middle line:90% a good last friend." 00:02:03.670 --> 00:02:06.620 align:middle line:90% 00:02:06.620 --> 00:02:13.280 align:middle line:84% Now my tactic would be to read these things 00:02:13.280 --> 00:02:16.050 align:middle line:84% with all the fervency I can muster at the time, 00:02:16.050 --> 00:02:17.850 align:middle line:84% so I hope you forgive me for that. 00:02:17.850 --> 00:02:21.680 align:middle line:84% But once it's done, I'm ready to sacrifice any or all of these 00:02:21.680 --> 00:02:23.660 align:middle line:84% in the interests of some kind of immediacy 00:02:23.660 --> 00:02:27.620 align:middle line:84% here, so I want to come back to this. 00:02:27.620 --> 00:02:33.510 align:middle line:84% I don't know exactly how to feel about this old dog statement, 00:02:33.510 --> 00:02:36.140 align:middle line:84% but there is a part I want to call attention to, 00:02:36.140 --> 00:02:38.000 align:middle line:90% that I don't like. 00:02:38.000 --> 00:02:40.478 align:middle line:84% But I don't exactly know what to do about it, 00:02:40.478 --> 00:02:42.020 align:middle line:84% and I just want to sacrifice the poem 00:02:42.020 --> 00:02:43.610 align:middle line:90% by calling attention to it. 00:02:43.610 --> 00:02:47.990 align:middle line:84% Everything in it seems a kind of minimum, straight, direct 00:02:47.990 --> 00:02:48.830 align:middle line:90% statement. 00:02:48.830 --> 00:02:50.600 align:middle line:84% "Toward the last, in the morning, 00:02:50.600 --> 00:02:52.880 align:middle line:90% she could not get up" and so on. 00:02:52.880 --> 00:02:55.910 align:middle line:84% Just as straight as it can be, but there is a part 00:02:55.910 --> 00:02:58.020 align:middle line:90% that has good diction in it. 00:02:58.020 --> 00:02:59.645 align:middle line:84% And it's this part I'm nervous about. 00:02:59.645 --> 00:03:03.770 align:middle line:84% There is a place where it says, "the mountains we had walked 00:03:03.770 --> 00:03:06.350 align:middle line:90% surged back to mind." 00:03:06.350 --> 00:03:14.180 align:middle line:84% And well, I would like to feel reluctant about good diction, 00:03:14.180 --> 00:03:15.950 align:middle line:84% instead of good about good diction. 00:03:15.950 --> 00:03:19.040 align:middle line:90% 00:03:19.040 --> 00:03:22.850 align:middle line:84% All my life I've been haunted by one of those statements, 00:03:22.850 --> 00:03:26.360 align:middle line:84% that one of those smart French poets said. 00:03:26.360 --> 00:03:28.800 align:middle line:84% Someone asked him, how are poems made? 00:03:28.800 --> 00:03:32.495 align:middle line:84% And he said something like this, "poems are made with words." 00:03:32.495 --> 00:03:35.360 align:middle line:90% 00:03:35.360 --> 00:03:36.960 align:middle line:84% Well, you can't really disagree-- 00:03:36.960 --> 00:03:38.120 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:03:38.120 --> 00:03:41.540 align:middle line:84% But on the other hand, all the implications 00:03:41.540 --> 00:03:43.200 align:middle line:90% seem to me to be wrong. 00:03:43.200 --> 00:03:46.880 align:middle line:84% So I'd like you to indulge me for just a minute, don't 00:03:46.880 --> 00:03:49.670 align:middle line:90% judge me too harshly too soon. 00:03:49.670 --> 00:03:56.100 align:middle line:84% No, poems are not made with words, but with contexts. 00:03:56.100 --> 00:04:01.340 align:middle line:84% And it would be better to find yourself adjusting, 00:04:01.340 --> 00:04:04.400 align:middle line:84% and accommodating to some kind of ongoing communication 00:04:04.400 --> 00:04:08.690 align:middle line:84% that would become so natural, with such momentum, 00:04:08.690 --> 00:04:11.000 align:middle line:84% that you can make mistakes about words 00:04:11.000 --> 00:04:13.190 align:middle line:90% and still it would be all right. 00:04:13.190 --> 00:04:14.750 align:middle line:84% Well, I don't want to belabor this. 00:04:14.750 --> 00:04:18.310 align:middle line:84% It's just an idea, kind of a feeling. 00:04:18.310 --> 00:04:19.000 align:middle line:90%