WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.170 align:middle line:90% 00:00:01.170 --> 00:00:04.980 align:middle line:84% I want to read another thing about music poetry. 00:00:04.980 --> 00:00:07.740 align:middle line:84% I said yesterday in talking to the writing department 00:00:07.740 --> 00:00:11.735 align:middle line:84% that the music of poetry is not the music of music. 00:00:11.735 --> 00:00:13.110 align:middle line:84% There are people that write poems 00:00:13.110 --> 00:00:16.457 align:middle line:84% that sound beautiful and it's like an instrument playing, 00:00:16.457 --> 00:00:17.790 align:middle line:90% but my contention was different. 00:00:17.790 --> 00:00:19.950 align:middle line:84% I want to read you a poem that in a way 00:00:19.950 --> 00:00:23.820 align:middle line:84% shows a little of that difference. 00:00:23.820 --> 00:00:26.860 align:middle line:84% There is a gorgeous kind of music, like Dylan Thomas. 00:00:26.860 --> 00:00:29.465 align:middle line:90% 00:00:29.465 --> 00:00:30.630 align:middle line:90% It's sort of in between. 00:00:30.630 --> 00:00:36.000 align:middle line:84% Dylan Thomas has a poem called "In My Craft or Sullen Art," 00:00:36.000 --> 00:00:41.580 align:middle line:84% which goes, "In my craft or sullen art, 00:00:41.580 --> 00:00:44.550 align:middle line:84% exercised in the still night when 00:00:44.550 --> 00:00:47.040 align:middle line:84% only the moon rages and the lovers 00:00:47.040 --> 00:00:51.630 align:middle line:84% lie abed with all their grief in their arms, I labor 00:00:51.630 --> 00:00:54.630 align:middle line:90% by singing light. 00:00:54.630 --> 00:00:58.860 align:middle line:90% Not for ambition or bread. 00:00:58.860 --> 00:01:06.040 align:middle line:84% Not for the strut and trade of charms on the ivory stages, 00:01:06.040 --> 00:01:10.410 align:middle line:84% but for the wages of their most secret heart. 00:01:10.410 --> 00:01:15.450 align:middle line:84% Not for the proud man do I write on these spin drift pages 00:01:15.450 --> 00:01:21.450 align:middle line:84% nor for the towering dead with their nightingales and songs, 00:01:21.450 --> 00:01:26.550 align:middle line:84% but for the lovers, their arms around the griefs of the ages 00:01:26.550 --> 00:01:33.225 align:middle line:84% who pay no praise, no wages, nor heed my craft or art." 00:01:33.225 --> 00:01:36.240 align:middle line:90% 00:01:36.240 --> 00:01:38.440 align:middle line:84% Anybody who reads that before reading their poem 00:01:38.440 --> 00:01:43.770 align:middle line:90% is a little nutty, but I am. 00:01:43.770 --> 00:01:46.470 align:middle line:90% 00:01:46.470 --> 00:01:48.285 align:middle line:90% This poem takes as its music-- 00:01:48.285 --> 00:01:51.570 align:middle line:90% 00:01:51.570 --> 00:01:53.460 align:middle line:84% some of you will remember the time 00:01:53.460 --> 00:01:57.210 align:middle line:90% when this music comes from. 00:01:57.210 --> 00:02:01.380 align:middle line:84% Well, actually, Ronstadt, in her album did this music. 00:02:01.380 --> 00:02:04.770 align:middle line:90% 00:02:04.770 --> 00:02:06.360 align:middle line:84% I want to sing a little of it so you 00:02:06.360 --> 00:02:12.570 align:middle line:84% have a sense of the difference between this American style 00:02:12.570 --> 00:02:18.420 align:middle line:84% of poetry and the music of the ballads of the '40s. 00:02:18.420 --> 00:02:24.270 align:middle line:84% The song in the '40s is, "I've got 00:02:24.270 --> 00:02:27.690 align:middle line:90% a crush on you, sweetie pie. 00:02:27.690 --> 00:02:31.830 align:middle line:84% All the day and night time hear me sigh. 00:02:31.830 --> 00:02:35.470 align:middle line:84% I never had the least notion that I could 00:02:35.470 --> 00:02:38.520 align:middle line:90% fall with so much emotion. 00:02:38.520 --> 00:02:40.080 align:middle line:90% Could you coo? 00:02:40.080 --> 00:02:43.560 align:middle line:84% Could you care for a little cook, 00:02:43.560 --> 00:02:47.520 align:middle line:84% for a cunning cottage we could share? 00:02:47.520 --> 00:02:51.330 align:middle line:84% The world will pardon my mush cause 00:02:51.330 --> 00:02:55.940 align:middle line:84% I have got a crush, pretty little baby, on you." 00:02:55.940 --> 00:03:04.178 align:middle line:90% 00:03:04.178 --> 00:03:04.845 align:middle line:90% You're merciful. 00:03:04.845 --> 00:03:08.790 align:middle line:90% 00:03:08.790 --> 00:03:11.660 align:middle line:90% Well, I was dreaming this song. 00:03:11.660 --> 00:03:13.410 align:middle line:84% Actually, in the original, I had it wrong, 00:03:13.410 --> 00:03:15.430 align:middle line:84% but I lost my courage so I fixed it 00:03:15.430 --> 00:03:17.513 align:middle line:84% so that it was what I should have dreamed instead. 00:03:17.513 --> 00:03:19.740 align:middle line:90% 00:03:19.740 --> 00:03:22.440 align:middle line:84% I'm on a Greek island living out in the fields in a shepherd's 00:03:22.440 --> 00:03:22.940 align:middle line:90% hut. 00:03:22.940 --> 00:03:25.892 align:middle line:90% 00:03:25.892 --> 00:03:27.600 align:middle line:84% It's called "The Sweet Taste of Victory." 00:03:27.600 --> 00:03:31.320 align:middle line:90% 00:03:31.320 --> 00:03:34.050 align:middle line:84% You'll see what I mean by the two kinds of music in here 00:03:34.050 --> 00:03:36.570 align:middle line:84% and both are different from the Dylan Thomas 00:03:36.570 --> 00:03:38.970 align:middle line:84% and all three are different from those people that 00:03:38.970 --> 00:03:42.975 align:middle line:84% make lush, Edith Sitwell kind of tone poems. 00:03:42.975 --> 00:03:47.190 align:middle line:90% 00:03:47.190 --> 00:03:50.430 align:middle line:84% "When I woke up my head was saying the world 00:03:50.430 --> 00:03:55.710 align:middle line:84% will pardon my mush but I have got a crush and I went outside. 00:03:55.710 --> 00:03:57.090 align:middle line:90% The wind was gone. 00:03:57.090 --> 00:04:01.080 align:middle line:84% The last of the moon was up and the stars 00:04:01.080 --> 00:04:03.570 align:middle line:90% even brighter than usual. 00:04:03.570 --> 00:04:07.860 align:middle line:84% A freighter in the distance was turning into the dark bay, 00:04:07.860 --> 00:04:10.200 align:middle line:90% all lit up. 00:04:10.200 --> 00:04:15.600 align:middle line:84% The valley was so still I could hear the engine. 00:04:15.600 --> 00:04:20.730 align:middle line:84% The dogs were quiet, worn out from barking 00:04:20.730 --> 00:04:25.920 align:middle line:84% all week at the full moon, at ease in their failure. 00:04:25.920 --> 00:04:30.360 align:middle line:84% The ship came out the other side and blew its horn softly 00:04:30.360 --> 00:04:35.550 align:middle line:84% for the harbor, starting a rooster up on the mountain. 00:04:35.550 --> 00:04:38.430 align:middle line:84% It went behind the other hill and I started back 00:04:38.430 --> 00:04:40.440 align:middle line:90% into the farmhouse. 00:04:40.440 --> 00:04:43.920 align:middle line:84% All the day and night time hear me cry. 00:04:43.920 --> 00:04:48.330 align:middle line:84% The world will pardon my mush, I sang from my bed 00:04:48.330 --> 00:04:51.750 align:middle line:84% up into the dark, my voice unfamiliar 00:04:51.750 --> 00:04:56.610 align:middle line:84% after not speaking for days, thinking of Linda 00:04:56.610 --> 00:04:59.450 align:middle line:90% but singing to something else."