WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.840 align:middle line:90% 00:00:00.840 --> 00:00:03.000 align:middle line:84% I don't have a poem about Antietam, 00:00:03.000 --> 00:00:05.740 align:middle line:84% but Dave Smith told you I was going to read one. 00:00:05.740 --> 00:00:07.710 align:middle line:84% So I heard they wrote one in the men's room 00:00:07.710 --> 00:00:09.030 align:middle line:90% during the intermission. 00:00:09.030 --> 00:00:10.500 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:00:10.500 --> 00:00:11.535 align:middle line:90% We'll see how it goes. 00:00:11.535 --> 00:00:15.020 align:middle line:90% 00:00:15.020 --> 00:00:17.120 align:middle line:90% It's called After Antietam. 00:00:17.120 --> 00:00:22.790 align:middle line:84% We had two enlightening panels yesterday and today. 00:00:22.790 --> 00:00:26.270 align:middle line:84% Yesterday's consisted of me and Dave Smith 00:00:26.270 --> 00:00:31.040 align:middle line:84% and Bill Matthews and Steve Dunn. 00:00:31.040 --> 00:00:33.345 align:middle line:84% And we had a lot of interesting questions, to which we 00:00:33.345 --> 00:00:34.595 align:middle line:90% gave all of the right answers. 00:00:34.595 --> 00:00:37.100 align:middle line:90% 00:00:37.100 --> 00:00:38.690 align:middle line:84% Today's panel gave the other answers. 00:00:38.690 --> 00:00:43.240 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:00:43.240 --> 00:00:45.280 align:middle line:84% One of the questions was about form, 00:00:45.280 --> 00:00:48.580 align:middle line:84% and you're probably familiar with an old comment 00:00:48.580 --> 00:00:49.450 align:middle line:90% that Frost made. 00:00:49.450 --> 00:00:51.663 align:middle line:84% That when you're writing a poem, it's 00:00:51.663 --> 00:00:53.080 align:middle line:84% the furthest thing from your mind. 00:00:53.080 --> 00:00:55.163 align:middle line:84% But when it's over, that's all you can talk about. 00:00:55.163 --> 00:00:58.490 align:middle line:90% 00:00:58.490 --> 00:01:01.880 align:middle line:84% So this poem being over, all I can tell you about it, 00:01:01.880 --> 00:01:04.670 align:middle line:84% is that it begins in long lines of free verse, which 00:01:04.670 --> 00:01:07.490 align:middle line:84% are bringing in a variety of material to the poem. 00:01:07.490 --> 00:01:11.720 align:middle line:84% And they move toward a middle section, middle stanza-- 00:01:11.720 --> 00:01:13.430 align:middle line:90% 14 lines of blank verse. 00:01:13.430 --> 00:01:15.260 align:middle line:90% A regular meter but no rhyme. 00:01:15.260 --> 00:01:21.440 align:middle line:84% And the final stanza the poem is in a favorite ornate form, 00:01:21.440 --> 00:01:24.530 align:middle line:84% the Petrarchan sonnet, regular meter, 00:01:24.530 --> 00:01:27.380 align:middle line:84% and an elaborate Italian rhyme scheme. 00:01:27.380 --> 00:01:29.690 align:middle line:84% The reason for that is, to my mind, it's 00:01:29.690 --> 00:01:32.150 align:middle line:84% about how the mind makes history and memory out 00:01:32.150 --> 00:01:34.213 align:middle line:90% of the raw material. 00:01:34.213 --> 00:01:36.380 align:middle line:84% And in doing that, to make something other than what 00:01:36.380 --> 00:01:37.550 align:middle line:90% happened. 00:01:37.550 --> 00:01:40.460 align:middle line:90% After Antietam. 00:01:40.460 --> 00:01:44.510 align:middle line:84% The breeze rises loud up the crisp grass. 00:01:44.510 --> 00:01:47.090 align:middle line:84% The lame in the field scream prayers 00:01:47.090 --> 00:01:52.430 align:middle line:84% and wait for the bearers kindly and careful, arriving now. 00:01:52.430 --> 00:01:56.480 align:middle line:84% The deserters crawl in the long grass. 00:01:56.480 --> 00:01:59.000 align:middle line:84% Upstream, McClellan's pursuit hesitates. 00:01:59.000 --> 00:02:02.510 align:middle line:84% His delay, his bloodless pause, spares Hood's 00:02:02.510 --> 00:02:05.180 align:middle line:90% hard-marched bone-lean forces. 00:02:05.180 --> 00:02:11.120 align:middle line:84% And these, like rumor the ghosts of these troop off South. 00:02:11.120 --> 00:02:14.480 align:middle line:84% Rewarded with whiskey, Colonel Ferraro's thirsty 51st 00:02:14.480 --> 00:02:16.010 align:middle line:90% drink happily. 00:02:16.010 --> 00:02:18.230 align:middle line:90% Die on. 00:02:18.230 --> 00:02:21.980 align:middle line:84% By the Dunkirk church in the smoking grove with Lady Jane, 00:02:21.980 --> 00:02:25.430 align:middle line:90% the regiments' laughing stock. 00:02:25.430 --> 00:02:26.570 align:middle line:90% Autumn in the mauve wood. 00:02:26.570 --> 00:02:29.870 align:middle line:84% The farm girls will rein in and sit their mounts, silent. 00:02:29.870 --> 00:02:32.750 align:middle line:84% The ponies lap and blow at the shallow stream. 00:02:32.750 --> 00:02:35.420 align:middle line:90% Sunny hills swell. 00:02:35.420 --> 00:02:38.120 align:middle line:84% A detail slips through the ripe corn fetching out 00:02:38.120 --> 00:02:39.980 align:middle line:90% the shattered horses. 00:02:39.980 --> 00:02:43.280 align:middle line:84% In pens, the swine are full for the harvest butchering 00:02:43.280 --> 00:02:45.260 align:middle line:90% and the temperate feasts. 00:02:45.260 --> 00:02:49.040 align:middle line:90% These wait, and again, all wait. 00:02:49.040 --> 00:02:54.920 align:middle line:84% My love, lie in the day with me to the shade and power 00:02:54.920 --> 00:02:59.780 align:middle line:84% of a sane order, when flesh and flesh breed history. 00:02:59.780 --> 00:03:02.690 align:middle line:90% Word of this act. 00:03:02.690 --> 00:03:06.680 align:middle line:90% Rodman slain, his men safe, dry. 00:03:06.680 --> 00:03:08.420 align:middle line:90% Burnside baffled. 00:03:08.420 --> 00:03:11.900 align:middle line:84% Cautious McClellan wary, and loving the men walking in 00:03:11.900 --> 00:03:14.600 align:middle line:90% at dusk from the blue copse. 00:03:14.600 --> 00:03:17.840 align:middle line:84% They're dragging, piling motion, orderly clearing cornfield 00:03:17.840 --> 00:03:21.740 align:middle line:84% and hayfield of the carcasses of cavalry, wheel, and pack 00:03:21.740 --> 00:03:22.880 align:middle line:90% horses. 00:03:22.880 --> 00:03:26.750 align:middle line:84% Arranging memory on the green valley. 00:03:26.750 --> 00:03:29.210 align:middle line:84% Late September down the valley, the wind 00:03:29.210 --> 00:03:32.630 align:middle line:84% smoulders the sweet crazy smoke of the torched horses. 00:03:32.630 --> 00:03:36.830 align:middle line:84% The wind black, the gristle popping. 00:03:36.830 --> 00:03:39.620 align:middle line:90% Arm turned in arm, my love. 00:03:39.620 --> 00:03:43.400 align:middle line:84% Lie on with me as the gusty November snow 00:03:43.400 --> 00:03:47.000 align:middle line:84% settles uneasy against the scattered nettles, 00:03:47.000 --> 00:03:51.020 align:middle line:84% across the black hay, the scorched timothy. 00:03:51.020 --> 00:03:55.580 align:middle line:84% Silent as dormant limbs, as the seasons freeze terrain North 00:03:55.580 --> 00:03:58.370 align:middle line:90% to Pennsylvania's hills. 00:03:58.370 --> 00:04:01.340 align:middle line:84% At thaw, the seed distending in the soil 00:04:01.340 --> 00:04:07.190 align:middle line:84% sprouts rapid pasture, green to a weak sun. 00:04:07.190 --> 00:04:10.010 align:middle line:84% Out of May, the copper stream reels under the fume 00:04:10.010 --> 00:04:11.060 align:middle line:90% of lilac blooming. 00:04:11.060 --> 00:04:13.235 align:middle line:90% The arched stone bridge. 00:04:13.235 --> 00:04:17.750 align:middle line:84% A stand of poplar saplings rises to the oriole. 00:04:17.750 --> 00:04:22.580 align:middle line:84% Into the summer leaning warm, lie on with me, my love. 00:04:22.580 --> 00:04:24.680 align:middle line:90% Low springs the wind. 00:04:24.680 --> 00:04:27.850 align:middle line:90% Tall grow the raving grasses. 00:04:27.850 --> 00:04:29.000 align:middle line:90%