WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.290 align:middle line:90% 00:00:01.290 --> 00:00:05.340 align:middle line:84% For me, the delicious paradox is that the immeasurable 00:00:05.340 --> 00:00:10.920 align:middle line:84% takes place in measures in poetry, or in music, 00:00:10.920 --> 00:00:13.260 align:middle line:90% or is released by them. 00:00:13.260 --> 00:00:17.730 align:middle line:84% It's the paradoxical conjunction of those two 00:00:17.730 --> 00:00:19.260 align:middle line:90% that makes the delight. 00:00:19.260 --> 00:00:22.112 align:middle line:90% 00:00:22.112 --> 00:00:23.820 align:middle line:84% And of course, the challenge is every bit 00:00:23.820 --> 00:00:27.910 align:middle line:84% as exacting to translators as to other literary designers. 00:00:27.910 --> 00:00:32.430 align:middle line:84% When you consider Su Tung-p'o's suspense of swing there, 00:00:32.430 --> 00:00:34.740 align:middle line:84% why is it placed last of all in the poem? 00:00:34.740 --> 00:00:38.430 align:middle line:84% Why does something so apparently incidental 00:00:38.430 --> 00:00:42.000 align:middle line:84% take on the powers of that terminal position? 00:00:42.000 --> 00:00:44.940 align:middle line:90% Can it bear the weight? 00:00:44.940 --> 00:00:47.010 align:middle line:84% Actually the positions themselves 00:00:47.010 --> 00:00:50.310 align:middle line:84% of last words in lines, last lines in stanzas, 00:00:50.310 --> 00:00:53.580 align:middle line:84% and last stanzas in poems, that position 00:00:53.580 --> 00:00:58.140 align:middle line:84% itself confers enormous power on the word that occupies it. 00:00:58.140 --> 00:01:02.190 align:middle line:84% If the words you place in the echo chamber of white space 00:01:02.190 --> 00:01:05.970 align:middle line:84% are weak, they resonate the louder. 00:01:05.970 --> 00:01:08.790 align:middle line:84% They'll be all the more conspicuously weak. 00:01:08.790 --> 00:01:12.480 align:middle line:84% If strong or suggestive, they resonate them more powerfully. 00:01:12.480 --> 00:01:15.120 align:middle line:84% Now that swing in the Su Tung-p'o poem, 00:01:15.120 --> 00:01:19.740 align:middle line:84% the motionless in the image, in the English language is full 00:01:19.740 --> 00:01:21.030 align:middle line:90% of latent action. 00:01:21.030 --> 00:01:23.790 align:middle line:84% I felt really lucky, as a translator, that that was true. 00:01:23.790 --> 00:01:29.230 align:middle line:84% That the verb and the noun are the same word. 00:01:29.230 --> 00:01:33.870 align:middle line:84% So, in some ways, in the word is that latent motion. 00:01:33.870 --> 00:01:38.340 align:middle line:84% And the poise, the equipoise of those chords by which it hangs, 00:01:38.340 --> 00:01:44.760 align:middle line:84% is the poise of the bicameral mind from which everything 00:01:44.760 --> 00:01:48.420 align:middle line:84% hangs in the balance, or by which everything 00:01:48.420 --> 00:01:50.580 align:middle line:84% is hung in the balance, if you see 00:01:50.580 --> 00:01:52.950 align:middle line:90% the artist working that way. 00:01:52.950 --> 00:01:56.640 align:middle line:84% Equipoise is a kind of evidence of equanimity. 00:01:56.640 --> 00:02:01.050 align:middle line:84% One feels an equanimity in Su Tung-p'o that's to be 00:02:01.050 --> 00:02:02.460 align:middle line:90% cherished. 00:02:02.460 --> 00:02:04.500 align:middle line:84% And you know that equipoise comes from a word 00:02:04.500 --> 00:02:07.290 align:middle line:90% meaning weighted on two sides. 00:02:07.290 --> 00:02:11.520 align:middle line:84% So, balance is of course written into that, and weight, gravity. 00:02:11.520 --> 00:02:13.710 align:middle line:84% That swing, for me, is the incarnation 00:02:13.710 --> 00:02:15.960 align:middle line:90% of all these effects. 00:02:15.960 --> 00:02:18.180 align:middle line:84% They're ineffable, really, in a way, in the poem. 00:02:18.180 --> 00:02:20.430 align:middle line:90% But one feels their heft. 00:02:20.430 --> 00:02:25.490 align:middle line:84% One feels the shapeliness of mind. 00:02:25.490 --> 00:02:28.250 align:middle line:84% Most people separate out those two terms, 00:02:28.250 --> 00:02:32.030 align:middle line:84% think of body as shapely and mind as shapeless. 00:02:32.030 --> 00:02:35.600 align:middle line:84% For me, the whole joy of poetic engagement 00:02:35.600 --> 00:02:40.550 align:middle line:84% is the shapeliness of mind and the sensuality of thinking. 00:02:40.550 --> 00:02:46.830 align:middle line:90% 00:02:46.830 --> 00:02:49.740 align:middle line:84% The chords of that swing also are not 00:02:49.740 --> 00:02:52.860 align:middle line:84% unrelated to the chords with an age 00:02:52.860 --> 00:02:56.730 align:middle line:84% of vocal material, human vocal material, that 00:02:56.730 --> 00:02:58.470 align:middle line:90% drifts from an upstairs room. 00:02:58.470 --> 00:03:02.940 align:middle line:84% And that too bears some motion and emotion. 00:03:02.940 --> 00:03:06.330 align:middle line:84% Because it's the other place where 00:03:06.330 --> 00:03:11.400 align:middle line:84% we imagine the human being to dwell in the poem, 00:03:11.400 --> 00:03:12.360 align:middle line:90% those two places. 00:03:12.360 --> 00:03:15.330 align:middle line:84% The swing-- though there's a gardener behind the garden, 00:03:15.330 --> 00:03:17.370 align:middle line:84% it's not until the swing is placed there 00:03:17.370 --> 00:03:21.270 align:middle line:84% that the human figure is so palpably invited in. 00:03:21.270 --> 00:03:24.810 align:middle line:84% The swing is made precisely for that form. 00:03:24.810 --> 00:03:29.790 align:middle line:84% And it's in the interests of that human figure-- 00:03:29.790 --> 00:03:32.610 align:middle line:84% in the interests of its sheer joy 00:03:32.610 --> 00:03:38.640 align:middle line:84% that the swing invites engagement, motion 00:03:38.640 --> 00:03:40.650 align:middle line:90% for its own sake, by the way. 00:03:40.650 --> 00:03:42.480 align:middle line:90% What do you go to a swing for? 00:03:42.480 --> 00:03:47.130 align:middle line:84% Not out of ambition, not to get somewhere, 00:03:47.130 --> 00:03:49.980 align:middle line:90% you move to stay in place. 00:03:49.980 --> 00:03:52.980 align:middle line:90% You move to feel the forces. 00:03:52.980 --> 00:03:55.620 align:middle line:84% It's almost an intellectual pleasure. 00:03:55.620 --> 00:03:59.925 align:middle line:84% But it's written in bodily motion. 00:03:59.925 --> 00:04:02.690 align:middle line:90% 00:04:02.690 --> 00:04:04.760 align:middle line:84% It's without destination in the way 00:04:04.760 --> 00:04:08.880 align:middle line:84% that all other kinds of motions seem slave to. 00:04:08.880 --> 00:04:10.730 align:middle line:84% And there's something wonderful about that, 00:04:10.730 --> 00:04:11.930 align:middle line:90% for me, too in this poem. 00:04:11.930 --> 00:04:15.830 align:middle line:84% It tells a lot about the arts at work, 00:04:15.830 --> 00:04:19.190 align:middle line:84% of not only gardeners, and swing makers, 00:04:19.190 --> 00:04:22.400 align:middle line:84% and music makers in upstairs rooms, but poem makers. 00:04:22.400 --> 00:04:27.530 align:middle line:90% 00:04:27.530 --> 00:04:29.960 align:middle line:84% Because of all these effects, and because of the way 00:04:29.960 --> 00:04:34.460 align:middle line:84% a poem sits on the page, one senses that the bounds-- 00:04:34.460 --> 00:04:36.620 align:middle line:90% a poem binds itself. 00:04:36.620 --> 00:04:38.690 align:middle line:84% It willingly binds itself the way 00:04:38.690 --> 00:04:40.640 align:middle line:84% a swing does in order to take advantage 00:04:40.640 --> 00:04:42.410 align:middle line:90% of that feeling of escape. 00:04:42.410 --> 00:04:45.620 align:middle line:84% And you have the sense with these bounds, 00:04:45.620 --> 00:04:48.080 align:middle line:84% just visually on the page, that the bounds are 00:04:48.080 --> 00:04:49.580 align:middle line:90% on the verge of boundlessness. 00:04:49.580 --> 00:04:52.970 align:middle line:84% The ends are on the verge of endlessness. 00:04:52.970 --> 00:04:57.170 align:middle line:84% Because that space abuts and presses in around the poem. 00:04:57.170 --> 00:04:59.090 align:middle line:84% And it's no accident that it's there. 00:04:59.090 --> 00:05:04.010 align:middle line:84% And it is an advertency, not an inadvertency, as in prose, 00:05:04.010 --> 00:05:08.270 align:middle line:84% where the right margin is determined by the printer, 00:05:08.270 --> 00:05:10.880 align:middle line:90% or by accident. 00:05:10.880 --> 00:05:14.480 align:middle line:84% The breakings off of language are the loudest thing 00:05:14.480 --> 00:05:16.130 align:middle line:90% a lineated poem has to say. 00:05:16.130 --> 00:05:19.580 align:middle line:90% 00:05:19.580 --> 00:05:24.380 align:middle line:84% So to illustrate a little the forces of a poem's breaks 00:05:24.380 --> 00:05:26.420 align:middle line:84% and ends, and the careful withholding 00:05:26.420 --> 00:05:30.020 align:middle line:84% of certain revelations for those positions, 00:05:30.020 --> 00:05:32.360 align:middle line:84% they're withheld in order to be revealed. 00:05:32.360 --> 00:05:36.710 align:middle line:84% Then, I thought it would be fun to look at a few pieces that 00:05:36.710 --> 00:05:42.500 align:middle line:84% conspicuously deploy these powers and potentialities. 00:05:42.500 --> 00:05:44.990 align:middle line:84% I'm going to look at the Anthony Hecht poem, "Birdwatchers 00:05:44.990 --> 00:05:46.070 align:middle line:90% of America" first. 00:05:46.070 --> 00:05:48.300 align:middle line:84% Keep in mind while I'm reading this one, 00:05:48.300 --> 00:05:50.630 align:middle line:84% and while you're reading it, of course 00:05:50.630 --> 00:05:52.640 align:middle line:84% that the art of composition requires 00:05:52.640 --> 00:05:54.680 align:middle line:90% some psychological savvy. 00:05:54.680 --> 00:05:57.200 align:middle line:90% 00:05:57.200 --> 00:06:02.270 align:middle line:84% One is administering one's words not just on a blank slate, 00:06:02.270 --> 00:06:04.520 align:middle line:84% despite all I've said about this space 00:06:04.520 --> 00:06:06.950 align:middle line:90% that presses in, it does indeed. 00:06:06.950 --> 00:06:10.250 align:middle line:84% But one walks into a poem, one comes into a poem, 00:06:10.250 --> 00:06:16.970 align:middle line:84% into the world of a poem, not with an empty head, 00:06:16.970 --> 00:06:18.740 align:middle line:90% an empty sense of language. 00:06:18.740 --> 00:06:21.140 align:middle line:84% Actually, the poem is inscribed against 00:06:21.140 --> 00:06:27.020 align:middle line:84% the noisy, hackneyed field of every reader's habits of mind, 00:06:27.020 --> 00:06:31.460 align:middle line:84% presumptions, expectations, standard patterns of thought 00:06:31.460 --> 00:06:34.125 align:middle line:84% or phrasing that crop up in your mind sometimes 00:06:34.125 --> 00:06:35.000 align:middle line:90% when you read a poem. 00:06:35.000 --> 00:06:39.050 align:middle line:84% And then it has to dissuade you of that notion, 00:06:39.050 --> 00:06:42.050 align:middle line:90% or a good poem will. 00:06:42.050 --> 00:06:48.200 align:middle line:84% Against this field of conceptual and neural knee jerks, 00:06:48.200 --> 00:06:50.990 align:middle line:84% of cliches and common places that we-- even 00:06:50.990 --> 00:06:55.230 align:middle line:84% the most sophisticated reader brings to a poem. 00:06:55.230 --> 00:06:57.440 align:middle line:84% It's a kind of baggage every reader 00:06:57.440 --> 00:06:58.760 align:middle line:90% brings to the poem's journey. 00:06:58.760 --> 00:07:00.710 align:middle line:84% Even the writer brings it to the poem, 00:07:00.710 --> 00:07:05.300 align:middle line:84% and has to chasten himself in the act of writing. 00:07:05.300 --> 00:07:10.280 align:middle line:84% Because language lays itself down ordinarily. 00:07:10.280 --> 00:07:13.820 align:middle line:84% In general, language lays itself down in common places. 00:07:13.820 --> 00:07:15.440 align:middle line:90% It's looking for common places. 00:07:15.440 --> 00:07:18.260 align:middle line:84% It wants to communicate with others 00:07:18.260 --> 00:07:23.240 align:middle line:84% in ways that are flexible enough that narrow down 00:07:23.240 --> 00:07:27.350 align:middle line:84% so neither participant in the conversation 00:07:27.350 --> 00:07:31.790 align:middle line:84% will mistake what the other wanted to get or do. 00:07:31.790 --> 00:07:34.220 align:middle line:84% But a poem isn't destination-oriented 00:07:34.220 --> 00:07:35.450 align:middle line:90% that same way. 00:07:35.450 --> 00:07:38.240 align:middle line:84% It's not the stick the monkey uses to get the banana. 00:07:38.240 --> 00:07:43.130 align:middle line:90% 00:07:43.130 --> 00:07:46.610 align:middle line:84% I so much want to add another step to this figure, 00:07:46.610 --> 00:07:51.350 align:middle line:84% but I better not because it'll narrow it. 00:07:51.350 --> 00:07:54.470 align:middle line:84% One isn't sure whether it's the banana, the monkey, the eating, 00:07:54.470 --> 00:07:58.670 align:middle line:90% the taking off of the skin. 00:07:58.670 --> 00:08:01.580 align:middle line:84% It's none of those, or the digestion, who knows. 00:08:01.580 --> 00:08:03.380 align:middle line:84% But there is something in the eating that 00:08:03.380 --> 00:08:06.590 align:middle line:84% has to do with it, for sure, and the discoveries you make 00:08:06.590 --> 00:08:08.990 align:middle line:90% say, of flavor, while eating. 00:08:08.990 --> 00:08:13.700 align:middle line:84% The figure lends itself a little to culinary, or at least 00:08:13.700 --> 00:08:17.240 align:middle line:90% gustatory, delights. 00:08:17.240 --> 00:08:20.330 align:middle line:84% Poetry has to labor to resist, or revise, 00:08:20.330 --> 00:08:22.760 align:middle line:84% all those common places that language itself 00:08:22.760 --> 00:08:27.090 align:middle line:84% brings in your mind to the occasions of language. 00:08:27.090 --> 00:08:33.090 align:middle line:84% So it's a self-resisting activity in many ways. 00:08:33.090 --> 00:08:37.140 align:middle line:84% A canny poet will even prompt some misprisions 00:08:37.140 --> 00:08:41.850 align:middle line:84% and waylayings, will actually cause 00:08:41.850 --> 00:08:43.980 align:middle line:84% you to think a certain thing at the end of the line 00:08:43.980 --> 00:08:46.440 align:middle line:84% in order to revise your thinking at the beginning 00:08:46.440 --> 00:08:49.230 align:middle line:90% of the next line. 00:08:49.230 --> 00:08:53.190 align:middle line:84% In order to exercise the power of the verse, which 00:08:53.190 --> 00:08:57.590 align:middle line:84% its name comes from turns, the turning, 00:08:57.590 --> 00:08:59.820 align:middle line:90% it will change your mind. 00:08:59.820 --> 00:09:04.000 align:middle line:90% It's out to change your mind. 00:09:04.000 --> 00:09:07.470 align:middle line:84% So let me read "Birdwatchers of America" for sheer pleasure 00:09:07.470 --> 00:09:09.420 align:middle line:90% with you. 00:09:09.420 --> 00:09:15.030 align:middle line:84% This one presents itself as an argument. 00:09:15.030 --> 00:09:17.400 align:middle line:84% And it has the earmarks of an argument. 00:09:17.400 --> 00:09:20.850 align:middle line:84% Each stanza, there's a little jockeying 00:09:20.850 --> 00:09:22.320 align:middle line:84% to do between the second and third, 00:09:22.320 --> 00:09:24.780 align:middle line:84% but each stanza presents a different portion 00:09:24.780 --> 00:09:25.570 align:middle line:90% of the argument. 00:09:25.570 --> 00:09:29.970 align:middle line:84% So you'll see the sort of earmark words of argumentation. 00:09:29.970 --> 00:09:32.100 align:middle line:84% "It's all very well to dream--" let me 00:09:32.100 --> 00:09:34.110 align:middle line:90% start where I should start. 00:09:34.110 --> 00:09:36.900 align:middle line:84% "Birdwatchers of America" and there is an epigraph. 00:09:36.900 --> 00:09:40.050 align:middle line:84% So the very first turn-- surprise turn, 00:09:40.050 --> 00:09:43.800 align:middle line:84% and surprise that's built in, to continue what I was referring 00:09:43.800 --> 00:09:46.470 align:middle line:84% to before, is that "Birdwatchers of America", 00:09:46.470 --> 00:09:50.790 align:middle line:84% as a title for a poem, smacks of comedy. 00:09:50.790 --> 00:09:53.220 align:middle line:84% You expect a fairly lightweight poem. 00:09:53.220 --> 00:09:56.220 align:middle line:84% You don't expect a philosophical treatise. 00:09:56.220 --> 00:10:00.420 align:middle line:84% But you immediately-- the epigraph revises that notion. 00:10:00.420 --> 00:10:03.700 align:middle line:84% It darkens the field considerably. 00:10:03.700 --> 00:10:07.470 align:middle line:84% And then there's yet another turn in the course of the poem 00:10:07.470 --> 00:10:09.240 align:middle line:84% by which you are gradually relieved 00:10:09.240 --> 00:10:11.550 align:middle line:84% of that sense of darkness, in order that something 00:10:11.550 --> 00:10:12.900 align:middle line:90% can be sprung on you. 00:10:12.900 --> 00:10:15.300 align:middle line:84% "Birdwatchers of America", and then there's 00:10:15.300 --> 00:10:16.980 align:middle line:90% this epigraph from Baudelaire. 00:10:16.980 --> 00:10:20.010 align:middle line:84% "I suffer now continually from vertigo. 00:10:20.010 --> 00:10:26.880 align:middle line:84% And today, 23rd of January 1862, I received a singular warning. 00:10:26.880 --> 00:10:31.930 align:middle line:84% I felt the wind of the wing of madness pass over me." 00:10:31.930 --> 00:10:33.420 align:middle line:84% This is in the middle of a journal 00:10:33.420 --> 00:10:35.730 align:middle line:84% where he's talking about not having enough money, 00:10:35.730 --> 00:10:39.630 align:middle line:84% going to get groceries, trouble with his mother, and then, pow. 00:10:39.630 --> 00:10:45.690 align:middle line:84% You get this little notation on January 23rd. 00:10:45.690 --> 00:10:48.720 align:middle line:84% It's pretty amazing in itself, as a turn within the medium 00:10:48.720 --> 00:10:52.470 align:middle line:90% of the journal named for days. 00:10:52.470 --> 00:10:55.230 align:middle line:84% And here, quite odd to have it come after "Birdwatchers 00:10:55.230 --> 00:10:56.970 align:middle line:90% of America." 00:10:56.970 --> 00:11:00.780 align:middle line:84% How are we to weigh these two emphases, the light 00:11:00.780 --> 00:11:01.500 align:middle line:90% and the dark? 00:11:01.500 --> 00:11:03.600 align:middle line:84% And then we go on into this argumentation 00:11:03.600 --> 00:11:06.870 align:middle line:84% that we think relieves us of having 00:11:06.870 --> 00:11:08.910 align:middle line:84% to decide about the darkness and lightness. 00:11:08.910 --> 00:11:12.490 align:middle line:84% The argumentation is going to make the point case for us. 00:11:12.490 --> 00:11:17.460 align:middle line:84% So we enter into the poem to be convinced by argumentation. 00:11:17.460 --> 00:11:20.370 align:middle line:84% "It's all very well to dream of a dove that saves." 00:11:20.370 --> 00:11:23.130 align:middle line:84% Notice I'll just want to read the structure-- 00:11:23.130 --> 00:11:25.110 align:middle line:84% the three-part, tripartite structure, 00:11:25.110 --> 00:11:27.450 align:middle line:84% quickly so that it helps organize your reading since you 00:11:27.450 --> 00:11:29.190 align:middle line:84% haven't had time to look it over. 00:11:29.190 --> 00:11:31.470 align:middle line:84% "It's all very well to dream of a dove that saves. 00:11:31.470 --> 00:11:36.250 align:middle line:84% But in our part of the country, a false dusk lingers for hours. 00:11:36.250 --> 00:11:40.680 align:middle line:84% There are some things of which we seldom talk, for instance." 00:11:40.680 --> 00:11:45.150 align:middle line:84% Now, all of that is hung off of, is dependent from, 00:11:45.150 --> 00:11:49.178 align:middle line:84% "it's all very well to dream of a dove that saves." 00:11:49.178 --> 00:11:50.970 align:middle line:84% "It's all very well to dream of a dove that 00:11:50.970 --> 00:11:53.950 align:middle line:90% saves Picassos or the popes." 00:11:53.950 --> 00:11:54.450 align:middle line:90% Right? 00:11:54.450 --> 00:11:57.930 align:middle line:84% Arts or religions, keep in mind, these 00:11:57.930 --> 00:12:01.988 align:middle line:84% are sort of stand-ins for the larger thinking here. 00:12:01.988 --> 00:12:03.780 align:middle line:84% "It's all very well to dream of a dove that 00:12:03.780 --> 00:12:07.260 align:middle line:84% saves Picassos or the popes, the one that 00:12:07.260 --> 00:12:11.280 align:middle line:84% annually coos in our lady's ear half the world's hopes. 00:12:11.280 --> 00:12:13.110 align:middle line:84% And the other one that shall cunningly 00:12:13.110 --> 00:12:16.680 align:middle line:84% engineer the retirement of all business men to their graves, 00:12:16.680 --> 00:12:20.160 align:middle line:84% and when this is brought about, make us the loving brothers 00:12:20.160 --> 00:12:22.590 align:middle line:90% of every lout. 00:12:22.590 --> 00:12:27.720 align:middle line:84% But in our part of the country, a false dusk lingers for hours. 00:12:27.720 --> 00:12:32.670 align:middle line:84% It steams from the soaked hay, wades in the cloudy woods 00:12:32.670 --> 00:12:36.560 align:middle line:90% engendering other dreams. 00:12:36.560 --> 00:12:39.020 align:middle line:84% Formless and soft beyond the fence 00:12:39.020 --> 00:12:43.580 align:middle line:84% it broods, or rises as a faint and rotten musk 00:12:43.580 --> 00:12:45.860 align:middle line:90% out of a broken stalk. 00:12:45.860 --> 00:12:49.820 align:middle line:84% There are some things of which we seldom talk. 00:12:49.820 --> 00:12:55.640 align:middle line:84% For instance, the woman next door, whom we hear at night, 00:12:55.640 --> 00:12:58.790 align:middle line:84% claims that when she was small she 00:12:58.790 --> 00:13:01.490 align:middle line:84% found a man stone dead near the cedar trees 00:13:01.490 --> 00:13:03.050 align:middle line:90% after the first snowfall. 00:13:03.050 --> 00:13:04.340 align:middle line:90% The air was clear. 00:13:04.340 --> 00:13:06.590 align:middle line:84% He seemed in ultimate peace, except he 00:13:06.590 --> 00:13:10.580 align:middle line:84% had no eyes, rigid and bright upon the forehead, 00:13:10.580 --> 00:13:16.100 align:middle line:84% furred with a light frost, crouched an outrageous bird." 00:13:16.100 --> 00:13:21.450 align:middle line:90% 00:13:21.450 --> 00:13:27.330 align:middle line:84% Now you see how judiciously, one might even say maliciously, 00:13:27.330 --> 00:13:29.610 align:middle line:90% he withholds that last word. 00:13:29.610 --> 00:13:34.890 align:middle line:84% And there were indications that things might go dark. 00:13:34.890 --> 00:13:37.230 align:middle line:90% But we had left them behind. 00:13:37.230 --> 00:13:40.890 align:middle line:84% And immediately before this darkest last moment 00:13:40.890 --> 00:13:44.790 align:middle line:84% in the poem, "the air is clear, he seems in ultimate peace", 00:13:44.790 --> 00:13:48.150 align:middle line:84% this is the language of the first stanza, the idealist's 00:13:48.150 --> 00:13:49.320 align:middle line:90% stanza, right? 00:13:49.320 --> 00:13:52.920 align:middle line:84% Dreaming of the dove that saves, it's 00:13:52.920 --> 00:13:56.740 align:middle line:84% the world where things turn out all right. 00:13:56.740 --> 00:14:01.860 align:middle line:84% Nature is a nice walk at the butterfly garden, 00:14:01.860 --> 00:14:06.030 align:middle line:90% that world of protected-- 00:14:06.030 --> 00:14:09.870 align:middle line:84% it's the world of optimists, the world of high spirits, 00:14:09.870 --> 00:14:13.710 align:middle line:90% and brighter readings of lives. 00:14:13.710 --> 00:14:17.670 align:middle line:84% But this poem is humming back to the other bird. 00:14:17.670 --> 00:14:19.860 align:middle line:84% And it was doing that from that first line, 00:14:19.860 --> 00:14:24.270 align:middle line:84% "it's all very well to dream of the dove that saves." 00:14:24.270 --> 00:14:28.080 align:middle line:84% But there is this outrageous bird that crouches, 00:14:28.080 --> 00:14:34.035 align:middle line:84% which is necessarily some raven like thing, in all that 00:14:34.035 --> 00:14:36.270 align:middle line:90% that suggests. 00:14:36.270 --> 00:14:38.340 align:middle line:90% And makes the eyes very literal. 00:14:38.340 --> 00:14:43.530 align:middle line:84% Before we had even neglected to truly take to heart that he 00:14:43.530 --> 00:14:46.560 align:middle line:84% had no eyes, because he's lying in a snowscape, 00:14:46.560 --> 00:14:48.810 align:middle line:84% you tell yourself all kinds of things. 00:14:48.810 --> 00:14:49.920 align:middle line:90% His eyes are closed. 00:14:49.920 --> 00:14:51.210 align:middle line:90% There's snow. 00:14:51.210 --> 00:14:53.190 align:middle line:90% He's dead, but he's peaceful. 00:14:53.190 --> 00:14:54.810 align:middle line:90% He's in peace. 00:14:54.810 --> 00:14:56.910 align:middle line:90% Rest in peace. 00:14:56.910 --> 00:14:59.070 align:middle line:84% And it's true that the bird isn't pecking out 00:14:59.070 --> 00:15:00.300 align:middle line:90% a live man's eyes. 00:15:00.300 --> 00:15:05.760 align:middle line:84% So you may still console yourself if you wish. 00:15:05.760 --> 00:15:10.260 align:middle line:84% But few readers fail to find this horrifying. 00:15:10.260 --> 00:15:12.480 align:middle line:84% He's designed it that way to remind you 00:15:12.480 --> 00:15:16.470 align:middle line:84% of the other half of the reading, the dark face 00:15:16.470 --> 00:15:18.450 align:middle line:90% of the moon. 00:15:18.450 --> 00:15:21.540 align:middle line:90% And again it's equipoise, right? 00:15:21.540 --> 00:15:26.310 align:middle line:84% There is that in us, there is that wish in us, especially 00:15:26.310 --> 00:15:31.890 align:middle line:84% in Americans, in Disney Worldiana, that wishes only 00:15:31.890 --> 00:15:35.190 align:middle line:84% to have the light story, that tells itself-- 00:15:35.190 --> 00:15:38.400 align:middle line:84% that makes of every story, religious stories, every kind 00:15:38.400 --> 00:15:41.100 align:middle line:90% of story, a happy ending story. 00:15:41.100 --> 00:15:47.451 align:middle line:84% This is the response of the realist, too, 00:15:47.451 --> 00:15:50.940 align:middle line:84% while being an exquisite describer of nature, 00:15:50.940 --> 00:15:53.370 align:middle line:84% appreciator of nature, in the old sense of 00:15:53.370 --> 00:15:57.845 align:middle line:84% appreciate that you actually figure out its values. 00:15:57.845 --> 00:15:59.220 align:middle line:84% Look at that middle stanza, where 00:15:59.220 --> 00:16:04.110 align:middle line:84% all the lyricism of the poem is is in the half lights section. 00:16:04.110 --> 00:16:09.300 align:middle line:84% You notice how exquisite he is at feeling his way around dusk, 00:16:09.300 --> 00:16:13.620 align:middle line:84% false dusk, lingering, not arriving or departing, 00:16:13.620 --> 00:16:17.310 align:middle line:84% steaming from soaked hay, wading in cloudy woods, 00:16:17.310 --> 00:16:20.310 align:middle line:84% engendering other dreams than the dream of the dove 00:16:20.310 --> 00:16:20.910 align:middle line:90% that saves. 00:16:20.910 --> 00:16:23.220 align:middle line:84% He doesn't repeat it so you can pass right over it. 00:16:23.220 --> 00:16:27.750 align:middle line:84% But he's giving you all the markers of the destiny, 00:16:27.750 --> 00:16:29.940 align:middle line:90% of the illustration. 00:16:29.940 --> 00:16:34.530 align:middle line:90% But we don't want to hear it. 00:16:34.530 --> 00:16:36.180 align:middle line:90% One tends to glide over it. 00:16:36.180 --> 00:16:39.150 align:middle line:84% And besides, a story is being told. 00:16:39.150 --> 00:16:42.210 align:middle line:84% And not only that, one's always taken by the hand 00:16:42.210 --> 00:16:42.900 align:middle line:90% through a story. 00:16:42.900 --> 00:16:44.820 align:middle line:84% One doesn't have to do too much thinking. 00:16:44.820 --> 00:16:45.930 align:middle line:90% One will be led. 00:16:45.930 --> 00:16:48.930 align:middle line:84% And not only that, here there's a story within a story. 00:16:48.930 --> 00:16:52.050 align:middle line:84% There's this woman who suddenly-- he moves to-- 00:16:52.050 --> 00:16:53.760 align:middle line:84% there's, as I say, this gorgeous writing, 00:16:53.760 --> 00:16:56.370 align:middle line:84% "formless and soft beyond the fence it broods." 00:16:56.370 --> 00:16:59.190 align:middle line:84% He reminds you of the bird, right, 00:16:59.190 --> 00:17:03.270 align:middle line:84% by using a word like brood, which works two ways. 00:17:03.270 --> 00:17:06.510 align:middle line:84% Or "rises as a faint and rotten musk out of a broken stalk." 00:17:06.510 --> 00:17:08.420 align:middle line:84% And then, here's the next turn in the poem. 00:17:08.420 --> 00:17:11.700 align:middle line:84% "There are some things of which we seldom talk." 00:17:11.700 --> 00:17:14.430 align:middle line:84% And then, what I find a quite hilarious line, 00:17:14.430 --> 00:17:21.180 align:middle line:84% "for instance, the woman next door whom we hear at night", 00:17:21.180 --> 00:17:23.790 align:middle line:90% comma. 00:17:23.790 --> 00:17:26.868 align:middle line:84% It's amazing how in English, that tells us volumes. 00:17:26.868 --> 00:17:28.410 align:middle line:84% He doesn't have to go on and explain, 00:17:28.410 --> 00:17:30.090 align:middle line:90% we already know she's nuts. 00:17:30.090 --> 00:17:32.910 align:middle line:84% And there the wind of the wing of madness 00:17:32.910 --> 00:17:35.550 align:middle line:84% comes back, but just as a whiff, just 00:17:35.550 --> 00:17:39.120 align:middle line:84% as "a musk out of a broken stock." 00:17:39.120 --> 00:17:41.790 align:middle line:84% Just a whiff of it comes back, because we 00:17:41.790 --> 00:17:44.325 align:middle line:84% know that locution in English, in American English. 00:17:44.325 --> 00:17:47.070 align:middle line:90% 00:17:47.070 --> 00:17:48.570 align:middle line:90% I don't know quite how it is. 00:17:48.570 --> 00:17:50.820 align:middle line:84% But when you read "whom we hear at night", 00:17:50.820 --> 00:17:55.440 align:middle line:84% we know there's a nutcase reading subtext there, 00:17:55.440 --> 00:17:56.790 align:middle line:90% to a certain extent. 00:17:56.790 --> 00:17:58.650 align:middle line:84% I don't want to weigh too heavily on this. 00:17:58.650 --> 00:18:03.120 align:middle line:84% But it's also funny because "we seldom talk-- 00:18:03.120 --> 00:18:04.680 align:middle line:90% things of which we seldom talk. 00:18:04.680 --> 00:18:06.240 align:middle line:84% For instance, the woman next door 00:18:06.240 --> 00:18:09.120 align:middle line:84% whom we hear at night", and clearly she's 00:18:09.120 --> 00:18:13.380 align:middle line:90% talking alone over there. 00:18:13.380 --> 00:18:14.170 align:middle line:90% "Claims." 00:18:14.170 --> 00:18:16.110 align:middle line:90% And then she tells a story. 00:18:16.110 --> 00:18:17.910 align:middle line:90% We turn that line break. 00:18:17.910 --> 00:18:20.130 align:middle line:84% And all of our presumptions about her talking alone 00:18:20.130 --> 00:18:24.280 align:middle line:84% over there turn, and she's kind of a neighbor telling a story. 00:18:24.280 --> 00:18:27.550 align:middle line:84% And now we go into the little story she tells. 00:18:27.550 --> 00:18:29.950 align:middle line:84% "Claims that when she was small, she found", 00:18:29.950 --> 00:18:31.450 align:middle line:90% and we go into that story. 00:18:31.450 --> 00:18:35.050 align:middle line:84% And we're not-- you definitely don't think about last things 00:18:35.050 --> 00:18:35.680 align:middle line:90% at that moment. 00:18:35.680 --> 00:18:37.810 align:middle line:84% Because she's small, because she's telling a story, 00:18:37.810 --> 00:18:39.070 align:middle line:90% it's a story within a story. 00:18:39.070 --> 00:18:40.660 align:middle line:90% We feel very insulated. 00:18:40.660 --> 00:18:44.720 align:middle line:84% Stories are the way we insulate ourselves a lot of the time. 00:18:44.720 --> 00:18:47.350 align:middle line:84% And that's the difference between escapist stories 00:18:47.350 --> 00:18:47.920 align:middle line:90% and art. 00:18:47.920 --> 00:18:50.470 align:middle line:90% 00:18:50.470 --> 00:18:55.840 align:middle line:84% You can't insulate yourself from great art, or in great art. 00:18:55.840 --> 00:19:02.740 align:middle line:84% It's not about a forgetfulness, except to the extent 00:19:02.740 --> 00:19:05.350 align:middle line:90% that your own will can sink you. 00:19:05.350 --> 00:19:08.860 align:middle line:84% In a way, this one negotiates a forgetfulness. 00:19:08.860 --> 00:19:11.680 align:middle line:84% And so she was small, she found a man stone 00:19:11.680 --> 00:19:13.090 align:middle line:90% dead, but very matter of fact. 00:19:13.090 --> 00:19:16.270 align:middle line:84% And there's cedar trees, and a snowfall, and the air is clear, 00:19:16.270 --> 00:19:17.630 align:middle line:90% and he's in ultimate peace. 00:19:17.630 --> 00:19:21.370 align:middle line:90% We're totally sedated by then. 00:19:21.370 --> 00:19:24.310 align:middle line:84% And even though he had no eyes, we explain it away. 00:19:24.310 --> 00:19:25.810 align:middle line:90% And "rigid and bright" sounds-- 00:19:25.810 --> 00:19:29.110 align:middle line:84% rigid's a little uneasy, makes you a little uneasy, 00:19:29.110 --> 00:19:32.320 align:middle line:84% but you're not quite thinking rigor mortis because bright 00:19:32.320 --> 00:19:34.450 align:middle line:90% comes immediately. 00:19:34.450 --> 00:19:37.900 align:middle line:84% "Upon the forehead furred", fur is good, right? 00:19:37.900 --> 00:19:39.590 align:middle line:90% A light for us. 00:19:39.590 --> 00:19:41.710 align:middle line:90% And then he hits you. 00:19:41.710 --> 00:19:45.910 align:middle line:84% I just love that the malicious judiciousness of it. 00:19:45.910 --> 00:19:49.060 align:middle line:84% There's something so designing and so walloping 00:19:49.060 --> 00:19:52.360 align:middle line:84% about that kind of design and withholding. 00:19:52.360 --> 00:19:54.940 align:middle line:84% It's instructive to me, who am a gusher 00:19:54.940 --> 00:20:00.280 align:middle line:84% by nature, which is why I write poems to chase in my worst 00:20:00.280 --> 00:20:05.920 align:middle line:84% nature, to be the better soul, or at least to make 00:20:05.920 --> 00:20:09.370 align:middle line:84% some kind of counterweight to my disposition 00:20:09.370 --> 00:20:12.500 align:middle line:90% to go gushing around the world. 00:20:12.500 --> 00:20:13.000 align:middle line:90%