WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.230 align:middle line:90%


00:00:04.230 --> 00:00:09.450 align:middle line:84%
I write a lot of poems
in which the speaker is

00:00:09.450 --> 00:00:10.980 align:middle line:90%
someone other than myself.

00:00:10.980 --> 00:00:15.330 align:middle line:90%


00:00:15.330 --> 00:00:20.280 align:middle line:84%
Sometimes, I know exactly
who that speaker is.

00:00:20.280 --> 00:00:24.990 align:middle line:84%
I mean it's someone very
specific and sometimes,

00:00:24.990 --> 00:00:28.490 align:middle line:90%
less so.

00:00:28.490 --> 00:00:38.335 align:middle line:84%
This is a-- this speaker
is a girl in a folktale.

00:00:38.335 --> 00:00:43.990 align:middle line:84%
Not necessarily one
specific folktale,

00:00:43.990 --> 00:00:50.650 align:middle line:84%
but she is a girl, a sister,
who appears in many folktales.

00:00:50.650 --> 00:00:57.670 align:middle line:84%
And she is the sister who,
because of whose birth,

00:00:57.670 --> 00:01:03.880 align:middle line:84%
the brother or brothers are
banished and sometimes changed

00:01:03.880 --> 00:01:06.190 align:middle line:90%
into animals.

00:01:06.190 --> 00:01:11.230 align:middle line:84%
Therefore, she's the one
who must enchant them.

00:01:11.230 --> 00:01:14.290 align:middle line:84%
And of course, the version
that everyone knows of this

00:01:14.290 --> 00:01:19.990 align:middle line:84%
is Hansel and Gretel, where he
is not turned into an animal,

00:01:19.990 --> 00:01:23.390 align:middle line:90%
but he is caged by the witch.

00:01:23.390 --> 00:01:23.900 align:middle line:90%
And so on.

00:01:23.900 --> 00:01:27.250 align:middle line:90%
And she becomes a rescuer.

00:01:27.250 --> 00:01:29.470 align:middle line:84%
And in all of these
stories, there's

00:01:29.470 --> 00:01:32.200 align:middle line:84%
one called the Six Swans,
there's one called the Seven

00:01:32.200 --> 00:01:35.400 align:middle line:84%
Ravens, there's a one called
Little Brother and Little

00:01:35.400 --> 00:01:35.900 align:middle line:90%
Sister.

00:01:35.900 --> 00:01:37.660 align:middle line:90%
These are all Grimm fairy tales.

00:01:37.660 --> 00:01:40.960 align:middle line:90%


00:01:40.960 --> 00:01:45.500 align:middle line:90%
She is the savior, the rescuer.

00:01:45.500 --> 00:01:50.890 align:middle line:84%
And it's very strange because
she's always the younger one.

00:01:50.890 --> 00:01:54.880 align:middle line:84%
She's younger than the
brothers but she becomes

00:01:54.880 --> 00:01:56.760 align:middle line:90%
a kind of mother to them.

00:01:56.760 --> 00:02:01.360 align:middle line:90%


00:02:01.360 --> 00:02:04.810 align:middle line:84%
This is from a whole sequence
of poems called "Voices

00:02:04.810 --> 00:02:11.560 align:middle line:84%
from the Forest" and they're
all spoken by archetypes,

00:02:11.560 --> 00:02:12.670 align:middle line:90%
if you will.

00:02:12.670 --> 00:02:15.835 align:middle line:84%
It sounds like such a
scholarly word but--

00:02:15.835 --> 00:02:18.820 align:middle line:84%
[LAUGHS] characters,
types of characters,

00:02:18.820 --> 00:02:22.780 align:middle line:84%
that appear over and
over in folktales.

00:02:22.780 --> 00:02:26.230 align:middle line:90%
And this is just one of them.

00:02:26.230 --> 00:02:27.280 align:middle line:90%
"Flesh and Blood."

00:02:27.280 --> 00:02:29.800 align:middle line:90%


00:02:29.800 --> 00:02:33.690 align:middle line:84%
This is my brother,
the fat caged boy.

00:02:33.690 --> 00:02:36.960 align:middle line:84%
This is my brother,
the spotted fawn.

00:02:36.960 --> 00:02:40.650 align:middle line:84%
These are my brothers,
the Seven Ravens.

00:02:40.650 --> 00:02:46.440 align:middle line:84%
These are my brother, my
brothers, the Six Mute Swans.

00:02:46.440 --> 00:02:50.070 align:middle line:84%
I have a plan for
my brother, the boy.

00:02:50.070 --> 00:02:53.730 align:middle line:84%
I have a hermit
shack for my fawn.

00:02:53.730 --> 00:02:58.050 align:middle line:84%
I've cut off a finger
to save my Ravens.

00:02:58.050 --> 00:03:02.730 align:middle line:84%
I've given up speech
to save my Swans.

00:03:02.730 --> 00:03:05.820 align:middle line:84%
Help me, whispers
my brother the boy.

00:03:05.820 --> 00:03:09.360 align:middle line:84%
Play with me, begs my
high stepping fawn.

00:03:09.360 --> 00:03:11.190 align:middle line:90%
Why were you born?

00:03:11.190 --> 00:03:13.770 align:middle line:90%
lament the Ravens.

00:03:13.770 --> 00:03:18.480 align:middle line:84%
You caused our exile,
accuse the Swans.

00:03:18.480 --> 00:03:22.500 align:middle line:84%
Brothers, my brothers,
I am your sister.

00:03:22.500 --> 00:03:23.580 align:middle line:90%
I am a woman.

00:03:23.580 --> 00:03:25.530 align:middle line:90%
I will be a wife.

00:03:25.530 --> 00:03:29.400 align:middle line:84%
I am your face in
the altered mirror.

00:03:29.400 --> 00:03:32.730 align:middle line:90%
I will give you back your life.

00:03:32.730 --> 00:03:38.040 align:middle line:84%
Brother, my boy, you'll
grow thin and forget me.

00:03:38.040 --> 00:03:42.180 align:middle line:84%
You play with another
brother, my fawn.

00:03:42.180 --> 00:03:46.950 align:middle line:84%
Human, my seven, you
will hunt ravens.

00:03:46.950 --> 00:03:52.100 align:middle line:84%
Human, you'll leave
me, my six mute Swans."

00:03:52.100 --> 00:03:55.000 align:middle line:90%