WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.790 align:middle line:90%


00:00:01.790 --> 00:00:04.933 align:middle line:84%
This next poem is about a
carnivorous plant called

00:00:04.933 --> 00:00:05.975 align:middle line:90%
the yellow pitcher plant.

00:00:05.975 --> 00:00:10.300 align:middle line:90%


00:00:10.300 --> 00:00:14.212 align:middle line:90%
Well, this is a--

00:00:14.212 --> 00:00:16.420 align:middle line:84%
for somebody who doesn't
know that much about botany,

00:00:16.420 --> 00:00:18.970 align:middle line:84%
I guess, a carnivorous
plant is an invitation

00:00:18.970 --> 00:00:19.720 align:middle line:90%
to mixed metaphor.

00:00:19.720 --> 00:00:23.500 align:middle line:90%


00:00:23.500 --> 00:00:28.010 align:middle line:84%
I use two words maybe that
I should explain here.

00:00:28.010 --> 00:00:29.920 align:middle line:90%
One of them is oubliette.

00:00:29.920 --> 00:00:32.049 align:middle line:84%
Oubliette was a
particularly nasty kind

00:00:32.049 --> 00:00:34.180 align:middle line:90%
of dungeon in the Middle Ages.

00:00:34.180 --> 00:00:35.510 align:middle line:90%
It means a forgetory.

00:00:35.510 --> 00:00:37.300 align:middle line:84%
And it was apparently
bottle-shaped.

00:00:37.300 --> 00:00:39.220 align:middle line:84%
And you dropped the
prisoner in the top,

00:00:39.220 --> 00:00:41.470 align:middle line:90%
and then forgot him or her.

00:00:41.470 --> 00:00:44.770 align:middle line:84%
And it didn't matter after a
while whether it's him or her,

00:00:44.770 --> 00:00:45.460 align:middle line:90%
I guess.

00:00:45.460 --> 00:00:50.020 align:middle line:84%
And the person just starved
to death in this dungeon

00:00:50.020 --> 00:00:51.550 align:middle line:90%
without an exit.

00:00:51.550 --> 00:00:54.610 align:middle line:84%
The other word is seely, which
is an old word from which we

00:00:54.610 --> 00:00:59.650 align:middle line:84%
get the words silly, which means
innocent, helpless, simple,

00:00:59.650 --> 00:01:01.620 align:middle line:90%
deserving of pity.

00:01:01.620 --> 00:01:07.930 align:middle line:84%
I describe the fly, the victim
in this poem, as being seely.

00:01:07.930 --> 00:01:10.600 align:middle line:84%
The yellow pitcher
plant is pitcher-shaped.

00:01:10.600 --> 00:01:14.040 align:middle line:90%
It's trumpet-shaped.

00:01:14.040 --> 00:01:18.620 align:middle line:84%
Into the top of the trumpet,
it invites its victims.

00:01:18.620 --> 00:01:21.720 align:middle line:90%
Yellow Pitcher Plant.

00:01:21.720 --> 00:01:28.190 align:middle line:84%
Flowering stomach,
scroll of leaf,

00:01:28.190 --> 00:01:31.310 align:middle line:84%
covered with small,
honeyed words

00:01:31.310 --> 00:01:35.120 align:middle line:84%
by which the seely fly
is lured to sloping

00:01:35.120 --> 00:01:37.640 align:middle line:90%
pastures at the trumpet's lip.

00:01:37.640 --> 00:01:42.110 align:middle line:84%
Until, grazing
downhill, the fly finds

00:01:42.110 --> 00:01:45.980 align:middle line:84%
the underbrush of hairs
casually pushed through

00:01:45.980 --> 00:01:48.440 align:middle line:90%
has closed behind.

00:01:48.440 --> 00:01:54.430 align:middle line:84%
A thicket of lances,
shark teeth, trap.

00:01:54.430 --> 00:01:58.980 align:middle line:84%
Oh, alas, it stumbles on,
falling from chamber to chamber

00:01:58.980 --> 00:02:02.220 align:middle line:84%
within the green
turret, making each loud

00:02:02.220 --> 00:02:04.170 align:middle line:90%
with the buzz of its grief.

00:02:04.170 --> 00:02:08.889 align:middle line:84%
And finally slipping into
the oubliette itself,

00:02:08.889 --> 00:02:12.870 align:middle line:90%
pool that digests protein.

00:02:12.870 --> 00:02:20.990 align:middle line:84%
To become mere chitinous
exoskeleton, leftovers,

00:02:20.990 --> 00:02:24.990 align:middle line:84%
a sated petal, an
enzyme's cruelty.

00:02:24.990 --> 00:02:30.990 align:middle line:90%


00:02:30.990 --> 00:02:33.740 align:middle line:90%
[APPLAUSE]

00:02:33.740 --> 00:02:37.000 align:middle line:90%