WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.832 align:middle line:84% I want to begin by reading a sestina. 00:00:02.832 --> 00:00:04.290 align:middle line:84% And as many of you, I'm sure, know, 00:00:04.290 --> 00:00:08.940 align:middle line:84% a sestina is composed of six six-line stanzas, 00:00:08.940 --> 00:00:11.520 align:middle line:84% then with a three line coda or envoi. 00:00:11.520 --> 00:00:13.470 align:middle line:84% And the same end words are repeated 00:00:13.470 --> 00:00:15.555 align:middle line:84% at the end of each stanza, but they're 00:00:15.555 --> 00:00:17.850 align:middle line:84% permuted according to a particular pattern. 00:00:17.850 --> 00:00:20.100 align:middle line:84% And what's nice about that is that they end up finally 00:00:20.100 --> 00:00:22.170 align:middle line:84% back in the order that they started out in. 00:00:22.170 --> 00:00:24.480 align:middle line:84% I got a letter from a friend a few years ago 00:00:24.480 --> 00:00:26.460 align:middle line:84% about another poem that I had mailed to him. 00:00:26.460 --> 00:00:27.690 align:middle line:84% He said, "Oh, yes, I like this poem. 00:00:27.690 --> 00:00:29.970 align:middle line:84% It's kind of nice because it gives me the sense about poetry 00:00:29.970 --> 00:00:31.560 align:middle line:84% that you can say anything you want 00:00:31.560 --> 00:00:34.230 align:middle line:84% to so long as when you're all done you put the words back 00:00:34.230 --> 00:00:35.220 align:middle line:90% where you got them." 00:00:35.220 --> 00:00:38.040 align:middle line:84% And I think that's my sense of what I like about sestinas, 00:00:38.040 --> 00:00:39.210 align:middle line:90% or how they work. 00:00:39.210 --> 00:00:42.060 align:middle line:90% So "Sestina." 00:00:42.060 --> 00:00:45.630 align:middle line:84% Then everything was said and done, yet he remained. 00:00:45.630 --> 00:00:48.690 align:middle line:84% He continued to remember her final words. 00:00:48.690 --> 00:00:51.090 align:middle line:84% You can keep your fucking necklace. 00:00:51.090 --> 00:00:53.520 align:middle line:84% Sit here and listen to the ticking of the clock, 00:00:53.520 --> 00:00:56.305 align:middle line:84% or try to drown your misery in a book. 00:00:56.305 --> 00:00:57.930 align:middle line:84% You'll remember every single thing I've 00:00:57.930 --> 00:01:00.360 align:middle line:90% said when I've disappeared. 00:01:00.360 --> 00:01:03.490 align:middle line:84% Then she had closed the door and disappeared. 00:01:03.490 --> 00:01:05.640 align:middle line:84% He counted the things that remained. 00:01:05.640 --> 00:01:07.290 align:middle line:84% Here and there about the apartment 00:01:07.290 --> 00:01:09.690 align:middle line:84% lay a book, each filled with thousands 00:01:09.690 --> 00:01:11.790 align:middle line:90% of somebody else's words. 00:01:11.790 --> 00:01:15.810 align:middle line:84% On the mantel tick the large insistent clock, beside it 00:01:15.810 --> 00:01:17.880 align:middle line:90% she had dropped the necklace. 00:01:17.880 --> 00:01:20.670 align:middle line:84% He winced as his glance fell on the necklace. 00:01:20.670 --> 00:01:24.570 align:middle line:84% It was the last thing she touched before she disappeared. 00:01:24.570 --> 00:01:26.310 align:middle line:84% Better to close his eyes and listen 00:01:26.310 --> 00:01:30.060 align:middle line:84% to the clock, which told very clearly the long humdrum 00:01:30.060 --> 00:01:32.640 align:middle line:84% portion of the narrative that remained, 00:01:32.640 --> 00:01:36.180 align:middle line:84% like a story concocted of entirely predictable words 00:01:36.180 --> 00:01:40.770 align:middle line:84% so that the reader would soon grow tired and close the book. 00:01:40.770 --> 00:01:43.770 align:middle line:84% Sleeping, the reader would dream the unread contents 00:01:43.770 --> 00:01:45.120 align:middle line:90% of the book. 00:01:45.120 --> 00:01:46.660 align:middle line:84% Through its pages there flickered 00:01:46.660 --> 00:01:49.200 align:middle line:84% a necklace of small, bright pearls 00:01:49.200 --> 00:01:51.870 align:middle line:90% like single syllable words. 00:01:51.870 --> 00:01:54.600 align:middle line:84% As the story continued, the drama disappeared, 00:01:54.600 --> 00:01:57.300 align:middle line:84% only cardboard characters remained. 00:01:57.300 --> 00:02:01.920 align:middle line:84% The words continued like the ticking of an unheard clock. 00:02:01.920 --> 00:02:05.760 align:middle line:84% Waking, the reader heard the ticking of an actual clock. 00:02:05.760 --> 00:02:08.850 align:middle line:84% Beside him on the bed lay the still open book. 00:02:08.850 --> 00:02:11.730 align:middle line:84% He had no wish to read the pages that remained. 00:02:11.730 --> 00:02:15.000 align:middle line:84% He had no need to avert his glance now from the necklace 00:02:15.000 --> 00:02:17.640 align:middle line:84% for it had disappeared, swallowed up 00:02:17.640 --> 00:02:23.470 align:middle line:84% by the story, an irritant around which formed a pearl of words. 00:02:23.470 --> 00:02:26.580 align:middle line:84% It must have been he himself who was mouthing those words. 00:02:26.580 --> 00:02:28.950 align:middle line:84% Their whisper obscured and blurred 00:02:28.950 --> 00:02:30.810 align:middle line:90% the ticking of the clock. 00:02:30.810 --> 00:02:33.180 align:middle line:84% The speaker of those words had disappeared, 00:02:33.180 --> 00:02:36.630 align:middle line:84% yet phrases rustled like the pages of a book. 00:02:36.630 --> 00:02:39.720 align:middle line:84% A book in which nobody mentioned a necklace and nobody 00:02:39.720 --> 00:02:42.870 align:middle line:84% spoke, since no one at all remained. 00:02:42.870 --> 00:02:45.510 align:middle line:84% What remained were only some words-- 00:02:45.510 --> 00:02:49.080 align:middle line:90% necklace, clock, book. 00:02:49.080 --> 00:02:51.930 align:middle line:90% Now they too have disappeared. 00:02:51.930 --> 00:02:53.310 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:02:53.310 --> 00:02:55.030 align:middle line:90% Thank you.